ABSTRACT
We collected our data by means of biographical and thematic interviews. In the initial interviews the interviewees related their life-stories orally. As needed, each interviewee was also posed more specific questions about education, self-definition, and areas of knowledge important in his· life. An interview typically lasted three to four hours, although the duration ranged from one to six hours. We then picked out a list of significant learning experiences from each life-story and presented it to the interviewee to be accepted or changed. In the second interview we considered each significant learning experience and its social and biographical context in greater detail. Assuming that education can also destroy identity, we asked, finally, for the interviewee's most negative education-related experience. The second interview usually lasted about as long as the first.
