ABSTRACT
This is the fi rst of two chapters on special kinds of critical incidents aimed at different kinds of understanding: biographical and political. This chapter concerns the historical dimension of teaching: how knowing something about what has happened to us and what we have done, tells us something about who and where we are, and where we might be going. This book began with an autobiographical incident about the teacher-student differences in what is interesting and valuable knowledge. I related a particular moment of insight when I became aware that I had failed to identify in my teaching the very problem that I was telling other teachers to identify in theirs. It has been an important incident for me as the initial expression of an underlying concern that has directed my work since then. That incident has been a kind of a touchstone for me throughout the writing of this book, for instance, for I have frequently returned to it to judge what I am doing and to remember what I am trying to achieve. 1 That is one important use of autobiographical critical incidents, and I will return to other aspects of it in conclusion.
