ABSTRACT
This chapter traces Schein’s life, from his childhood years in Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union and to the United States to his university studies in Chicago, Stanford and Harvard, to his military service and to his acceptance of a position in MIT, where he remained until his retirement in 2008. This account of his life is more than the basic biographical details. It provides a core thread of his reflexivity because it is in these accounts that Schein has been explicit about how his life shaped the emergence of the theory and practice that he evolved throughout his approach to his work and who the major influences were. He constantly referred back to a series of core experiences so as to provide an understanding of his work for the readers of his work to provide insight both into Schein himself and into how readers might reflect on what has shaped them as scholar-practitioners. The questions for study and reflection at the end of the chapter invite the readers to reflect on critical incidents and people that have shaped their lives.
