Pedagogy and Life Writing Inside and Outside the University: Teaching Jo Spence's Putting Myself in the Picture

While pedagogical interest in life writing is blossoming in universities, it has long been acknowledged as important in the field of adult education. This essay describes how I have taught Jo Spence's Putting Myself in the Picture: A Personal, Political and Photographic Autobiography to students in the Workers Educational Association and in the University of Exeter MA program in English. Looking at this text, and more generally, life writing itself, in these different contexts reveals the importance of establishing links between teaching auto/biography as a subject, and the more methodological concerns of teaching auto/biographically.