Agency, Learning and Identity in Women’s Life Trajectories

Résumé 0

Drawn from the longitudinal panel research of the National Child Development Study (NCDS), a sample of 110 women aged fifty years old from England, Scotland and Wales were interviewed as part of the Social Participation and Identity sub-project. They were invited to tell their life stories, to give a self-definition of identity and to describe the turning points in their lives. They were also invited to choose a visual representation of their life trajectories, either selecting from 8 given figures with the possibility of drawing their own version. We analyse the resulting life course diagrams which were drawn, focusing on self representations in which agency and learning are reflected in the associated personal narratives on turning points. Emphasis is given to the links between agency and learning and identity development within the perspective of the life trajectories.