Dieter Nittel

Biography – culture – learning: Layout of an

integrative analysis concept

Slide 1

Ladies and Gentlemen, dear colleagues!

1. Problem outline and overview of the discourse

The fact that we are meeting here in an international

conference and people from very different parts of Asia

and Europe have gathered here can easily lead to

misunderstandings because biography – culture –

learning are terms that can have a vast amount of

different meanings and can thus be interpreted in

various ways. Every one of us has different ideas of

what biography, culture and learning actually mean.

Imagine we were all from the same country in Asia or

the same country in Europe. Even under the

circumstances of cultural homogeneity it would be

important to first create a consensus of what we are 1

speaking of here today. There is not just intercultural

multilingualism but also the phenomenon of

innercultural multilingualism! In order to reduce the risk

of misunderstandings a little I want to give a short

definition of the terminology. What basic idea of

biography – culture – learning am I presuming?

Slide 2 and 3

What else can you expect of this discourse? When we

have the trifecta of “culture, biography, learning” in

front of us, the search for connections would probably

open up a sheer endless amount of combinations in the

relations of the three elements. The obvious connection

would be that learning is a socially desired medium

through which actual persons adopt culture in the course

of their biography and indeed: learning is the most

prominent, powerful and at the same time inconspicuous

medium of adopting culture in the course of the lifetime.

Now we could take this thesis as an opportunity for a

deeper reflection on education philosophy. Of course we

could go even further and ask ourselves what the much

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quoted master thinkers Pierre Bourdieu, Michel

Foucault, Niklas Luhmann and Jürgen Habermas would

say about this subject.

However, another way seems equally instructive as the

just mentioned option. In the second step of my

depiction I am looking for an empirically usable concept

to grasp the connection of culture – biography –

learning in all its complexity. Therefore the following

questions are to be answered. What categories can help

us to better understand the complicated relation in an

analytical way? How can we categorize the phenomena

and observations from interviews of life histories and

respectively autobiographical-narrative interviews in

order to better understand and explain the change of

biographies in a cultural context? And what is equally

important: until now the dominant direction of inquiry

was to look for the impression cultural factors had on

the biographical processes in the medium of individual

learning. Why do we not reverse this direction of

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inquiry? In what way do we conduct biography research

to do justice to the fact that particular subjects are not

only influenced by the cultural context but in fact

influence the cultural development themselves and thus

leave their mark in history? The relation between

individual biographies and history is not one sided –

they influence each other.

Slide 4

2. Culture – Biography – Learning: Attempt to give a

short definition

Slide 5

Firstly the term “culture”, it originates from the Latin

word Cultura which means “tilling, tending or

farming.” This word has a strong relation to the word

Colere which can be translated as “fostering or

cultivating.” In principal culture includes everything

that mankind creates through formation and

construction in contrast to what is given to him by

nature. The entirety of what has been created through

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redesign can therefore rise to a cultural achievement

meaning religious, moral, economical, scientific and

technical constructs. Culture can be equally

characterized as stability and change: “the individually

as well the collectively created works and values are

predetermined through institutionalization as well as

traditions but they are at the same time – and not least

because of a changed environment – undergoing

constant change.” (Krüger-Potratz 2011, 253) Two

dissociations that have been very important in the past

are not playing any role to speak of anymore in the

German discussion, one being the dissociation from

nature the other from civilization. This shows that not

only culture but also our perception of it is constantly

changing. The duality of culture and civilization that

was predominant during the days of glory of the

educated citizens is disparate to the Angloamerican

perception of a structural similarity of both aspects.

Therefore culture and civilization is thought of as a

gradual transition. In the same way the animate and

inanimate nature is not viewed so much as a hostile 5

counterpart, as a place of aggressive domination of

culture anymore but as a parting line and condition for

the possibility of cultural artifacts. The predominant

culture strives for a reconciliation of culture and nature!

In my own understanding of culture I am leaning

strongly towards Clifford Geertz’ (2003) generally

known ethnological perception which says that culture

should always be thought of in different ways and

strangeness should not be considered a negative

hindrance but a resource for understanding. In Geertz’

view all societies can in principal be read like texts that

allow their own interpretation, regardless whether its so-

called primitive or highly complex western societies. As

is well known Geertz stands for a semiotic, open

understanding of culture: it can be described with the

nice metaphor of the “self-spun web of meanings”

which is immediately constructed and deconstructed by

the people through their interpretations.

Slide 66

With regard to the next term I suggest making a

distinction in the definition between biography and

course of life. What is the difference between course of

life and biography? The course of life includes the

entirety of all subjective and nonsubjective events,

turning points and phases between birth and death of a

person. The course of life is an institution in modern

societies. After all most careers, professional changes

and interruptions in the life cycle are normalized and

subject to social controls. In contrast to that the

biography describes the respective organization, the

subjective acquisition of the course of life. In the

meantime the term biography which is closely linked to

the development of the civic society has distanced itself

quite far from its original meaning derived from the

Greek “bios” (life) and “graphein” (writing). Biography

today refers to written and oral texts that connect the

experiences and events of a past lifetime to a

meaningful whole. In science “biography” is used to

make the interdependent entanglements of subjective

life story on the one hand and the observable events of 7

the course of life on the other available to a scientific

description. The biography thus marks that specific

cultural location where the relation between “self” and

“world,” the relation between subjective and objective

reality is most obvious. Here the individual always

presents itself as member of society and the member of

society reveals itself as an individual. Biography is a

cultural construct, an answer to the anthropological

constant of the finitude of human existence. At the same

time biography is an important resource of subjectivity:

the expectation of society to have an unmistakable

identity can only be fulfilled through the development

of a biographical identity. (Goffman 1980)

Slide 7

Last but not least we come to the term learning. I myself

understand learning in the same way as the Danish

pedagogue Knud Illeris (2010) that is to say as an

integrative process that includes the elements of

incentive, content and interaction. However, learning is

also the result of an inner acquisition process imparted

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through communication or throuh the media that always

shows individual as well as social references.

In my view the starting point of every substantial

learning theory is the experience: “coming to know

something new means (…) learning. This is the course

in which the confidence in pre-rational conventions is

disturbed and the unfamiliar intrudes into the familiar.”

(Meyer-Drawe 2008, 14) Human experiences include

the contradictory units of intentional and conditional

acting as well as the constant interaction between active

acquisition and uncalculated exposure to external

circumstances. Few theorists have occupied themselves

with these aforementioned dualities of aspects as much

as John Dewey. (cp. Dewey 1994, 1995) He described

experience as a specifically human kind of openness

towards the world where the “what” as well as the

“how” of experience are equally important. Based on

the term experience learning is not universally

connected with happiness, pleasure and fun. Even more

than that learning is not automatically and in all cases

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adding to a positive enrichment of the individual life

and thus to the creation of self insight and knowledge of

the world. This aspect was why I intensely dealt with

the learning processes of people with life-threatening

diseases during my last research project.

A modern pedagogic understanding of learning depends

on a reflexive attitude towards subject as well as

methodology. We can take into account the motivational

and emotional factors meaning the cognitive aspects of

learning as well as the environmental factors of

neurological and biological learning dimensions.

However, a stronger tendency towards a holistic and

multidisciplinary approach brings us ever closer to the

boundaries of empirical research because the thusly

created complexity of the subject can not be managed

anymore just with the proven methods of research. Still

there is also the danger of a too selective and positivistic

approach in the sense of reducing the learning process

just to one factor. As is usually the case the trick is to

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find a middle ground thus we follow neither a holistic

sense of the term learning nor do we use a constricted

understanding of learning that is reduced to just the

observable behavior.

Slide 8

3. Concept for understanding autobiographical narrative

interviews with regard to cultural and pedagogical

learning aspects

The following concept was developed in the tradition of

the Grounded Theory with close regard to the

sociological biography research of Fritz Schütze.

(“narration analysis method”) It is supposed to help

examining text phenomena that have been derived from

autobiographical narrative interviews with respect to

their life story depth and get a better grasp of the

connection between subject and societal structure.

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The analysis tools presented have their roots in a

completed project. (Nittel/Seltrecht 2013)

Unfortunately, due to time considerations I cannot be

more specific. (Detailed information can be found on

the project’s website www.biographie-krankheit-

lernen.de) In general one can characterize four levels of

analysis that are important in order to understand the

organic connection between culture – biography –

learning under the aspect of the creative power of

individuals:

Slide 9

a) Process-oriented learning dimension

b) Structural learning dimension

c) Modes of learning

d) Context of learning

Slide 10

- a) The analysis level of process-oriented learning

dimension takes up the concept of process structures in

the course of life. (Schütze 1981, Riemann/Schütze 12

1992, Nittel 1992) We define these process structures in

the course of life as the basic attitude of the subject

towards their own life history, the experiences in that

time and the corresponding personal identity. What we

have here then are rudimental states of experiences that

are supposed to link subjective experiences and cultural

expectations between which a long time has passed and

give them meaning. In my opinion all highly developed

industrial cultures show the following four pivotal basic

attitudes towards the biographical course of

experiences.

Behind these institutional expectation patterns lie life

cycle patterns of starting a family, marriage/parenthood

and “growing old” as well as careers in classical

organizations. This is the order of the course of life to

which social scientists generally refer to if they want to

underline the fact that the idea of a self reliant lifestyle

of the civic individual needs refinement in various parts.

This includes among others the preschool, school, post

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school and university education, advanced training,

careers in politics or the business world and other

societal functions. (sports, media) The state and welfare

state programs have a decisive part in such institutional

expectation patterns as one could see in retirement

schemes and similar turning points. Through these

process structures the most rudimentary cultural

integration is implemented. The institutional expectation

pattern corresponds to the managed learning; it has a

more or less bureaucratic context and takes place in an

organized fashion with the involvement of specific staff.

The institutions then expect that the taught knowledge is

basically identical to the acquired knowledge meaning

that teaching and learning are closely connected.

Biographical action schemes as a second process

structure require the basic assumption of a possible

mostly self-determined mandate of individual fortune in

life. The idealization that precedes this process

structure, namely that the subject is at the same time

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master of its own life story, is probably not equally

distinct in western and eastern cultures. The

remembered attitude towards the individual life story in

this process structure is an active one at any rate. The

individual plans to build a house, establish a company

or to emigrate to a foreign country and these doings are

synonymous with biographical projects that give life

meaning. These long-term action schemes normally

show a planning, a preparation, an implementation and

an evaluation phase. Biographical action schemes can

be characterized by a close relation with targeted

learning which generally means learning outside of

institutions in order to overcome acute knowledge or

behavior deficits which have to be resolved so that

action limitations can be removed. Targeted learning is

in most cases self-organized.

The third process structure constitutes the trajectories of

suffering. Here the individual is afflicted by a series of

powerful events and “calamities” for example

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addictions, burnout phenomena or long-term

unemployment. The afflicted is overwhelmed by the

specific problem or crisis constellation so that the up to

that point dominant biographical lifestyle with

intentional orientation is not just temporarily

destabilized but lastingly disturbed. The usual and

dominant normality of targeted and intentional acting is

replaced by the logic of the conditional way of acting.

The familiar everyday culture that has protected the

individual like a cocoon becomes alien, it does not offer

a safe space anymore and instead undermines

everything that has up to then characterized the stability

of life. The protagonists feel pushed and are no longer

the creators of their life story. The trajectory of

suffering is linked to troubled learning which deals

exclusively with the search for more or less optimal

strategies to cope with something and is focused on the

here and now without taking into account any long-term

perspectives.

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The biographical change marks the fourth process

structure. It has certain similarities with the

development as can be observed with artists.

Pedagogues tend to be especially interested in this

process structure because here the protagonists profit

from the treasures and riches of their surrounding

culture which they process, absorb and change

intensively in an act of self-empowerment. Creative

metamorphoses of biographical identity are basically

increased education processes that bring forth the

hidden creative potentials of the subjects in these

biographies. They experience such a vast progress in

learning that they themselves are wondering about their

development. Creative metamorphoses of biographical

identity are linked to creative learning for which high

intensity, density and its longevity are typical. The

learning motivation is strongly intrinsic and the

individual abilities and resources can fully evolve

through the dynamic of learning.

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The mapping that was just given does, however, not at

all mean that these process-oriented learning dimensions

are also the key to specific learning experiences. The

categories of managed, targeted, troubled and creative

learning are creating a space of subjunctive experiences

but they do not at all allow for a precise temporal,

spatial, factual and social determination of learning

phenomena themselves. The category of subjunctive

learning space with regard to the process-oriented

learning dimension means that for example in the case

of a trajectory of suffering the probability for the

occurring of a troubled learning process is greater than

the probability for the occurring of one of the other

three patterns. During the analysis procedure the process

structures of the course of life are gathered step by step

so that the thus identified learning dimensions allow for

a sequential view of the learning. This gives us a first

idea in which phase of life an individual has learned,

under the influence of which specific process structure

and with which inner attitude. Thus it is possible to

answer “when questions,” at which point in the life 18

story can we expect the dominance of a certain process-

oriented learning dimension and it what way does this

circumstance influence the subsequent fortune in life?

Slide 11

- b) The level of structural learning dimensions deals

with the central coherences of the real world and the

question “what is being learned?” In contrast to the

level of process-oriented learning dimension the

phenomena in the structural learning dimension can be

more specifically determined in a spatial, factual, social

and temporal way. Here we can draw upon a

strategically important difference pattern of our culture,

namely the distinction between knowledge, behavior

and identity. Admittedly the situational acquisition of

new knowledge is rarely the subject of autobiographical

narrative interviews but it is still important to react to

these phenomena as well. It seems sensible to

distinguish between the acquisition of scientific,

professional, esoteric, artistic, religious and everyday

life knowledge. If people contract a life-threatening

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disease and are confronted with typical diagnoses they

often come in contact with incomprehensible medical

terms. They are wont to try and look up these

unanswered questions on the internet, ask the doctor or

consult advice literature. However, typically the

situational acquisition of new knowledge in the course

of life is not reflected upon and thus will not show up in

an inquiry via interview. However, the case is

completely different when it comes to lasting changes in

everyday practice, lifestyle and/or residential

circumstances. If specific diseases demand a change in

diet, the complete abandonment of alcohol and nicotine

or even the modification of the house then these events

become relevant to the real world and will very much

come up in biographical self-descriptions. This is

especially true for the change in social and personal

identity. The modification of identity formation includes

the learning of new roles as well as the changing of

individual theories. Autobiographical narrative

interviews usually allow us to make conclusions about

these kinds of changes. The lasting adoption of the 20

patient role that is common for chronic diseases poses

such a constellation of increased learning that is relevant

to the identity. The key role here plays the

transformation from the temporary feature “having a

disease” to the permanent state “being sick.”

Slide 12

- c) This brings us to the modes of learning which

covers the sphere of “how do we learn?” In the

occidental Christian culture we tend to look at learning

in terms of failed or successful and to answer questions

about learning with “yes” or “no.” Pedagogues should

not be content with a “black or white” distinction

because the matter is very complex. The presented

concept is characterized by a high sensitivity towards

the grey area of learning. The distinction between new

learning, unlearning, relearning and non-learning

corresponds to this point of view.

New Learning here means an acquisition process that

has function of surprise and information for the subject

and thus constitutes something new. When you see it 21

like that new learning correlates with what we generally

call “learning” in the scientific discourse, namely the

change in knowledge and ability under the influence of

new experiences. The relearning does not have this just

mentioned element of surprise. The accumulation of

experiences does not reach a qualitatively new level.

Relearning is based on the fact that many learning

processes can be described as the restructuring of an

existing repertoire of knowledge or pattern of abilities

and skills. A level of learning that has already been

reached is applied to new activity and subject areas

without something genuinely new taking place. The

category unlearning is doing justice to the fact that

learning is always a “process of origin and future”

(Meyer-Drawe 2008) because the gaining of a new

perspective always comes with the loss of an old one.

We are unlearning or forgetting once acquired

knowledge as well as certain everyday routines once

they are not needed anymore. In the end unlearning is

owed to the fact that our memory has a limited capacity.

We also consider non-learning a mode of learning and it 22

can be based on a conscientious decision of the subject

to not use a learning option: “I do not need this

knowledge/skill.” The not wanting to learn and the not

being able to learn stand on opposite sides. The mode

of not being able to learn can be derived here if a

conditional relevance for the possibility of knowledge

and skill increase from the perspective of the

generalized other is present but this expectation is not

fulfilled.

Slide 13

- d) The concept of theoretical learning to document

long-term learning processes during the course of life is

complemented through the subcategory of formal, non-

formal and informal learning context that is well-known

from international literature. This level touches on the

where-question that is interesting from a cultural

sociological point of view, in which institutions are the

learning processes embedded? Which places are we

looking at here? Formal learning takes place in classic

education and training institutions that are specifically

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supposed to have a selection function and document

attendance with a certificate (schools, universities).

Non-formal learning also takes places in institutions of

the education system but without the attendance having

to be documented by a certificate. Advanced education

and social education in particular are areas of non-

formal learning. Informal learning describes all those

learning locations without pedagogic goals and

intentions that is to say all contexts beyond the

education system.

Slide 14

The four examination levels described can be bundled

up into one biographical learning portfolio. In doing so

it seems sensible to begin with the reconstruction of the

process-oriented learning dimension and compare it

with the structural learning dimension. Can any patterns

that are universal be discovered? Are there regularities

coming up such as process-oriented learning dimensions

that have been proven dominant correspond to certain

form of knowledge or that they fit a specific direction of

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rebuilding the identity formation. While the assignment

of certain text passages to certain learning contexts is

relatively unproblematic (and could therefore be

integrated in the just described process) the application

of learning modes is far more difficult. The new-

learning, unlearning, relearning and non-learning

obviously evade direct observation. Still this part of the

analysis can make a constructive contribution: in what

capacity does non-learning add to the stabilization of a

social identity? In which phases of the biography has

new-learning been functional or dysfunctional? In what

way do learning modes have to be arranged so that they

can make a contribution to the overcoming of a life

story crisis? The difficulties that come up once in a

while in the use of this analysis tool are due to the basic

fact that we depend on hermeneutic operations of

understanding in the biographical analytic learning

research and we cannot restrict ourselves to just

observe. A biographical learning portfolio can only

claim to be complete if the resources of all the

perspectives of analysis have been applied.25

Slide 15

4. What learning profile do important figures of our

culture show?

Slide 16

In the beginning of my discourse I hinted at the

possibility of reversing the question. The question “how

does the cultural condition influence our biographies

under the aspect of learning?” has been adequately

discussed and answered in modern biography research.

But what kind of cultural creative power do singular

individuals have? To what extent does learning play a

role there? Here we are looking at a very specific type

of person, one that is distinguished and publicly active.

These are current innovators, inventors as well as other

central personalities from the world of art, science,

politics and economy.

My core hypothesis is that on the one hand with this

group of people changing processes of self-identity

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combined with biographical action schemes are

dominant.

Slide 17

That would support the idea of a mutually enhancing

alliance between targeted and creative learning

processes. Here “order” (i.e. a targeted/systematic

learning behavior) and “disorder” (i.e. a

creative/spontaneous learning behavior) are making a

contradictory combination. The most recent statement

suggests an indifference or at least a certain amount of

disregard towards the official school and university

system. But certainly not all famous personalities have a

school and university biography like Steven Jobs, Bill

Gates or other unconventional personalities.

Slide 18

On the other hand another combination of process

structures is to be expected: namely the connection of

biographical action schemes and institutionalized

expectation and procedure patterns. This combination

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implies an alliance between managed and targeted

learning as well as a mutual enhancement of the both.

Whenever a predominance of institutional expectation

and procedure patterns and thus a rather adaptive

learning behavior can be registered it is always

accompanied by increased self-organized learning in an

informal context. On the level of biographical process

structures and the reactions of the social environment

we in general deal with positively sanctioned social

deviations.

However many biographies of influential people are not

straight. They are not at all free from trajectories of

suffering. These processes of suffering are normally

temporary. This and the intensity of the trajectory

allows the afflicted to experience the confrontation with

life story crises as a challenge, even standing as a test

and in the course of overcoming them develop specific

strengths and competences. Not the confrontation with

crises but the specific coping with them create wisdom

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and strenuousness. The trajectories of suffering are

generally dimensioned in a way that they allow an

overcoming of the crisis in learning mode and are in the

end functional for the respective life project. What can

we say about modes of learning? It seems that an

important factor for success-oriented acting is not so

much the fixating on new-learning or the avoidance of

not-learning but a certain mix of new-learning,

relearning, not-learning and unlearning.

Slide 19

Especially with entrepreneurs – research done by

graduate students has shown this (Siewert-Kölle 2013) –

we can observe that strategically important skills and

abilities have long been learned in the course of

anticipated socialization or that biographical

dispositions towards this learning mix have made it

easier to acquire entrepreneurial qualifications. Constant

new-learning according to needs is required same as the

constant unlearning of needless knowledge. All the

while the unlearning is consistently put to the use of the

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biographical project so that this mechanism also

benefits the focusing on the important things.

It is common knowledge that learning always takes

place in a societal context and never isolated. The

enormous creativity and capability of the circle of

people we considered here needs opportunity structures

in the institutions and openings towards the social

systems of economy, law, politics and science in order

to fully develop their potentials. The implied

conveyance between biographical development and

organizational development describes the final

transition from individual to collective learning.

Slide 20

The precise description of this transition can, however,

not be done here, that is a completely different story to

be told another time!

Thank you for your attention!

Slide 21

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Literature:

Dewey, John (1994): Erziehung durch und für Erfahrung. Stuttgart (2. Auflage).

Dewey, John (1995): Erfahrung und Natur. Frankfurt/M.

Geertz, C. (2003): Dichte Beschreibungen. Beiträge zum Verstehen kultureller Systeme, Frankfurt, Main Goffman, E. (1980): Rahmenanalyse. Frankfurt, MainIlleris, K. (2010): Lernen verstehen. Bedingungen erfolgreichen Lernens, Bad Heilbrunn Krüger-Potratz ; M. (2011), Kultur. In: KLE: Klinkhardt Lexikon Erziehungswissenschaft. hrsg. von Horn, H-P, Kemnitz, H., Marotzki, W. Sandfuchs, U., Bad Heilbrunn, S. 253 - 255Meyer-Drawe, K. (2008): Diskurse des Lernens. MünchenNittel D. (1992) Gymnasiale Schullaufbahn und Identitätsentwicklung, Weinheim

Nittel, D./Seltrecht, A. (Hrsg.) (2013): Krankheit: Lernen im Ausnahmezustand? Heidelberg/New YorkRiemann G., Schütze F. (1992) Trajectory as a Basic Theoretical Concept for Analyzing Suffering an Disorderly Social Processes. In: Maines DR (Hrsg) Social Organization and Social Process, New York, S 333-358

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Schütze F. (1981) Prozessstrukturen des Lebensablaufs. In: Matthes J, Pfeifenberg A, Stosberg A (Hrsg.) Biographie in handlungswissenschaftlicher Perspektive, Nürnberg, S 67-15

Siewert-Kölle, A. (2013): Biographische Rekonstruktion von Prozessen der Existenzgründung unter dem Fokus des Lernens. Dissertation (Arbeitstitel), Goethe-Universität Frankfurt

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