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3.1.4: Auto/biographyAutobiography can be said, then, to describe ‘what’ happened. West’s work (2004; West &Carlson, 2007) suggests that analysis of these narratives can, if appropriately constructed, lead topotential accounts of ‘the causes and motives’ of what happened or the meaning that underpins,surrounds or influences what happened. West might say, the ‘why’ of a phenomenon. “…autobiography, far from being the enemy of insight and profound knowledge, is a powerful andnatural resource to be used to understand others’ life histories; and that empathy and relatednessare essential to telling stories.” (West, 2004 p. 19) Central to this analysis is the activeparticipation of the putative knower in the act of meaning-making. “It is also about seeing ourown lives as potential sources of experience to help us more fully understand the other just astheir lives may help us better understand our own” (West & Carlson, 2007 p. 38).Auto/biographic approaches take this method to another level because participants areencouraged to reflect on their life histories in order to make explicit their motivations andinspirations (West, 2004), and the factors that empower or constrain them in their professionallives (Day et al., 2006; Day et al., 2007). “This perspective concentrates not on a system ofstructures and institutions which are presumed to exist independent of the people who inhabitthem, but on the symbolic processes by which human beings create, sustain, and reproduce theirlife worlds” (Goodson and Mangan, 1991 p. 9).“Auto/biography’ draws attention to the inter-relationship between construction of one’sown life through autobiography and the construction of the life of another throughbiography.” (West and Carlson, 2007 p. 41)It is this reflexivity that distinguishes auto/biography from autobiography, hence the insertion ofthe "/" or slash. In the French language there is a sub-category of 'doing' words known asreflexive verbs. These are further defined as verbs that 'reflect the action back onto the subject'153Simon Hughes Ph.D. Thesis (October 2012)