Grant Rodwell’s memoir charts his journey from an impoverished childhood in the Oberon timber region of New South Wales, Australia to a distinguished career as teacher, principal, and multiple-doctorate scholar. What emerges is not simply a personal story but a rich contribution to life-writing scholarship, offering an intimate view into a working-class, rural childhood, which included institutionalised prejudice, and the enduring psychological consequences of adolescent trauma. It is equally a portrait of Australian educational history during a period of profound structural and cultural transformation. The book is well placed in the prolific emerging literature on the topic of biographical approaches in education, which utilizes life stories and individual histories to understand the link between learning and identity and their combined societal impact.
Loretta Bowshall-Freeman (Wed,) studied this question.