Life histories can be a way of making sense of personal events and can
project into the realm of education the whole of life and of living p
ersons. They are part of a biographical tradition which goes back to t
he Socratic ''bios'', perceived as a means of giving birth to consciou
sness. But recently they also seem to be part of a fundamental bio-eth
ical and bio-political movement which questions vocational and discipl
ine-based training and life investment models. Three models are distin
guished: the biographical model, in which others invest in the subject
's life; the autobiographical model, in which the subject invests in h
is or her own life; and the dialectical model of co-investment. These
models force education to rethink the conditions for the creation of n
ew life knowledge: new social actors are entering the picture, with hi
therto unknown practices that are leading to changes in epistemologica
l and methodological perceptions in concert with new research and trai
ning networks.