Preparing a biography of Ovide Decroly (1871-1932), a famous Belgian educational reformer, and starting from the observation that this genre is “at the core of history, not its periphery” (Peter Waite quoted in Wright, 2007, 22), we would like to discuss some ‘hot topics’ related to the methodology of the genre, based on our own experiences so far. As we are only in the preparatory stage to what once has to result in a ‘monumental’ biography, exploring archival records in Belgium as well as abroad (through out Europe and elsewhere), we are confronted with a lot of problems, questions, dilemma’s and challenges. Without the claim to be exhaustive, we would like to discuss the following issues of which we think that we have to take them into consideration before we can start with writing a biography:

-         the required skills of the biographer;

-         the complexity and comprehensiveness of the biography and the selection of data;

-         the problem of interpreting;

-         the problem of (and confrontation with) mythologizing and the self-rhetoric;

-         the problem of psychologising;

-         the ethical problem.

We will illustrate each case with concrete examples from the Decroly case.

(selective bibiography) William Bruneau, “Must Biography Be Educational?,” Historical Studies in Education 12/1-2 (2000): 182-200. Don Howard, “Time for a Moratorium? Isaacson, Einstein, and the Challenge of Scientific Biography,” Journal of Historical Biography 3 (Spring 2008): 124-133. David N. Livingstone, Putting Science in its Place. Geographies of Scientific Knowledge (Chicago/ London: The University of Chicago Press, 2003). Thomas S. Popkewitz, ed., Inventing the Modern Self and John Dewey. Modernities and the Traveling of Pragmatism in Education (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005). Catrien Santing, “De biografie als genre in de wetenschapsgeschiedenis,” Gewina 23 (2000): 6-14. Rob van Essen & Monica Soeting, “Blijf bij je eigen taal. Tien tips voor beginnende biografen,” Biografie Bulletin (Spring 2007): 47-51. Angelo Van Gorp, Tussen mythe en wetenschap. Ovide Decroly (1871-1932) (Leuven: Acco, 2005). Donald Wright, “Reflections on Donald Creighton and the Appeal of Biography,” Journal of Historical Biography 1 (Spring 2007): 15-26.