Self-study and the Development of New Perspectives on Pre-service Teacher Education

This issue opens with the report of a collaborative self-study by four individuals just beginning their practice as teacher educators. Laurie A. Ramirez, Valerie A. Allison-Roan, Sandra Peterson, and Susan E. Elliott-Johns began their academic careers with strong commitments to modeling critical reflection and enacting democratic practices. Located at four universities in the USA and Canada, they created a small on-line community in which they shared their experiences, tensions, frustrations and dilemmas. “Supporting One Another as Beginning Teacher Educators: Forging an online community of critical inquiry into practice” is rich in detail about the challenges facing individuals who are new both to the world of an academic appointment and to the world of pre-service teacher education. This article is a powerful reminder of the importance of voluntary and informal mentoring of new academics. Like other articles in previous issues of this journal, it also reminds us that the transition from teacher to graduate student to teacher educator is a complex mixture of dreams and realities. The commitment of these four self-study researchers to both critical reflection and democratic principles made it essential that they listened closely and frequently to their students. This article will be of particular interest to those who found meaning in Brubaker's (2012) self-study of democratic classroom principles in Volume 8, No. 1 of Studying Teacher Education.

The second article in this issue offers an opportunity to continue the exploration of the work of Valerie A. Allison-Roan, writing this time with Michael Hayes, a trusted colleague who served as critical friend for this self-study. In “To be Heard, to be Seen, to Matter: Consequences of/for self in utilizing one's narrative,” Valerie explains her rationale for sharing with her teacher education students the personal narrative of her own schooling experiences. Central features include her family's poverty and her being singled out with other unpromising children to be sent out of regular classrooms for special assistance. Michael was asked to problematize candidly Valerie's interpretations of her students' responses to the autobiographical narrative. In Valerie's own words, “using the narrative was an emotionally charged experience. I felt trepidation about how students would interpret the narrative, about my identity as its author being uncovered prematurely, and about the process of gathering data.” The report of this self-study makes compelling reading that will assist others who consider taking similar risks about sharing personal experiences with a view to enhancing the quality of learning by those who will become teachers.

In “Creating a Space for the Development of Professional Knowledge: A self-study of supervising teacher candidates during practicum placements,” Shawn Bullock analyzes his supervision of teacher candidates during their practicum placements and explains how self-study enabled him to confront productively his own assumptions about how teacher candidates learn to teach. He also highlights the importance of the quality of the relationship between teacher candidate and teacher educator during the supervision process. Both new and experienced teacher educators who supervise teacher candidates in the schools where they are placed will find meaning and insight in Shawn's analysis of his experiences and the development of his assumptions. Drawing on physics education research, Shawn considers the potential for an epistemological barrier between formal and informal knowledge of teaching. This article emphasizes the importance of creating safe spaces in which those learning to teach can “name and engage with the problems of practice that they encounter in their practicum placements.” Teacher educators who are willing to reconsider their assumptions about the role of the practicum in the process of becoming a teacher will find valuable data and insights in this article.

The supervision of a beginning teacher is also the focus of Gila Olsher's article, “Asking Questions as a Key Strategy in Guiding a Novice Teacher.” This article illustrates in detail the potential of a question-asking strategy of supervision and thus the data will be of interest to all who supervise practicum experiences. With reference to the self-study of her own learning during the mentoring experience, Gila considers a central tension between providing answers to a beginner's questions, on the one hand, and keeping questions open for further exploration, on the other. Recognizing when to answer and when to explore further emerges as a crucial skill for mentors of new teachers to develop in the context of practice.

Mentoring of teacher candidates continues as a focus of this issue in “Examining Assumptions about Teacher Educator Identities by Self-study of the Role of Mentor of Pre-service Teachers.” Sharon McDonough and Robyn Brandenburg spent a year gathering data prior to analyzing critical episodes in their mentoring. Here again, self-study of teacher education practices has generated greater understanding of personal assumptions that were guiding practice. Sharon and Robyn interpret their data and generate five themes that frame their discussion: (1) ideals and reality; (2) emotions and assumptions; (3) transition to new leadership roles; (4) transitions as transformative experiences; and (5) tunnel vision. This article is a powerful reminder that applying self-study methods to one aspect of teacher education practice can pay valuable dividends in other aspects of one's work. As always, there are moments of discomfort and challenge that lead to better understanding of the complexities of practice.

In the second article of this issue from Australia, Robyn Brandenburg and Ann Gervasoni analyze an apparently casual comment by a principal that prompted them to rethink carefully the ethical issues within their work with a group of teachers. “Rattling the Cage: Moving beyond ethical standards to ethical praxis in self-study research” provides a strong reminder that ethical considerations in self-study research do not begin with submission of a request for ethical clearance and end when that clearance is granted. On the basis of their ethical challenge, these researchers offer recommendations for making ethical considerations both central and continuous during self-study research.

The concluding article in this issue takes self-study of teacher education practices in a relatively unfamiliar direction to explore technological pedagogical content knowledge in the context of a teacher education program. In “Understanding the Theoretical Framework of Technological Pedagogical Content Knowledge: A collaborative self-study to understand teaching practice and aspects of knowledge,” Göran Fransson and Jörgen Holmberg consider various elements of technological pedagogical content knowledge in the context of professional learning both by education students and by teacher educators themselves. This article provides a fascinating account of collaboration by two individuals with different backgrounds as they brought different skills and perspectives to a course in which both teachers and students were learning actively in the practice context.

This issue continues to demonstrate the international interest in self-study of teacher education practices with contributors from Australia, Canada, Israel, Sweden, and the USA. We hope you find value in these articles that focus on the assumptions we make as teacher educators and the potential of self-study to help us develop more productive assumptions and perspectives.