Different Voices, Many Journeys: Explorations of the transformative nature of the self-study of teacher education practices

This special issue presents nine research articles that explore the transformative nature of self-study of teacher education practices from a variety of international perspectives and in different sociocultural contexts. The Ninth International Conference on Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices held at Herstmonceux Castle in August 2012 offered a wide range of papers reflecting the transformative nature of self-study research and practice. A number of papers clearly underscored the many and varied contexts in which self-study is conducted and the importance of recognizing the role of self-study research in transforming teaching–learning processes and practice.

Following the conference and further close readings of papers published in the conference proceedings, we invited a number of authors to consider revision and expansion of their papers into research articles for publication. As a result, the articles in this special issue offer international perspectives and thought-provoking insights on the transformative potential of self-study, as illustrated through ongoing inquiries and lived experiences of the contributors, all of whom are teacher-researchers seeking to understand and improve their continuously evolving practice and personal narratives of being and becoming teacher educators. Taken together, and in the words of Clandinin (2010), these articles suggest that:

Our work is not to create spaces that educate us for fixed identities, fixed stories to live by. It is to create education spaces in which teachers can compose stories to live by that allow them to shift who they are, and are becoming, as they attend to the shifting subject matter. (p. 281)

Self-study research as a transforming practice has been documented in studies from researchers new to self-study (e.g., McDonough, 2004; Perry & Beed, 2011) as well as researchers engaged in self-study over an extended period of time (e.g., Schulte, 2009; Tidwell & Heston, 1996, 2010, 2012). This transformative experience found within self-study reflects the framing and reframing of lived experiences, which results in a cumulative and altered understanding of practice.

Within self-study, researchers have used varied ways of representing data, from using narrative of professional knowledge and practice (Kitchen, 2005) or cocreating autoethnographies representing current and past teaching (Coia & Taylor, 2009) to developing visual representations of experience (Farrell, Rosenkrantz, & Schaffzin, 2012; Griffiths, Malcolm, & Williamson, 2009) and cocreating aural expressions of engagement (Allender & Manke, 2002). The collection and representation of data reflects both the context and meaning within practice. Across these varied approaches to self-study, researchers have found, in their practice, a depth of understanding about how teaching is expressed in their daily professional lives, how learning is shaped by their engagement with others, and how the collaborative act of researching one's own practice leads to a deepening understanding “not only of practice but of the roles and complex dynamics emerging from practice” (Tidwell et al., 2012).

The self-studies in this special issue have all caused the researchers to think differently about their own situated practice. In turn, we see this rethinking of practice as reflecting the transformative nature of self-study. The impact of the continual shaping and reshaping of understandings about our practice and of shared experience also resonates in the collaborative nature of self-study (whether as a result of the collaboration of researchers as coinvestigators, the collaboration through researching self with support from critical colleagues, or researching practice in collaboration with teachers in the field).

The contributing authors present and discuss a range of self-studies conducted in diverse geographical, political, and educational contexts. While the journeys into self-study recounted in these articles involve different contexts, aims, and outcomes, the transformative nature of self-study is realized in the challenging of assumptions and beliefs, in the explorations of problematic and/or changing practice, in the use of rich metaphors, in the uncovering of multiple interpretations of experience that result in multiple ways of knowing, and through the increased recognition and awareness of the impact of continual shaping and reshaping of shared experience on practice.

The nine articles fall into three natural groupings: three authored by individual researchers (e.g., Monroe; Garbett; and Williams), three in partnerships (e.g., Vogel and Bartlett; Makaiau and Freese; and Mansur and Friling), and three by teams of multiple authors (Lyons, Halton, and Freidus; Curtis, Reid, Kelley, Martindell, and Craig; and Hostetler et al.), thus also clearly reflecting opportunities for collaboration as a vital aspect of the transformative nature of self-study of teacher education practice. We find it interesting that, even though they fall into these three groupings, there is also much to be said here about expanding the understanding of collaboration within and across peoples and contexts, expanding the ways in which we organize and think about self-study research. Key to the impact of self-study on the larger academic community are the questions of the importance of going beyond the situated context and of also informing the broader field. The research presented in this issue does just that by delving into complex issues within diverse contexts, uncovering ways to improve practice, and connecting their findings beyond their specific contexts to the broader field.

The following summaries offer readers a glimpse into how each article differs in explorations of the transformative nature of self-study of teacher education practices. Rich insights are offered, within and across all the articles, insights that consistently illustrate the limitless opportunities for: (a) collaborative learning about our own “teaching about teaching” through self-study; and (b) transformation of practice.

The article by Eula Monroe, who is relatively new to self-study research but who possesses a rich and extensive background as a teacher educator, describes the examination of the influences of different social and cultural contexts on her developing understandings of being and becoming a teacher of mathematics over time. Monroe's study draws on reflections on experience of teaching teachers in Utah, Montana, and Hawai'i, with a backdrop of the changing nature of mathematics education threaded through her objective of developing the ability to act more intentionally in her work as a teacher educator. The common dilemmas shared related to relevance, authenticity, culturally appropriate practice, inclusivity, and diversity will resonate for other teacher educators across contexts and disciplines.

Dawn Garbett (a.k.a. Crusader Rabbit) addresses the highly complex and competing demands of research, teaching, and service as she traces her own personal/professional journey to promotion in a changing academic context. She also offers poignant insights into how, in a research-intensive culture, she developed the resilience essential to having both her teaching and self-study research recognized as worthy of distinction and merit. As Garbett concludes, “Self-study has provided the means to reconsider myself within a changing context.”

Judy Williams examines her evolving practice and identity as a teacher educator in the context of supervision of student teachers in schools. With her rich experience of 25 years as a classroom teacher, Williams's self-study examines the dynamics and tensions of transitioning from being a classroom teacher to becoming a teacher educator preparing others to teach in the classroom. Within the context of her practicum supervision in the field, Williams examines her practice over one academic year where she explores the third space between schools and universities. Studying her own practice involved collaboration with both mentor teachers and student teachers, as she examined her own practice through journaling and email correspondences. Using a theoretical framework of the learning that takes place within the boundaries of different communities of practice, her research reveals the dynamic and shifting identity construction and reconstruction in her own professional identity as a teacher educator.

Working in partnership to self-study their practice in teacher education, Amanda Vogel and Andrea Bartlett document the transformations of a doctoral student and her major professor as they collaborated during a semester-long internship in a graduate literacy education course. The authors used dialectic journals and later reflections based on these journals to examine the intern's experiences and to provide a context for the mentor professor's critique of her own course planning and communications. Through this self-study process, the authors discuss the transformations that occurred in both teaching philosophy and attitudes toward teacher educators that led to an understanding of the value of forming learning communities and in encouraging teachers to take action to improve schools and society.

Amber Makaiau and Anne Freese share findings from their work that examines the impact of self-study in their respective classrooms (i.e., a high school ethnic studies course and a university course on multicultural education), as they sought to position themselves as co-learners with their students and “co-inquirers on a journey to arrive at new understandings about being multicultural.” Drawing on personal reflections, discussions, and students' work and analyzing the data across three distinct phases of the study, Makaiau and Freese describe ways in which self-study has served to transform their understandings of the need to foster our own analytical abilities and those of our students so that we are all better able to navigate the complexities of diversity.

Using the metaphor of the kite syndrome, Ruth Mansur and Dina Friling explore the tensions inherent in the enactment of pedagogy for teacher education, and their changing practice as they moved toward better understandings of their roles as teacher educators in the specific context of Open Space Learning. In the roles of critical friends, Mansur and Friling worked together to reflect upon and reframe their roles as effective mentors for their students. Their article includes some thought-provoking insights around relinquishing control and the “expert” characterization; instead, the authors suggest embracing a role of “zipped experts.” This work also offers compelling insights into the wisdom of sitting “backstage” and enabling our students to be more actively engaged in their own learning processes: “Having individual expertise is what gives confidence, a faith in oneself that allows one to ‘zip it up’ and at the same time to admit vulnerability and be willing to take risks in a changing, uncertain, and complex environment.”

Within the context of reflective inquiry of professional practice, Nona Lyons, Carmel Halton, and Helen Freidus examine the transformational possibilities for students and teachers. This self-study incorporated case study methodology to examine three specific contexts in teaching and learning: dynamics of student and teacher interactions in learning, insights from teachers' reflective learning on other teachers' learning, and elements of professional learning found within a seasoned teacher educator's consideration of online reflective teaching. These three case studies reveal the power of reflective inquiry in providing a reframing process in supporting new knowledge, understandings, and change.

In another collaborative self-study that uses the metaphor of a “braided river,” Gayle Curtis, Donna Reid, Michaelann Kelley, Peter Martindell, and Cheryl Craig conceptualize understandings of their research group's work and shared history over a period of 15 years. Initially brought together in 1998 as participants in the Portfolio Group, the personal/professional lives and work of the five authors have continued to interconnect over time, surfacing how their interaction continues to shape and reshape their identities as educators. The stories interwoven throughout this article clearly indicate the multifaceted nature of, and rich potential for, self-studies to inform and enhance practice:

this self-study illustrates the braiding of our learning, practice, and lives as teachers … In revisiting our [work] through the lens of transformation, new insights into our longstanding collaboration surfaced as we burrowed into the transformative aspects of the Portfolio Group collaboration.

The collaborative effort in the article by Andrew Hostetler, Todd Hawley, Alicia Crowe, Erin Smith, Amanda Janosko, Lauryn Koppes, and Trevor Sprague (with contributions from Lisa Ahlers and Adam Loudin) focuses on teaching preservice teachers in their student teaching experience and their learning to teach through inquiry into practice. The authors are both teacher educators and teacher candidates and they provide a collaborative self-study that uses a strong inquiry stance. The teacher candidates' and teacher educators' work shared in this article includes the framework, context, candidates' and teacher educators' learning outcomes, as well as implications for teacher education and learning to teach. In this collaborative self-study of teaching practice, questions were developed that included the following themes: addressing student needs, creating a safe environment, addressing matters of race, relationships with students, and promoting awareness of the “outside world.” The outcomes of this collaborative self-study were twofold: a deeper understanding of practices for the teacher educators, and clear evidence of teacher candidates' capacity for reflective thinking and reframing ideas through creating knowledge about practice.

As we continue to examine the complexities of the teaching–learning process within our own self-study research, we believe that it is imperative that we ask ourselves, “What does it mean to be transformed in our practice and our understandings?” and then to act on our answers to this question. We hope that the ideas and insights shared in the nine articles gathered for this special issue will engage, further inform, and inspire the developing practice and evolving self-study research of many other teacher educators.