Following the Inner Camino: An Autoethnographic Study

Abstract

This article considers the experience of walking the 850-km Camino del Norte to Santiago de Compostela in Spain as a metaphor for an inner camino: an inner way of developing resilience. Suggestions are proposed about what this might mean for initial teacher education and student teachers themselves. Using an autoethnographic methodology, self-observations, alongside the author’s perceptions of the different approaches to individual coping observed in other travellers, are reviewed in stories and then examined through forms and habits of mind. After further personal reflective analysis, themes are revealed from the original observations. The discussion suggests possible innovations for teacher education, which emerged from the themes that may resonate for the reader. This autoethnographic journey provided an opportunity to rethink co-constructed learning, the use of guide posts for new innovations, and the importance of paring back to key essentials in teaching practice and in our personal and professional lives.