Improving teacher education through the self-study of practice

Abstract

The self-study of practice is a robust approach to improving teacher education established in 1993 by the Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices (S-STEP) Special Interest Group of the American Educational Research. Self study conveys that S-STEP is a research method for teacher educators to examine information on themselves and their practices, students and contexts. Teacher education is the context, although there are also self-studies of teaching, higher education and other professions. As practitioner researchers, teacher educators in S-STEP are interested in identifying effective practices that prepare graduates to be successful teachers. S-STEP simultaneously considers all elements of the education included in the term. Self-study emerged as responses to the technical-rational assumption that research knowledge can be applied to practical problems with little reference to people or context. Methodologically, S-STEP is a hybrid, drawing on a range of methods to study the intersection of self and others in teaching practices and contexts. Four exemplars illustrate how self-studies improve teacher education by deepening theoretical understanding, offering hybrid methodologies for studying practice, critically and reflectively storying the experiences of teacher educators, and/or closely examining the enactment of pedagogies and practices. This article concludes by suggesting next steps for self-study in teacher education and beyond.