Links between Self-Study and Teacher Education Reform*

Abstract

This chapter begins with an analysis of the gains of self-study research at the personal, institutional and collective levels and illustrates these with a variety of examples. They show that self-study has – at the personal level – the potential to imprOffe individual teacher educators’ practices, but that – at an institutional level – it can also lead to program reform and – at the collective level – to the identification of issues important to the international community of teacher educators. Next, in response to the question of where the sudden outburst of self-studies comes from, relations are explored between self-study, developments in teacher education, and the context in which teacher education takes place. On the basis of this exploration, four dimensions are formulated on which developments in teacher education run parallel with the nature of self-studies. These four dimensions also help clarify risks and possible flaws embedded in self-study research. This leads to a number of guidelines for quality in this research. Finally, the chapter ends with a discussion of the possible position of self-study within future reform of teacher education.