Self-Study In Teacher Education

Abstract

This article presents an argument for self-study of teacher education practices as a means and ends tool for promoting reflective teaching. The assertion is that self-study serves a dual purpose: as a means to promote reflective teaching and as a substantive end of teacher education. The argument consists of a five-part theoretical rationale for the use of self-study in reflection-oriented teacher education programs. Taken together, the various components of this rationale suggest that the promotion of reflective teaching will require something other than an additive approach to teacher education reform. Rather, self-study calls for a reconceptualization of the very process of teacher education itself. When teacher educators adopt self-study as an integral part of their own professional practice, the terrain of teacher preparation shifts. Self-study becomes more than just a means to the treasured aim of reflective teaching-self-study becomes an end of teacher education in its own right.