Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices (S-STEP)

Abstract

Self-study of teaching and teacher education practices, abbreviated as S-STEP, or self-study, is a genre of educational research concerned with examining and improving the relationship between teaching and learning in teacher education contexts. In self-study, the teacher educator him/herself is both the researcher and the main focus of the study. Self-study is concerned with the acquisition and development of teacher educators’ knowledge of practice and how such knowledge can inform and enhance learning and teaching about teaching. The process of knowledge development in self-study is initiated through the teacher educator’s capacity and willingness to publicly problematize his/her taken for granted beliefs and practices about teaching and learning; to be open to, and act upon, the curiosities, surprises, and challenges of everyday teaching practice; and to actively seek out alternative perspectives on practice. The knowledge produced through self-study is intended both as a means of reframing the teacher educator’s personal understandings of practice and stimulating the development of knowledge of practice among the community of teacher educators more broadly. An important function of selfstudy has been to promote the idea of teaching as a discipline and teacher educators’ professional knowledge as specialized and unique.