Who Does Self-Study and Why?

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In this chapter, the authors consider the question, “Who does self-study and why?” This is a complicated question given the broad base of self-study publications in books, journals, and conference proceedings. To provide focus and to avoid overlap with other chapters in this handbook, this chapter reviews research published in Studying Teacher Education to uncover which educators conduct self-study research and their institutional and national affiliations. Following this consideration of who conducts self-study, Kelchterman’s personal interpretive framework is used as an analytic frame to understand why educators use self-study of teacher education practices. After recognizing the “who and why” of self-study research in teacher education, the authors extend the review beyond Studying Teacher Education to reveal the extent to which self-study research is present outside education and teacher education. Using Polkinghorne’s “practices of care,” research in a number of disciplines – medical and nursing education, physical and occupational therapy, and counseling and social work – is reviewed for references to self-study research. Uncovering a limited presence, the authors identify exemplars of autoethnographic and narrative inquiry studies in each discipline and consider the ways in which such research may be adapted to self-study. The chapter concludes with recommendations for how self-study research can be extended beyond its current disciplinary, geographic, and institutional boundaries.KeywordsSelf-studyPractices of careProfessional self-understanding Studying Teacher Education Teacher education