Self-study came into its own as an area of scholarship more than two decades ago, marked officially by the 1993 founding of the Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices (S-STEP) Special Interest Group (SIG) in the American Educational Research Association (AERA). Influenced by a shift away from views of teacher as technician and toward teacher as reflective practitioner (Schön, 1983, 1987), questions about those who supported the growth and development of teachers—such as teacher educators—also began to emerge. Until at least the mid-1980s very little attention was paid to teacher educators (Lanier & Little, 1986) as potentially important players in the processes of teacher learning. It became increasingly necessary, however, when considering how teacher thinking and learning provided a window into their work (e.g., Borg, 2003, 2006; Johnson, 2006, 2009; Johnson & Golombek, 2003), to explore the various facets of teachers’ experiences that have an impact on teacher cognition. One dimension of this line of scholarship included questions about the relationship between teacher education and teacher practice, with mixed results. Some studies found that teacher education had relatively little impact on the practices of teachers (e.g., Wideen, Mayer-Smith, & Moon, 1998), while others have pointed to strong teacher education programs as making an important difference for teachers’ practices (e.g., Darling-Hammond, Holtzman, Gatlin, & Heilig, 2005). Amidst this atmosphere, research regarding the goals and practices of teacher educators has gained traction as providing important insights about teacher education. Indeed, because we still know so little about teacher educators and their work (e.g., Conklin, 2015; Goodwin et al., 2014; Knight et al., 2014; Loughran, 2014), a number of prominent scholars have pointed to self-study as an important approach for gaining deeper insights (e.g., Darling-Hammond, 2016; Loughran, Hamilton, LaBoskey, & Russell, 2004; Zeichner, 1999) into the impact of teacher education programs and practices.

So what is self-study and what does it offer to us as teacher educators who prepare teachers to work with language learners? Self-study researchers agree that because of its complexity, self-study is notoriously difficulty to define (e.g., Bullough & Pinnegar, 2004). Nevertheless, Samaras (2002) provides a helpful starting point: “I use the word self-study to mean critical examination of one’s actions and the context of those actions in order to achieve a more conscious mode of professional activity” (p. xiii). Loughran (2004) further explains that self-study is a form of practitioner research that is “linked with the desire of the teacher educator to teach in ways commensurate with the hopes for their student teachers’ teaching” (p. 10).

Bullough and Pinnegar (2004) note that a common underlying theme of self-study research is “a moral commitment to improving practice” (p. 317). Scholars involved in self-study are deeply interested in how to provide meaningful teacher education, and they engage in critical self-examination of practice as a starting point for doing so. Thus, self-study research moves well beyond the individual in its investigation (e.g., Loughran & Berry, 2005). Questions about teacher educator practice in self-study research generally center around the alignment of the teacher educator’s intentions and her actions (Russell, 2004) and have the larger aim of contributing to the development of a pedagogy of teacher education (e.g., Loughran, 2006). Recent lines of work have explored questions such as the transition from teacher to teacher educator (e.g., Bullock & Ritter, 2011; Dinkelman, Margolis, & Sikkenga, 2006), the quest to unite practice and theory (Korthagen et al, 2001; Loughran & Berry, 2005; Peercy & Troyan, 2015; Russell, 2009), teacher educator growth and development (e.g., Fletcher & Bullock, 2015; Peercy, 2014, 2015; Scherff & Kaplan, 2006), and mechanisms that support teacher educator learning (e.g., Bodone, Gudjonsdottir, & Dalmau, 2004; Lunenberg, Zwart, & Korthagen, 2010; Schuck & Russell, 2005). Important critiques of self-study include the need to develop “chains of inquiry” (Zeichner, 2007) by building upon previous work and illustrating how self-study findings contribute to larger questions with which the field is grappling—and not only one’s own personal dilemmas of practice. Such moves are critical in a climate that aims to regulate teacher education from the outside (e.g., Cochran-Smith, 2006; NCTQ, 2013).

To ensure that self-study research does more than relay interesting stories (e.g., Loughran, 2010), methodological rigor is critical (e.g., Hamilton & Pinnegar, 2015; LaBoskey, 2004; Pinnegar & Hamilton, 2009), as is sharing the work in public forums (Samaras & Freese, 2009), and contributing to the theoretical development of teacher education (Geursen et al., 2010; Korthagen, Loughran, & Lunenberg, 2005). However, self-study does not imply the use of specific research methods (LaBoskey, 2004; Feldman, Paugh, & Mills, 2004; Pinnegar & Hamilton, 2009) but rather a focus on the self (Loughran, 2004) as the starting point for examining questions related to teacher education. Feldman, Paugh, and Mills (2004) note that methodologically speaking, self-study has the following three features: 1) it brings to the forefront the importance of self; 2) it makes the experience of teacher educators a resource for research; and 3) it urges those who engage in self-study to be critical of their roles as researchers and teacher educators. Furthermore, LaBoskey (2004) has outlined five principles of self-study research design: 1) it is self-initiated and self-focused; 2) it is improvement-aimed; 3) it is interactive; 4) it uses multiple, primarily qualitative, methods; and 5) it establishes validity through trustworthiness by providing sufficient detail for it to “ring true” (Loughran & Northfield, 1998, p. 13) for the reader (LaBoskey calls this exemplar-based validation). According to Loughran (2004), some additional critical features of self-study include the following characteristics: it seeks alternative perspectives through the involvement of others; it requires a willingness to be vulnerable in the face of exposing and examining one’s own practice; it requires immediate action for reshaping one’s work; and self-study researchers must be willing to situate themselves within the dilemmas of their work because the foci of investigation are generally related to the contradictions and challenges of the teacher educator’s work.

With respect to research methods for doing the work of self-study, Hamilton and Pinnegar (1998) outline a number of possible qualitative frameworks used in self-study work, including narrative, autobiography/personal history, visual and dramatic arts, reflective inquiry, and portfolios. They also note that data collection methods include many of those that are typical of qualitative investigations, such as interviews, observation, field notes, journaling, and focus groups, as well as others that are more arts-based, including collage. Recalling Zeichner’s (2007) suggestion that self-study research be situated in the larger body of teacher education scholarship, Pinnegar and Hamilton (2009) offered key questions for those interested in embarking on self-study, including the following:

• What am I interested in exploring? What do I identify as problems in my practice, where my actions do not seem to match my values (living contradictions)? What issues do I want to further understand? What do I want to learn about these interests, issues, and concerns?

• How could I explore these concerns and issues? What contexts might be most fitting? Who are the most appropriate participants – me? My students?

• What strategies might I use? What would count as evidence?

• What work in teacher education research (or other research fields) will guide my inquiry? What beliefs are embedded in my questions? What values do I embody in my practice and research? How will I hold myself accountable? What do I expect to contribute to the knowledge base? (p. 39).

Self-study research has considerable potential to contribute to a much-needed evolution in the knowledge base for the preparation of teachers of ELLs (e.g., Bunch, 2013; Crandall, 2000; Freeman & Johnson, 1998; Kibler, Walqui, & Bunch, 2015). Particularly in an era of globalization and shifting demands (Kibler, Valdés, & Walqui, 2014; Kubanyiova & Crookes, 2016; Valdés, Kibler, & Walqui, 2014), we need to rethink how to engage in this important work. Supporting teacher educators in grappling with identifying our field’s pedagogy of teacher education through self-study efforts is going to be a messy process, but it is one that holds much promise. At the TESOL Convention in April, I shared the following figure to demonstrate the kinds of larger questions that I believe self-study can help us to address as insiders to the work of teacher education. These insights are of critical importance in the changing contexts of teacher education if we are to have a strong voice in reshaping our work.

How can self-study inform TESOL practice, research, and policy?

References

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Dr. Megan Madigan Peercy is an associate professor in Applied Linguistics & Language Education at the University of Maryland. Dr. Peercy has experience as an ESOL and Spanish teacher across a variety of ages and contexts, ranging from pre-K through adults.

Her research focuses on the preparation and development of teachers throughout their careers, as they work with language learners. Dr. Peercy’s recent self-study work examines her use core practices as a framework for preparing teachers to work with English language learners. She is currently the Treasurer in the AERA S-STEP SIG. Her recent research appears in venues such as Professional Development in Education, Teacher Education Quarterly, and TESOL Journal.