I am honored to introduce this special issue of the Teacher Education Interest Section (TEIS) newsletter, TEIS News, dedicated to the topic of Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices (SSTEP). This important discussion of SSTEP in TESOL began in 2015 with a question posed on the TEIS listserv: “How do teacher educators develop professionally?”

It emerged during this discussion that a number of TESOL teacher educators are currently engaged in self-study research. While self-study research is well-established and has a strong literature base in other areas of education, it has not been as widely recognized or encouraged in the field of TESOL. To promote a better understanding of self-study as an approach to research and of self-study’s benefit to our practice as TESOL teacher educators, Judy Sharkey organized a panel of self-study researchers in our field to speak on the topic of “Using Self-Study to Advance Research in TESOL Teacher Education.” This panel, which I had the privilege to moderate, was presented at the TESOL 2016 International Convention & English Language Expo in Baltimore, Maryland as a special session sponsored by both TEIS and the American Educational Research Association’s (AERA’s) SSTEP Special Interest Group.

We are fortunate that the panelists from that presentation, Judy Sharkey, Megan Madigan Peercy, Laura Schall-Leckrone, and Delia Racines, have agreed to summarize their talks for this issue of TEIS News so that a wider audience can learn about self-study methods and educators can reflect on how they might begin to investigate their own teacher education practices via this approach. Megan Madigan Peercy’s article lays the theoretical foundations of self-study research, Judy Sharkey’s article advocates for its acceptance in the field of TESOL, while Laura Schall-Leckrone and Delia Racines’s articles illustrate self-study as a process and exemplify how self-study can enhance our TESOL teacher education practice.

To assist our readers in their continuing exploration of self-study research, this newsletter also presents reviews of three recent books on the topic. These reviews were produced by doctoral students at the University of Maryland, and we encourage other graduate students to submit their articles and book reviews for publication in TEIS News.

Finally, we eagerly await the publication of an upcoming volume edited by Judy Sharkey and Megan Madigan Peercy titled Self-Study of Language and Literacy Teacher Education Practices Across Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Contexts.  The call for chapter proposals for this volume was posted on the TEIS listserv in July, and we look forward to reading the contributions of our TEIS members.

We hope that this special edition of TEIS News will serve as a stimulus for TESOL teacher educators around the world to engage in self-study of their teacher education practice as well as foster an ongoing discussion of how self-study can benefit our field and contribute to furthering TESOL International Association’s research agenda.

With best wishes,

Nikki Ashcraft

University of Missouri

Past Chair, TEIS, 2015–2016