Research Methods For The Self Study Of Practice

This is a book designed with the teacher educator in mind. It provides in depth examination of specific methods used effectively in self-study research. The chapters are written by researchers engaged in self-study of their practice.

Teacher educators live hectic lives at institutional and discipline boundaries. Our greatest potential for influence is through developing relationships with others in our practice. Our work is fundamentally relational and emotional. We are obligated to the teachers we teach and the public students they teach. Our practice exists in the midst of experience, conflicting and often hostile boundaries, and between what we know from research and what we understand from practice. Self-study of practice invites researchers to embrace the hectic and fragmented territory of practice as the space for study. This book educates those who would like to explore practice in the methodology of self-study. It provides both a pragmatic and theoretic guide. It grounds the research in ontology and establishes dialogue as the inquiry process. It supports researchers through the use of frameworks to guide research and explication of strategies for conducting it.

The first textbook to offer novice and experienced teachers guidelines for the "how" and "why" of self-study teacher research Designed to help pre- and in-service teachers plan, implement, and assess a manageable self-study research project, this unique textbook covers the foundation, history, theoretical underpinnings, and methods of self-study research. Author Anastasia Samaras encourages readers to think deeply about both the "how" and the "why" of this essential professional development tool as they pose questions and formulate personal theories to improve professional practice. Written in a reader-friendly style and filled with interactive activities and examples, the book helps teachers every step of the way as they learn and refine research skills; conduct a literature review; design a research study; work in validation groups; collect and analyze data; interpret findings; develop skills in peer critique and review; and write, present, and publish their studies. Key Features A Self-Study Project Planner assists teachers in understanding both the details and process of conducting self-study research. A Critical Friends Portfolio includes innovative critical collaborative inquiries to support the completion of a high quality final research project. Advice from the most senior self-study academics working in the U.S. and internationally is included, along with descriptions of the self-study methodology that has been refined over time. Examples demonstrate the connections between self-study research, teachers' professional growth, and their students' learning. Tables, charts, and visuals help readers see the big picture and stay organized.

This book examines the nuanced and situated experiences of self-study researchers. It explores the ways in which ethics are dynamic, idiosyncratic and require an ongoing ethical reflexivity. In addition, the book identifies, documents and collates the collective experiences of self-study researchers and sheds new light on the role and impact of ethics, ethical dilemmas and ensuing decisions for education researchers. The book considers the ethical dilemmas that self-study researchers in teacher education face, their careful ethical considerations while conducting research, and how they form their professional judgment and understanding of what it means to be an ethical self-study researcher. For self-study researchers, there are a number of ethical dilemmas and challenges that cannot be neatly captured by the frameworks and guidelines of an ethics board. For many, this requires researchers to be ever-present and re-engaged with the ethics of their own projects, from the development, through to the dissemination of their work. Readers will gain a deeper understanding of ethics, ethical perspectives and practices in the field of self-study research.

This book offers a collection of original, peer-reviewed studies by scholars working to develop a knowledge base of teaching and facilitating self-study research methodology. Further, it details and interconnects perspectives and experiences of new self-study researchers and their facilitators, in self-study communities in different countries and across different continents. Offering a broad range of perspectives and contexts, it opens up possibilities for encouraging the collaborative and continuous growth of teaching and facilitating self-study research within and beyond the field of teacher education. The breadth of the scholarship presented expands scholarly discussions concerning designing, representing, and theorising self-study research in response to pressing educational and social questions. By documenting and understanding what teaching and learning self-study looks like in different contexts and what factors might influence its enactment, the book contributes to building a kaleidoscopic knowledge base of self-study research. Overall, this book demonstrates the impact on participants' professional learning and validates the authenticity and generative professional applications of self-study methodology for and beyond teacher education, providing implications and recommendations for practitioners on a global level.

Study Research Methodologies for Teacher Educators is a comprehensive text that delineates a range of research methodologies. This edited volume, with many chapters written by self-study scholars who are noted in the field for particular methodological and epistemological perspectives, helps fill the gap in the literature on self-study research methods.

The International Handbook on Self-study of Teaching and Teacher Education Practices is of interest to teacher educators, teacher researchers and practitioner researchers. This volume: -offers an encyclopaedic review of the field of self-study; -examines in detail self-study in a range of teaching and teacher education contexts; -outlines a full understanding of the nature and development of self-study; -explores the development of a professional knowledge base for teaching through self-study; -purposefully represents self-study through research and practice; -illustrates examples of self-study in teaching and teacher education.

This book focuses on the writing process in the self-study of teaching and teacher education practices. It addresses writing as an area in which teacher educators can develop their skills and represents how to write in ways that are compatible with self-study's orientations towards the inquiry, both personal and on practice. The book examines effective self-study writing with chapters written by experienced self-study practitioners. In addition to considering elements of writing as a method for the self-study of practice, it delves into the cognitive processes of real writers making explicit their writing practices. Practical suggestions are connected to the lived experiences of self-study practitioners making sense of their field through the process of writing. This book will be of interest to doctoral and novice self-study writers, and experienced authors seeking to develop their practice. It demonstrates that writing as a method of inquiry in self-study and beyond can be learned, modeled and taught.