Learning and Living Self-Study Research: Guidelines to the Self-Study Journey

Abstract

The teaching and learning of self-study research have received increased attention in recent years, although there is still limited research about the learning of self-study. In this article, we share results from a self-study community of practice that describes how one group of novice teacher-educator-researchers learned self-study in a doctoral seminar on teacher education. The doctoral seminar served as a space through which the students simultaneously learned about and enacted self-study research methods. Data for the study included educational autobiographies and journals between students and the instructor, transcribed audio-recordings of course meetings and coding sessions, and course assignments. Through data analysis, we identified six steps in our particular journey of learning self-study: (1) advancing a willingness to improve; (2) acknowledging the power of reflection, (3) examining practice through collaboration, (4) identifying changes in practice, (5) developing new identities, and (6) sharing with others. We offer our experience of learning self-study to provide readers with one set of signposts, support, encouragement, and direction for the teaching and learning of self-study methods. Findings from this research may provide insights to new self-study researchers, scholars who teach self-study research, and experienced self-study researchers who provide on-going support for self-study colleagues.