Chapter 3 The Self-Study Learning Community When and How and Where and Who

Chapter 3: The Self-Study Learning CommunitySelf-Study Teacher Research: Improving Your Practice Through Collaborative Inquiry Culture of The Self-Study Learning Community The goals, tasks, and behavior of a group, on both an individual and a collective level, help describe the group’s culture, or the ways its members go about doing their work and how the things they value get embedded into that process.

Chapter 3: The Self-Study Learning CommunitySelf-Study Teacher Research: Improving Your Practice Through Collaborative Inquiry Diverse and Unified The culture of self-study research is diverse in multiple ways such as: Geographic location Years of teaching experience Theoretical orientation Discipline Topics studied Self-study scholars are unified by their practice in using self-study rather than by a discipline, topic, or context.

Chapter 3: The Self-Study Learning Community Self-Studyship Self-study is not limited to teachers. Although self-study research grew out of the work of teacher educators, it has expanded to include practitioners such as administrators, librarians, occupational therapists, psychotherapists, counselors, and community educators working for social justice and educational reform. This extension of self-study of teachers to other practitioners is known as self-studyship (Samaras & Freese, 2006). Self-Study Teacher Research: Improving Your Practice Through Collaborative Inquiry

Chapter 3: The Self-Study Learning Community Paradigm Shift According to Kuhn (1996), paradigms emerge when:  Researchers are attracted away from competing paradigms due to their dissatisfaction with the current methods available.  The new method is open-ended enough to leave all sorts of problems for the redefined group of practitioners to resolve. Self-Study Teacher Research: Improving Your Practice Through Collaborative Inquiry

Chapter 3: The Self-Study Learning Community Practitioner Research Practitioner research can be considered a conceptual umbrella to describe many forms of practitioner-based study of teaching and teacher education” (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2004, p. 602). Forms of practitioner research vary in nature and the “types of outcomes they might choose to study” (Grossman, 2005, p. 445). Self-Study Teacher Research: Improving Your Practice Through Collaborative Inquiry

Chapter 3: The Self-Study Learning Community Influence, Confluence, and Divergence The self-study movement was influenced by earlier paradigms such as: Teacher inquiry Reflective practice Action research Self-Study is distinguished from the earlier paradigms by its unique methodological components. Self-Study Teacher Research: Improving Your Practice Through Collaborative Inquiry

Chapter 3: The Self-Study Learning Community Teacher Inquiry “ It was during the 1980s that teacher research gained new standing because of its potential to lessen the divide between theory and practice, on the one hand, and contribute needed insider perspectives to the knowledge base about teaching and learning” (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2004, p. 603). “Most of our knowledge about developing as teachers has not been grounded in practice or personal experience. The emergence of self-study and teacher research has shifted this trend” (Hamilton & Pinnegar, 1998, p. 236). Self-Study Teacher Research: Improving Your Practice Through Collaborative Inquiry

Chapter 3: The Self-Study Learning Community Reflection and Self-Study Self-study, in part, is an extension of the notion of reflection (Dewey, 1933; Schön, 1983, 1987). But self-study “pushes the virtues of reflection further” (Loughran, 2004, p. 25) by requiring dialogue, public critique, and presentation from the researcher’s personal reflection. Self-study employs a validation group to gain perspectives on the analysis and a forum to make the research public for review and critique. Self-Study Teacher Research: Improving Your Practice Through Collaborative Inquiry

Chapter 3: The Self-Study Learning Community Action Research and Self-Study In action research, the goal of the “action” is for a change in the classroom. In self-study research, the “self” is the focus of the study with the goal of leading to a reframed understanding of one’s role in order to impact students’ learning. Self-study includes multiple methods to arrive at new understandings and with self-study scholars creating new methods. Self-Study Teacher Research: Improving Your Practice Through Collaborative Inquiry

Chapter 3: The Self-Study Learning Community Practicing Self-Study Self-study scholars explain that they want to “walk the talk” and practice self-study as a habit of mind in their own work (Guilfoyle, Hamilton, Pinnegar, & Placier, 1998). Although teacher educators had taught the use of reflection and action research in their education courses in the 1980s, it was not until the early 1990s that teacher educators began practicing what they were preaching—to reflect on, inquire into, and study their own practice (Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 1993; Loughran, 2004). Self-Study Teacher Research: Improving Your Practice Through Collaborative Inquiry

Chapter 3: The Self-Study Learning Community The Self-Study School The Self-Study School is “a popular research movement which began in the early 1990s by teacher educators studying their practice and through member research, presentation, and publication was formalized and came of age a decade later” (Samaras & Freese, 2006, p. 38). Self-Study Teacher Research: Improving Your Practice Through Collaborative Inquiry

Chapter 3: The Self-Study Learning Community Formalization of Self-Study The Self-Study School was formalized through: Conferences: AERA and Castle The Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices Special Interest Group [S-STEP] International handbook Studying Teaching Education: A journal committed to self-study research Book and journal publications Self-Study Teacher Research: Improving Your Practice Through Collaborative Inquiry

Chapter 3: The Self-Study Learning Community Important Events in Outgrowth of The Self-Study School The Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices Special Interest Group [S-STEP] began in 1993 and grew into a community of scholars committed to developing a new paradigm for teacher education research. Self-Study Teacher Research: Improving Your Practice Through Collaborative Inquiry

Chapter 3: The Self-Study Learning Community Critique and Sustainability There has been critique of practitioner research and self-study research, and scholars have responded by offering clearer guidelines and suggested directions for its sustainability and future. Self-Study Teacher Research: Improving Your Practice Through Collaborative Inquiry

Chapter 3: The Self-Study Learning Community Class Activity Share the teacher professional communities you belong to and the culture of those communities. What role do you play in those teacher professional communities? What do you see as the benefits and challenges of teacher professional communities? Self-Study Teacher Research: Improving Your Practice Through Collaborative Inquiry