Insight Gleaned from Our Participation in a Faculty Self-Study Learning Group

Abstract

The first chapter in this section, written by the department chair who oversaw the formation of the Department of Instruction and Leadership in Education (DILE) self-study of teacher education practices (S-STEP) group, explored some of the challenges and opportunities in creating a place for self-study research within a school of education in the United States that, like so many others, desires to offer quality courses taught by faculty who are experts in their field and productive as educational researchers. The second chapter in this section reported on the experiences of the facilitator of the self-study group as he tried to plan and execute learning opportunities for his colleagues to help them better understand and use S-STEP methodology to advance their teaching, research, or both. The chapters immediately thereafter consisted of individual accounts from each member of the group addressing issues related to their learning of self-study and its application to their work. For this final chapter, we present the findings of a collaborative self-study focused on our experiences in the group and our collective learning of self-study research. Specifically we explore issues related to who we are as teacher educators that made us interested in self-study, what we wanted to get from our participation in the group, our collective understandings of self-study methodology, and our perceptions of the usefulness of the group in relation to facilitating such understandings of self-study.

Appendix: Interview Guide for S-STEP Group Members

• Could you briefly describe what led you to becoming a professor of education?

• How did your beliefs and values factor into the decision to become a professor of education?

• When you were in graduate school as a doctoral student, what were your expectations of doing research and how were you trained to do so?

• Could you tell me about some of your research interests?

• What methods or approaches do you usually use to explore your research questions?

• What led you to become interested in joining the DILE self-study group?

• What did you hope to get out of the self-study group? What were your expectations?

• Now that you have participated in the group for some time, could you tell me what self-study means to you?

• One methodological consideration for self-study is that it should be “self-initiated” and “self-focused.” How does this relate to your notion of what self-study is?

• Another methodological consideration for self-study is that it should be interactive and/or collaborative. Could you describe what this might look like and why it might be important?

• Self-study does not have a prescribed set of methods, but rather incorporates a variety of methods to answer a research question. How does this compare to other methodologies you have used?

• An important part of self-study methodology is making the work public. Could you provide some examples of how you think this aspect of self-study might be fulfilled?

• How you have started to use self-study in your own work as a teacher educator and researcher?

• What, if anything, has been useful about the group in terms of developing your understanding of self-study methodology?

• What, if anything, has been useful about the group in terms of your development as a teacher educator and researcher?

• Could you describe some ways the group could have contributed more to your development as a teacher educator and/or researcher?

• Is there anything you would like to add to the interview?