Self-study of educational practice: Re-imagining our pedagogies

Abstract

From text: Where does re-imagining our pedagogies begin? As self-study researchers, we understand that it starts with our selves. Through self-study of educational practice, we identify issues that we are concerned, curious and passionate about in relation to our own pedagogies and we research those issues in our own contexts. While there search topics are diverse, our common focus is on what difference we as educators can make. Our exploration is about how we can re-imagine our selves, in the hope that our change will have a positive impact on other people. We have confidence that there is always room for change, no matter how small; there is always something we can see or do differently. Thus, we aim to develop practitioner-led, context-specific ideas for change and to explore ways to make that change happen (Pithouse, Mitchell & Weber, 2009). Importantly though, we recognise that, although educational change begins with ‘me’, it must also involve ‘us’. Because we view teaching, learning and researching as interactive processes, we realise that we need the perspectives of significant others such as students, colleagues, and other self-study researchers or ‘critical friends’ to “challenge our assumptions and biases, reveal our inconsistencies [and] expand our potential interpretations” (LaBoksey, 2004: 849). We also need to make our self-study research available for public critique in order to contribute to public conversations about educational change.