SELF-STUDY OF TEACHER EDUCATION PRACTICE (S-STEP):

Methodology and pedagogy for teacher educators and their

professional learning

Tim Fletcher

Brock University, Canada

Setting the scene for S-STEP

Common understanding and acknowledgment of the multi-faceted role and work of teacher educators (Goodwin & Kosnik,

2013; Smith, 2011)

Photo by John Barkiple on Unsplash

Setting the scene for S-STEP

• European Commission (2013) agenda for clear, coherent, and evidence-based forms of professional learning for teacher educators

• Teacher educators across 10 countries had similar concerns, plans, and strategies for their professional development (Van der Klink et al., 2017)

Setting the scene for S-STEP

• InFo-TED as an international group to support and exchange approaches to teacher educator practice, research and policies based on the EEC agenda (Lunenberg, Murray, Smith, & Vanderlinde, 2017; Murray, Lunenberg, & Smith, 2017; Vanassche et al., 2015)

• Divergence in priorities and needs of teacher educators, mainly in terms of:

– Delivering programmes (i.e., teaching and learning)

– Developing research skills (Czerniawski, Guberman & MacPhail, 2017; Dengerink, Lunenberg, & Kools, 2015)

Self-study as practitioner research

• Began in the early 1990s as a research approach for teacher educators to interrogate and communicate their understandings of practice

• The TEP is very important – there is a focus on practice (Vanassche & Kelchtermans, 2015)

• S-STEP has long been seen as an approach to examine teacher educators’ professional development (e.g., Lunenberg & Willemse, 2006; Smith, 2003; Zeichner, 1999)

“The birth of the self-study in teacher education movement around 1990 has been probably the single most significant development ever in the field of teacher education research”

Zeichner, 1999, p. 8

Self-study as practitioner research

Recognition that S-STEP has reached ‘maturity’ as a methodology/field

(Bullock & Peercy, 2018)

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Self-study as hybrid methodology

“The study is always of practice, but at the intersection of self and other, and its methods are borrowed”

Bullough & Pinnegar, 2001, p. 15

Self-studies consider the self-in-practice Ovens & Fletcher, 2014

Self-study characteristics

Ovens & Fletcher, 2014

S-STEP

Desire

StanceCommunity

Theoretical underpinnings

• Phronesis and episteme (Kessels & Korthagen, 1996;

1999)

www.techpowerup.com

Guidelines for Quality in S-STEP Design

LaBoskey (2004)

• Self-oriented/-initiated

• Improvement-aimed

• Interactive

• Multiple sources of data

• Validation based on trustworthiness

Who I am in how I teach teachers

The self-in-practice

Russell, T. (1997). Teaching teachers: How I teach IS the message. In J. Loughran & T. Russell (Eds.). Teaching about teaching: Purpose, passion and pedagogy in teacher education. (pp. 32-47). London: Falmer Press.Kelchtermans, G. (2009). Who I am in how I teach is the message: Self-understanding, vulnerability and reflection. Teachers & Teaching: Theory & Practice, 15, 257-272.

What can self-study tell us?

en.paperblog.com

fletchcast.blogspot.ca/2014/05/hollywood-navel-gazing.html

Relevance Rigour

Understanding Effectiveness

(Vanassche & Kelchtermans, 2015)

A Shift…

Methodology

A Shift…

Methodology Pedagogy

A Shift…

• Recognition of teacher educators’ professional learning needs and outcomes as:

– Multi-faceted (Goodwin & Kosnik, 2013; Smith, 2011)

– Contextually grounded in practice and teacher educators’ identities (Kelchtermans, 2013; Murray et al., 2017)

– Able to be articulated and exchanged (Loughran, 2014)

Professional Development for Teacher Educators

Loughran, J. (2014). Professionally developing as a teacher educator. Journal of Teacher Education, 65, 271-283.

“… The framework is an attempt to illustrate

how the development of teacher educators’ knowledge and practice of teaching and learning about teaching is intimately tied to: understandings of identity; the challenges and expectations of the teacher education enterprise; and, the place of scholarship as an important marker of knowledge, skill, and ability in the academy…

Loughran, 2014, p. 272

• S-STEP not only helps improve teacher education practice and teacher educators’ learning; it contributes to teacher educators’ research activities and outputs

Examples of S-STEP as PD for Teacher Educators

• Fletcher & Bullock 2015: Reframing pedagogy while teaching about teaching online: A collaborative self-study. Professional Development in Education, 41, 690-706.

• Vanassche & Kelchtermans 2016: Facilitating self-study of teacher education practices: Toward a pedagogy of teacher educator professional development. Professional Development in Education, 42, 100-122.

What we did…

• Identified focus of S-STEP

• Established critical friendship, research questions and data collection strategies:

1. Tim to generate journal entries (biweekly) and emails to send to Shawn who would respond

2. Monthly recorded Skype calls

3. Course artifacts

What we looked for…

• Instances where new understandings of the self-in-practice were evident:

– Shifts in identifying as a teacher educator

– Clear evidence of learning to teach teachers

– Deepened understanding of personal pedagogies of teacher education

What we found…

1. Teaching about teaching online can feel disembodied

• Implications for how the teacher educator’s and students’ identities are presented and interpreted

What we found…

2. Teaching about teaching online can feel as though teaching = assessment

• When teaching interactions are reduced to comments on students’ posts, it felt as though the teacher educator’s main job was to act as an evaluative authority

What we found…

3. When it was understood that relationships and identities were negatively impacted by teaching online, teaching satisfaction declined

What we learned…

• The importance of synchronous components in online teaching if relationships and identities of teacher educator and learner are valued

• S-STEP was useful as both methodology andpedagogy:– Ongoing, situated, based on needs of teacher

educators

What they did…

• Six self-selected teacher educators with little research experience

• Two researchers facilitated the S-STEP (theory + methodology)

– Participants identified the focus of their S-STEP inquiries

• TEs gathered video observations, journals, etc.

• Monthly meetings supported by online, phone and 1-1 support

What they looked for…

• Validation and/or amendments to four propositions of teacher educator professional development

What they found…

“Mirror data” revealed instances of alignment and misalignment between beliefs and actions• These data provided a

springboard for theorising about teacher education practice (e.g., the “hows and whys”) with others in the group

What they found…

• Bridging identities and roles as teacher educator-researchers was a source of tension

• Explicitly acknowledging the source of tension helped avoid resistance to S-STEP as professional development

What they found…• The group process potentially put teacher

educators’ beliefs about practice into conflict with colleagues or their institutions

– Making knowledge of teacher education practice public therefore carries risks and needs to be appropriately managed

Conclusions

“… Professional development of teacher

educators must be purposefully conceptualized, thoughtfully implemented, and meaningfully employed. However, for that to be the case, there is an overwhelming need for teacher educators to have a vision for their professional development that affords them agency in the active development of their scholarship.

Loughran 2014

Conclusions

“… All teacher educators, whatever their

career entry stage or profile, need to take part in a suitable programme of induction into the identity and task of educating teachers, as well as into their new employer institution.

European Commission, 2013

Conclusions

• S-STEP can be an effective form of practitioner research for teachers and teacher educators

• S-STEP is not a quick nor easy fix to teacher educators’ professional learning needs

• It carries many of the hallmarks of powerful professional learning, but requires motivation and willingness of the teacher educator seeking development

Questions for You

• Will you be expected to balance time and effort for teaching and research? What challenges might you face in doing so?

• What are some of the ongoing questions, curiosities or complex problems you find in your teacher education practice?

• Who might you turn to help drive an investigation of problems you face in your teacher education practice?

Questions for Me?

Reference List

Bullock, S. M. & Peercy M. M. (2018) Crossing boundaries to challenge self-study methodology: Affordances and critiques. In D. Garbett & A. Ovens (Eds.). Pushing boundaries and crossing borders: Self-study as a means for researching pedagogy (pp. 19-25). Auckland, NZ: University of Auckland Press.

Bullough, R. V. Jr., and Pinnegar, S. (2001). Guidelines for quality in autobiographical forms of self-study research. Educational Researcher , 30 (3), 13–21.

Czerniawski, G., Guberman, A., & MacPhail, A. (2017). The professional developmental needs of higher education-based teacher educators: an international comparative needs analysis. European Journal of Teacher Education, 40(1), 127-140.

Dengerink, J., Lunenberg, M., & Kools, Q. (2015). What and how teacher educators prefer to learn. Journal of education for teaching, 41(1), 78-96.

European Commission (2013). Supporting teacher educators for better learning outcomes. Brussels, European Commission.

Goodwin, A. L., & Kosnik, C. (2013). Quality teacher educators= quality teachers? Conceptualizing essential domains of knowledge for those who teach teachers. Teacher Development, 17(3), 334-346.

Kelchtermans, G. (2009). Who I am in how I teach is the message: Self-understanding, vulnerability and reflection. Teachers & Teaching: Theory & Practice, 15, 257-272.

Kessels, J. P., & Korthagen, F. A. (1996). The relationship between theory and practice: Back to the classics. Educational researcher, 25(3), 17-22.

Korthagen, F. A., & Kessels, J. P. (1999). Linking theory and practice: Changing the pedagogy of teacher education. Educational researcher, 28(4), 4-17.

LaBoskey, V. K. (2004). The methodology of self-study and its theoretical underpinnings. In J. J. Loughran, M. L. Hamilton, V. K. LaBoskey, & T. Russell (Eds.), International handbook of self-study of teaching and teacher education practices (pp. 817-869). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.

Loughran, J. (2014). Professionally developing as a teacher educator. Journal of Teacher Education, 65, 271-283.

Lunenberg, M., Murray, J., Smith, K., & Vanderlinde, R. (2017). Collaborative teacher educator professional development in Europe: different voices, one goal. Professional Development in Education, 43(4), 556-572.

Lunenberg, M., & Willemse, M. (2006). Research and professional development of teacher educators. European journal of teacher education, 29(1), 81-98.

Murray, J., Lunenberg, M., & Smith, K. (2017). Educating the educators: Policies and initiatives in European teacher education. In M.A. Peters, B. Cowie, & I. Menter (Eds.). A Companion to Research in Teacher Education (pp. 651-666). Springer, Singapore.

Ovens, A. & Fletcher, T. (Eds.) (2014) Self-study of physical education teacher education: The interplay of practice and scholarship. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.

Smith, K. (2003). So, what about the professional development of teacher educators?. European journal of teacher education, 26(2), 201-215.

Smith, K. (2011). The Multi-faceted teacher educator: A Norwegian perspective. Journal of education for teaching, 37(3), 337-349.

Vanassche, E., & Kelchtermans, G. (2015). The state of the art in self-study of teacher education practices: A systematic literature review. Journal of Curriculum Studies, 47 (4), 508–528.

Vanassche, E., Rust, F., Conway, P. F., Smith, K., Tack, H., Venderlinde, R. (2015). InFo-TED: Bringing Policy, Research, and Practice Together around Teacher Educator Development, in (ed.) International Teacher Education: Promising Pedagogies (Part C) (Advances in Research on Teaching, Volume 22C) Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.341 – 364

Van der Klink, M., Kools, Q., Avissar, G., White, S., & Sakata, T. (2017) Professional development of teacher educators: what do they do? Findings from an explorative international study, Professional Development in Education, 43:2, 163-178,

Zeichner, K. M. (1999). The new scholarship in teacher education. Educational Researcher, 28 (9), 4–15.