**2. Self-study: core characteristics and aspects**

Self-study is largely about becoming better informed, gaining expanded understanding, and an effort to improve oneself as a professional educator and one's own practice. As mentioned, self-study are closely related to action research, teacher research and reflective practice, and all these approaches share the assumption that the quality of education is "hinged" on the practitioner's (teacher's / teacher educators) knowledgeability (ability to; communicate with students, teach, create development processes, facilitate teaching, facilitate meaningful processes etc.), and that practitioner's actively studying their own practice and teaching is a valuable approach to enhance these abilities [24]. An important aspect of self-study is to search for the "gap" (distance) and contradictions between personal theory, own beliefs, thoughts, ideas, and how own teaching is actually conducted [25, 26]. This means to discover and acknowledge the differences between own normative beliefs and aspirations of teaching on the one hand, and the actual teaching practice on the other hand. This is what Whitehead [27] describes as the notion of experiencing oneself as a "living contradiction". To put it simply: we think, means and say one thing but we do something else in action.

A key characteristic of self-study is that it is initiated and carried out by practitioners whose practice is studied [28]. Nilsson and Loughran [28] emphasizes and argues that it is teacher educators themselves who must have control over the development and knowledge generation of teaching about teaching in teacher

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what the purposes are for self-study.

**3. The relevance of self-study in teacher education**

Teacher educators who engage in self-study often share a broad motivation to improve; teacher education both individually and institutionally, goal of building new knowledge and understanding that can be brought into the field, increase the knowledge and understanding of teaching about teaching by researching and improving their own practice [33]. Whitehead [34] articulates this motivation to improve practice through some questions such as: "How do I help / support my students improve the quality of their learning and development?", "How do I live my values more fully in my practice?" and "How do I improve my practice?" ([33], p. 1308). Other questions that can be asked regarding to own practice can be:

*Self-Study Research: Challenges and Opportunities in Teacher Education*

education, and how to facilitate teacher students´ development, understanding and learning processes. This implies that it is the practitioners (teacher educators) who are responsible and must take responsibility for investigating, describing and articulating the relationship between the given teaching and the students´ development, understanding and learning. Smith [29] uses the term "teacher educators´ agency" about this responsibility. This is about teacher educators´ taking control of their own professional practice by researching it with the intention of developing and improving both oneself and practice and aiming to create new researchbased knowledge. One important aspect here is also about being critical of the existing knowledge, traditions, institutional ways of thinking and acting, and institutional and political leadership related to teacher education [29]. Agency acts to the extent that the professional practitioners, teacher educators´, exploits the opportunities and freedom of the professional room in a responsible manner [30]. In that way, self-studies that lead to changes and improvements are the practice

An important aspect of self-study which is crucial in understanding the methodology is embedded in the desire of teacher educators to better align their teaching intents with their teaching actions [31]. It is unavoidable that the nature of practice itself, with its inherent contradictions and tensions, affects the manner in which the practice is researched. Accordring to Loughran [10], it will also be unavoidable for researchers and teacher educators who engage in self-study that the study of; themselves – their thinking – their actions – their teaching, does not affect or is applicable in their own practice. Another important aspect of self-study is about discovering and becoming aware of the complexities associated with teaching and educating. There are many challenging operations that take place simultaneously, and a teacher have a responsibility for everyone to support and facilitate both understanding and development, and for processes and actions to create meaning as well as challenging students. Zeichner [32] state that research related to self-study has managed to bring out some of the complexities associated with educating teachers and contributed to a certain dignity and to highlight the important, yet underestimated work of teacher education institutes and teacher educators. According to Zeichner [32], self-study may be the approach to research within teacher education that has contributed most to important developments in the field. Although an attempt has been made to briefly describe what self-study is about, it is according to Bullough and Pinnegar [20] difficult to fully understand what it is and what it is not. In addition, they also emphasized that self-study is not a recipe or procedure that is slavishly followed, but rather a methodology for exploring and researching own practice, one's self and own teaching about teaching. In the following, it will be elucidated why self-study can be a good approach to learning and development and

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96252*

of agency.

#### *Self-Study Research: Challenges and Opportunities in Teacher Education DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.96252*

education, and how to facilitate teacher students´ development, understanding and learning processes. This implies that it is the practitioners (teacher educators) who are responsible and must take responsibility for investigating, describing and articulating the relationship between the given teaching and the students´ development, understanding and learning. Smith [29] uses the term "teacher educators´ agency" about this responsibility. This is about teacher educators´ taking control of their own professional practice by researching it with the intention of developing and improving both oneself and practice and aiming to create new researchbased knowledge. One important aspect here is also about being critical of the existing knowledge, traditions, institutional ways of thinking and acting, and institutional and political leadership related to teacher education [29]. Agency acts to the extent that the professional practitioners, teacher educators´, exploits the opportunities and freedom of the professional room in a responsible manner [30]. In that way, self-studies that lead to changes and improvements are the practice of agency.

An important aspect of self-study which is crucial in understanding the methodology is embedded in the desire of teacher educators to better align their teaching intents with their teaching actions [31]. It is unavoidable that the nature of practice itself, with its inherent contradictions and tensions, affects the manner in which the practice is researched. Accordring to Loughran [10], it will also be unavoidable for researchers and teacher educators who engage in self-study that the study of; themselves – their thinking – their actions – their teaching, does not affect or is applicable in their own practice. Another important aspect of self-study is about discovering and becoming aware of the complexities associated with teaching and educating. There are many challenging operations that take place simultaneously, and a teacher have a responsibility for everyone to support and facilitate both understanding and development, and for processes and actions to create meaning as well as challenging students. Zeichner [32] state that research related to self-study has managed to bring out some of the complexities associated with educating teachers and contributed to a certain dignity and to highlight the important, yet underestimated work of teacher education institutes and teacher educators. According to Zeichner [32], self-study may be the approach to research within teacher education that has contributed most to important developments in the field. Although an attempt has been made to briefly describe what self-study is about, it is according to Bullough and Pinnegar [20] difficult to fully understand what it is and what it is not. In addition, they also emphasized that self-study is not a recipe or procedure that is slavishly followed, but rather a methodology for exploring and researching own practice, one's self and own teaching about teaching. In the following, it will be elucidated why self-study can be a good approach to learning and development and what the purposes are for self-study.
