Intimate Scholarship in Research: An Example From Self-Study of Teaching and Teacher Education Practices Methodology

Abstract

Using self-study of teaching and teacher education practices (S-STEP) research as an example, we explore intimate scholarship and the ways it captures particular lives and experiences within the educational world. To do that we define, explore, and consider how teachers and teacher educators can use this personal and vulnerable scholarship. We provide an example as evidence of ways that intimate scholarship in the form of S-STEP supports learning from experience. We assert that positioning researchers to examine what we know about teaching and being a teacher educator is profitable for the larger research conversation.

How Are We Doing with Open Education Practice Initiatives? Applying an Institutional Self-Assessment Tool in Five Higher Education Institutions

“…Self-study is employed for "studying professional practice settings" (LaBoskey, 2004, p. 817), where professionals situate themselves as both the researchers and the focus of the research process. In the context of this research, the self-study methodology was a way to examine our individual OEP experiences at our home institutions and then discuss these experiences collectively using a critically reflexive collaborative approach (Hamilton & Pinnegar, 2014;Pinnegar & Hamilton, 2009). The selection of institutional samples consisted of both convenience and purposive samples of five heterogenous public postsecondary institutions.…”

“…The self-study methodology (Hamilton & Pinnegar, 2014;Pinnegar & Hamilton, 2009) used to investigate the research questions involved a three-part process. First, a self-assessment tool (https://oepimpact.opened.ca/isat/) consisting of Likert-scale and open-ended questions was created based on 21 components outlined in the literature review.…”

The COVID-19 Diaries: Identity, Teaching, and Learning at a Crossroads

“…From our initial conversations together, we established norms for engagement to honor what we recognized as necessary for this work: honesty, trust, and vulnerability with oneself and each other. Such intimate scholarship (Hamilton, 1998;Hamilton and Pinnegar, 2014) requires a fluidity of process that takes into account time, attention, and dialogue that is both supportive and probing.…”

Quality assurance agencies: Creating a conducive environment for academic integrity

“…Originating from the teaching practice, the self-study methodology (intimate scholarship) has gained foothold in all disciplines as an important approach to informing and transforming practice through leveraging personal and institutional experiences. 56 This methodology is premised on the self-study theory which propounds continual reflection, critical examination, communication and comparison of personal and institutional activities, strategies and experience with the literature and development of innovative and effective interventions, in contrast to pursuing practices that are premised on tradition, habit or impulse. 57 Although often criticised on the basis of bias and an assumed lack of objectivity, the self-introspection of the distant and immediate past as well as current experiences to interrogate and identify useful insights for improvement engenders trustworthiness and transparency.…”