Employing Self-Study Research Across the Curriculum

Self-study is a research methodology focused on improvement of teacher education practice and exploring personal, practical, and professional transformation by the practitioner. Utilizing many qualitative methods, this interactive and often collaborative form of inquiry is well suited to study curriculum, considered broadly, as both the written and enacted, and all impacts of this curriculum. This chapter discusses the use of self-study in teachers' inquiries into curriculum. It presents the background and theoretical underpinnings of self-study research showing how this research genre emerged out of teacher practice and is rooted in the notion of teacher as curriculum maker. Guidance for forming research design is outlined, as well as various questions and topics for which self-study of curricula is well suited. Specific examples are expanded to include rationales for methodological choices and demonstrate how this research has been carried out in real-life practical situations.