Life outside academia: on becoming an expert teacher-researcher

Abstract The author, a school principal with significant classroom responsibilities recounts his journey towards authenticity as an independent teacher-researcher. His career as a researcher began in the scientific-knowledge tradition and then moved into the practical-knowledge tradition. He describes how Donald Schön, the father of reflective practice, has transformed his professional life, leading him to develop a deeply thoughtful practice, one that makes use of the literature to augment, challenge, and legitimise the work he does in his school. The author delves into the messy world of the professional experiment, and the idea that professionals can, and do, act and think differently to third-person researchers. Finally, the author shares his story about how the members of a virtual community of scholars have facilitated his move from the periphery of the researching community into an authentic and valued practitioner-colleague with a personal theory of practice