Self-study of Teacher Education Practices (S-STEP) and the Critical Friend

Abstract

Over the past 30 years my teaching strategies have evolved but I continue to use many pedagogies that have proven effective over the years (or so I think). Now, I am teaching a graduate course focused on comparative and international education (CIE). From my teaching experience abroad, I came to be fascinated by CIE. Will these students become engaged and immersed in the subject area as I have become? What can I do to facilitate their learning? How can self-study of teacher education practices (S-STEP) and a critical friend help me to improve my teaching of CIE? These are the research questions framing this self-study. I enlisted the help of an S-STEP critical friend also teaching in our graduate program. In this research, I critically analyze my teaching of graduate students through S-STEP with the help of a critical friend. In addition, I explore Comparative Ethnographic Narrative (CEN), a blend of reflexive ethnography and narrative inquiry, as another way of knowing within the S-STEP space. With ERB approval, I have collected data on my teaching September ~December 2019. I wrote detailed weekly reflections on my teaching in an e-journal. In addition, I included reflections on feedback received from my students. Students provided written feedback at the end of each class and at the end of term through course evaluation. I shared my e-journal reflections with my critical friend via email and in person bi-weekly. Then, together we made meaning from them. The research text evolves from our teacher-to-teacher conversations