The Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices (S-STEP)
International Biennial Castle Conference
Call for Proposals
Conference theme: Textiles and tapestries: Self-study for envisioning new ways of knowing
Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices (S-STEP), a special interest group of AERA, invites you to participate in the 2020 Castle Conference. All proposals are welcomed, and membership in S-STEP is not required for proposal submission. If you consider yourself to be a teacher educator or practitioner of another profession and are interested in opportunities to interact with other educators from a range of disciplines, theoretical orientations, and educational practice settings who are working on the problems of education through the study of their own practices, then the Castle Conference is an event for you.
The theme for the Castle 2020 biennial meeting asks self-study researchers to envision new ways of knowing through self-study. Drawing from textiles and tapestries as metaphors, we invite the S-STEP community to explore the intricate or complex weavings of learning and teaching that can inspire new methods, frameworks, collaborations, and understandings of practice. Recognizing that individual strands of experience can be woven together to form new understandings, we envision the 2020 Castle Conference as a dynamic nexus of the past and the present; of being and becoming; of teaching and learning; of research and scholarship; of objects and mediums; of creating and sharing; of the here and there; of me and you--and we.
The S-STEP community has long valued the collaborative, intimate, and interactive nature of relationships within the practice of self-study as researcher practitioners bring forward the past, acknowledge the present, and re-imagine possibilities for the future. Simply put, collaboration is built into the foundations of self-study research design and practice. It is with this in mind that we look to our AERA S-STEP SIG and in partnership, call self-study researchers to consider ways we can seek out deliberate connection and reconnection for envisioning collaborations within and beyond institutional, geographical, theoretical, and disciplinary boundaries for purposes of generating new understandings. We invite self-study researchers to consider the following:
While proposals that address the conference theme are encouraged, we welcome all proposals utilizing self-study research design/practice in rigorous and thought-provoking ways. Proposals and accepted papers will be double-blind reviewed.
The theme for the Castle 2020 biennial meeting asks self-study researchers to envision new ways of knowing through self-study. Drawing from textiles and tapestries as metaphors, we invite the S-STEP community to explore the intricate or complex weavings of learning and teaching that can inspire new methods, frameworks, collaborations, and understandings of practice. Recognizing that individual strands of experience can be woven together to form new understandings, we envision the 2020 Castle Conference as a dynamic nexus of the past and the present; of being and becoming; of teaching and learning; of research and scholarship; of objects and mediums; of creating and sharing; of the here and there; of me and you--and we.
The S-STEP community has long valued the collaborative, intimate, and interactive nature of relationships within the practice of self-study as researcher practitioners bring forward the past, acknowledge the present, and re-imagine possibilities for the future. Simply put, collaboration is built into the foundations of self-study research design and practice. It is with this in mind that we look to our AERA S-STEP SIG and in partnership, call self-study researchers to consider ways we can seek out deliberate connection and reconnection for envisioning collaborations within and beyond institutional, geographical, theoretical, and disciplinary boundaries for purposes of generating new understandings. We invite self-study researchers to consider the following:
- How and/or why do we explore the intricate and complex patterns and assemblages of objects, events, people, places, cultures, and experiences of teaching, teacher education, and professional practices?
- How can we position, reposition, reframe, re-imagine possibilities for assembling the present and the future formed from the quiltings of our past?
- How and/or why might we envision new collaborations across organizations and disciplines as we consider common aims, tools, artifacts, and materials of our diverse cultures?
While proposals that address the conference theme are encouraged, we welcome all proposals utilizing self-study research design/practice in rigorous and thought-provoking ways. Proposals and accepted papers will be double-blind reviewed.
Tips for a successful submission
The Castle Conference invites contributions that purposely utilize self-study research design/practice to inform and rethink teaching and teacher education.
We encourage authors to ensure they are grounding their research in current self-study publications as well as the more seminal S-STEP literature. The journal “Studying Teacher Education” is a good place to become familiar with or to remain up to date on current research within the self-study community.
Authors may also consider reviewing volumes in the “Self-study of Teaching and Teacher Education Practices” series from Springer Publishing. Another useful resource is the online collection of proceedings from the Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices (S-STEP) International Biennial Conference (The Castle Conference).
Submitting a proposal
Proposal submissions will be handled on-line by the EasyChair system. The EasyChair portal is now open for submissions; click on the orange button below.
Prepare a proposal
The maximum length of the proposal is 1,000 words, not including the references. Please do not include any identifying information on this document. Instead, the document should just focus on the narrative of your proposal and be written using the following headings. When ready to upload, save your document as PDF.
Prepare a proposal
The maximum length of the proposal is 1,000 words, not including the references. Please do not include any identifying information on this document. Instead, the document should just focus on the narrative of your proposal and be written using the following headings. When ready to upload, save your document as PDF.
- Context of the Study (Should include positioning the authors/study in terms of theoretical framework, research literature connection, and physical contexts of the study.)
- Aim/Objectives of the study (Should include the problem, purpose, and/or questions of the study.)
- Method(s) (Should include participants, data sources, data analysis, strategies and techniques with attention to issues of trustworthiness.)
- Outcomes (Should include findings, discussion, and conclusions. If you are submitting a proposal for a study in progress, you should clearly address anticipated outcomes in this section.)
- References (These are not included in the word count for the proposal body, but are to be included in this document.)

Please note that we are using a double review process to prepare the papers for Castle13. Your abstract must be accepted BEFORE you submit a full paper.
Lead authors and experienced Castle delegates will be asked to review a proposal in the first round of reviews.
Lead authors and experienced Castle delegates will be asked to review a proposal in the first round of reviews.
Don't hesitate to contact us if you are having any problems. CastleConference.SSTEP@Gmail.com