The Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices (S-STEP)
International Biennial Castle Conference
Conference Theme
Pausing At the Threshold:
Opportunity through, with, and for Self-Study of Teaching and Teacher Education Practices
Opportunity through, with, and for Self-Study of Teaching and Teacher Education Practices
Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices (S-STEP), a special interest group of AERA, invites you to participate in the 2023 Castle Conference. All proposals are welcomed, and membership in S-STEP is not required for proposal submission. If you are interested in opportunities to interact with educators who are working on the problems of education through the study of their own practices, then the Castle Conference is an event for you.
To engage in S-STEP is to engage in a search for pedagogic turning points or threshold opportunities that can enrich personal understanding of practice through raising new possibilities, perspectives, and discourses (Hamilton et al., 2020). The theme for the Castle 2023 biennial meeting asks self-study researchers to mindfully pause and purposefully reflect as to how we might realize the contributions the Self-Study of Teaching and Teacher Education (S-STTEP) community has made, is making, and could make to different communities and audiences. Drawing from the metaphors of threshold and becoming, we invite the S-STTEP community to explore the “powerful potential for speaking and contributing” (Berry, 2020, p. 4) to teacher education and to broader communities of practice and audiences.
Figuratively, a threshold …. signifies a place of transition or turning point. It can be a productive place, a space of tension, and also of
potential and opportunity. For the work of S-STTEP, this threshold moment represents both enduring and new challenges …. the current
pressing issue for the S-STTEP community--and what may be seen as its threshold of opportunity -- is in realizing its powerful potential for speaking and contributing to different communities and audiences. While the benefit of self-study in supporting teacher educators to recognize and value their own professional knowledge continues to serve a vital purpose, there are others external to the self-study community who can profit from the knowledge and understandings developed through self-studies of practice. (Berry, 2020, p. 4)
Recognizing our individual S-STEP researcher identities as always becoming (e.g., Pinnegar et al., 2020), we wonder how and in what ways our collective S-STEP identity may be ever emergent and always becoming. Drawing from the work of Deluze and Guattari (1987), the metaphor of becoming represents open, ongoing, process(es) of ever-emerging, multiple selves, and ever-expanding understandings and connections in complex and ever-changing contexts (e.g., Barak, 2015; Berry, 2020; Pinnegar et al., 2020; Strom & Martin, 2013). We envision the 2023 Castle Conference as a dynamic nexus of S-STEP past and the present; of being and becoming; of teaching and learning; of research and scholarship; of creating and sharing; of the here and there; of me and you--and we. Together, may we provoke, challenge and illuminate the threshold(s) of opportunity/ies for S-STTEP in teaching, teacher education, and beyond.
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.
References
Barak, J. (2015). Augmented becoming: Personal reflections on collaborative experience. Studying Teacher Education, 11(1), 49-63. https://doi.org/10.1080/17425964.2015.1013027
Berry, A. (2020). S-STTEP: Standing on a threshold of opportunity. In J. Kitchen, A. Berry, S. M. Bullock, A. R. Crow, M. Taylor, H. Guðjónsdóttir, & L. Thomas (Eds.), International handbook of self-study of teaching and teacher education (Second edition ed., pp. 3-14). Springer
Deleuze, G. & Guattari, F. (1987). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism & Schizophrenia. University of Minnesota Press.
Hamilton, M. L., Hutchinson, D. A., & Pinnegar, S. (2020). Quality, trustworthiness, and S-STEP research. In J. Kitchen, A. Berry, S. M. Bullock, A. R. Crow, M. Taylor, H. Guðjónsdóttir, & L. Thomas (Eds.), International handbook of self-study of teaching and teacher education (Second edition ed., pp. 299-338). Springer
Pinnegar, S., Hutchinson, D. A., & Hamilton, M. L. (2020). Role of positioning, identity and stance in becoming S-STEP researchers. In J. Kitchen, A. Berry, S. M. Bullock, A. R. Crow, M. Taylor, H. Guðjónsdóttir, & L. Thomas (Eds.), International handbook of self-study of teaching and teacher education (Second edition ed., pp. 97–133). Springer
Strom, K. J., & Martin, A. D. (2013). Putting philosophy to work in the classroom: Using rhizomatics to deterritorialize neoliberal thought and practice. Studying Teacher Education, 9(3), 219-235. https://doi.org/10.1080/17425964.2013.830970
To engage in S-STEP is to engage in a search for pedagogic turning points or threshold opportunities that can enrich personal understanding of practice through raising new possibilities, perspectives, and discourses (Hamilton et al., 2020). The theme for the Castle 2023 biennial meeting asks self-study researchers to mindfully pause and purposefully reflect as to how we might realize the contributions the Self-Study of Teaching and Teacher Education (S-STTEP) community has made, is making, and could make to different communities and audiences. Drawing from the metaphors of threshold and becoming, we invite the S-STTEP community to explore the “powerful potential for speaking and contributing” (Berry, 2020, p. 4) to teacher education and to broader communities of practice and audiences.
Figuratively, a threshold …. signifies a place of transition or turning point. It can be a productive place, a space of tension, and also of
potential and opportunity. For the work of S-STTEP, this threshold moment represents both enduring and new challenges …. the current
pressing issue for the S-STTEP community--and what may be seen as its threshold of opportunity -- is in realizing its powerful potential for speaking and contributing to different communities and audiences. While the benefit of self-study in supporting teacher educators to recognize and value their own professional knowledge continues to serve a vital purpose, there are others external to the self-study community who can profit from the knowledge and understandings developed through self-studies of practice. (Berry, 2020, p. 4)
Recognizing our individual S-STEP researcher identities as always becoming (e.g., Pinnegar et al., 2020), we wonder how and in what ways our collective S-STEP identity may be ever emergent and always becoming. Drawing from the work of Deluze and Guattari (1987), the metaphor of becoming represents open, ongoing, process(es) of ever-emerging, multiple selves, and ever-expanding understandings and connections in complex and ever-changing contexts (e.g., Barak, 2015; Berry, 2020; Pinnegar et al., 2020; Strom & Martin, 2013). We envision the 2023 Castle Conference as a dynamic nexus of S-STEP past and the present; of being and becoming; of teaching and learning; of research and scholarship; of creating and sharing; of the here and there; of me and you--and we. Together, may we provoke, challenge and illuminate the threshold(s) of opportunity/ies for S-STTEP in teaching, teacher education, and beyond.
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 can we position, reposition, reframe, re-imagine, integrate new learnings from the past, present, and future?
- What inspires you to pause, deliberate, consider, or take a mindful stance to determine new or enduring practices?
- What opportunities are you considering, contemplating, exploring, or embracing to contribute to different communities and audiences?
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.
References
Barak, J. (2015). Augmented becoming: Personal reflections on collaborative experience. Studying Teacher Education, 11(1), 49-63. https://doi.org/10.1080/17425964.2015.1013027
Berry, A. (2020). S-STTEP: Standing on a threshold of opportunity. In J. Kitchen, A. Berry, S. M. Bullock, A. R. Crow, M. Taylor, H. Guðjónsdóttir, & L. Thomas (Eds.), International handbook of self-study of teaching and teacher education (Second edition ed., pp. 3-14). Springer
Deleuze, G. & Guattari, F. (1987). A thousand plateaus: Capitalism & Schizophrenia. University of Minnesota Press.
Hamilton, M. L., Hutchinson, D. A., & Pinnegar, S. (2020). Quality, trustworthiness, and S-STEP research. In J. Kitchen, A. Berry, S. M. Bullock, A. R. Crow, M. Taylor, H. Guðjónsdóttir, & L. Thomas (Eds.), International handbook of self-study of teaching and teacher education (Second edition ed., pp. 299-338). Springer
Pinnegar, S., Hutchinson, D. A., & Hamilton, M. L. (2020). Role of positioning, identity and stance in becoming S-STEP researchers. In J. Kitchen, A. Berry, S. M. Bullock, A. R. Crow, M. Taylor, H. Guðjónsdóttir, & L. Thomas (Eds.), International handbook of self-study of teaching and teacher education (Second edition ed., pp. 97–133). Springer
Strom, K. J., & Martin, A. D. (2013). Putting philosophy to work in the classroom: Using rhizomatics to deterritorialize neoliberal thought and practice. Studying Teacher Education, 9(3), 219-235. https://doi.org/10.1080/17425964.2013.830970