The Methodology of Self-Study and Its Theoretical Underpinnings

Abstract

In this chapter I summarise the epistemological, pedagogical, and moral/ethical/political underpinnings of self study, which serve as the conceptual framework for the field. I then offer a characterisation of the methodology of self study in relationship to those theoretical foundations by encapsulating the predominant pedagogical strategies, research methods, and research representations in the literature to date. I conceptualised self-study as "a methodology for studying professional practice settings" (Pinnegar, 1998) that has the following characteristics: it is self-initiated and focused; it is improvement-aimed; it is interactive; it includes multiple, mainly qualitative, methods; and, it defines validity as the validation process based in trustworthiness (Mishler, 1990). The chapter thus serves as an introduction to this section on the methodology of self-study.