Research, Practice, and Academia in North America*

Abstract

The self-study of teacher education practices has found a place on the teaching education landscape as a principled, scholarly practice that has began to shift understandings about the nature and significance of teacher educators' work and what counts as acceptable academic scholarship. Self-study scholars have brought their individual career histories and commitments to teacher education to bear on their academic roles within the context of the university and, in so doing, have taken up the challenge to shift to status quo perspectives on the role and status of teacher education in the academy. Through individual and collective action self-study scholars have responded to criticisms levelled against the place of teacher education in the academy, dilemmas presented by the nature of their work and roles, and challenges facing them in their professional and academic work. In this chapter we focus on the tenure system in North American universities and the role it plays in monitoring, mediating, and moderating the individual and collective practice of teacher educators. We offer a framework for reconsidering the norms of academic convention and the socialising forces that govern teacher educators' work in the academy and a vision of what such a reorientation might mean in practice. We then draw on this framework to explore how the self-study of teacher education scholarship and practice, as a genre, has positioned itself to challenge the status quo of academic convention for schools, departments, and faculties of education.