Identifying Implications of Tensions in a Series of Collaborative Self-Study Groups

Source: Studying Teacher Education, Volume 6, Issue 3, November 2010 , pages 281 – 290.
(Reviewed by the Portal Team)

The authors are three professors whose interests in collaborative self-study processes have led them to a shared research project investigating their collective experiences.

The authors' aim is to identify practical implications of the tensions that emerged from collaborative group study.

Drawing on 14 years of collaborative self-study group work at their Midwestern USA university, East and Fitzgerald reviewed the data, stories and findings from that collaborative work.

Through this process, the authors identified the primary themes emerging from the data as concerns with definition and goals, each involving both self-study itself and process in the group.
The findings suggest that groups engaged in collaborative self-study have to be both open and closed. Negotiating the tensions of these apparent opposites locally and within the field may have a large impact on what self-study will become and what realities count in contributing to the development of knowledge about teacher education (Johnson, 2009).

Reference
Johnson, R. B. (2009) Toward a more inclusive “scientific research in education.”. Educational Researcher 38:6 , pp. 449-457.