Critical Self-Study Methodology: Ontology, Theoretical Frameworks, and Conceptual Lens as Enabling Elements
摘要
This chapter examines how critical self-study methodology can serve as a means of advancing equity in teacher education by proactively engaging with diverse theoretical, ontological, and conceptual frameworks or lenses. Building upon prior work in the tradition of self-study of teacher education practices, critical self-study centers social justice and equity initiatives as integral in the process of attending to professional improvement efforts and research. Critical consciousness serves as an initial commitment to enable the critical self-study researcher in selecting and determining which frameworks are most suited for their inquiry endeavors. The chapter highlights how methodology can function as an equity practice and an opportunity for the researcher to assess how their approach to research design, development, and deployment aligns with values and concerns for criticality, equity, social justice, and the transformation of professional practice and, by extension, teacher education. The chapter offers an examination of multiple frameworks that critical self-study researchers could adopt or employ. These critical lenses cast light upon and support means of identifying how professional practice enables opportunities for professional and social transformation, as well as how inequitable practices or systems can be resisted. The chapter revisits a previous self-study and assesses how the themes, topics, issues, and perspectives advanced therein are applicable and illuminate the conceptual and methodological orientation of this prior work. The chapter concludes with prompts, an exercise, and suggested readings to support the reader in the development of their own work.