Self-Study in Elementary and Secondary Teaching: A Living Theory Approach

In this chapter we present examples of Living Theory research, a form of Self-Study, which show teachers, teacher educators and administrators researching to improve their teaching and the educational experience of students and contributing the knowledge they create in the process to a professional educational knowledge base. We clarify the relationship between education and educational research and show how Living Theory is distinguished within other forms of Self-Study research. Consideration is given to the opportunities and challenges of promoting this approach, and other forms of Self-Study research, as ways to improve practice in schools. We show the development of ideas since Whitehead’s contribution 14 years ago, in 2004, to the first International Handbook of Self Study on, ‘What counts as evidence in self-studies of teacher education practices?’. Our emphasis in this chapter is on practising educators, their professional development and gaining academic recognition for the embodied knowledges of master and doctor educators.