Abstract

Three groups of teacher educators from eight universities in Chile have been meeting at regular intervals for more than one year. The groups were led by three individuals who share a strong commitment to self-study of teacher education practices and the associated promise of improved teacher education. As a team of three self-study researchers, the authors also endeavored to act as critical friends to each other during the study. Rodrigo and Carolina are national leaders of a modest effort to introduce self-study of teacher education practices to Chilean teacher educators. As the teacher educators began to study the literature of self-study of teacher education practices, pairs of critical friends were arranged to identify focal points for studies of their own practices. This work was supported by a book that makes self-study articles available in Spanish (Russell, Fuentealba, & Hirmas, 2016). This report is a self-study by the three group leaders, who are exploring the potential of a pedagogy of knowledge integration to support the growth and development of self-study researchers in Chile. Carolina coordinates the area of initial teacher training in an international organization and is also a part-time teacher educator. Rodrigo is a professor with 20+ years of experience in teacher education. Tom is a professor with 40+ years of experience in teacher education and many years of work in self-study. In their roles as teacher educators, the three authors share an interest in new approaches to professional learning, particularly ones that show promise for promoting quality learning in future teachers. Rodrigo and Carolina held face-to-face meetings regularly, while Tom maintained contact through email messages, meetings via Skype and occasional personal visits to Chile. These meetings allowed us to share information, relieve tensions, and identify new perspectives regarding the processes of creating a self-study network at a national level