Re-discovery of the Self through Personal Experience Methods: A Narrative Self-Study

Abstract

Self-study as a qualitative research methodology has gained importance in the last three decades in the western countries. Although it is a relatively new research methodology employing a wide range of qualitative methods, it has formalized its rules and ethics and is now accepted as a respectful teacher education research methodology. Self-study has its roots in reflective teaching and action research movements. However, putting the researcher’s “self” at the center of the research study in different contexts with rather new and creative methods separates it from other approaches. The teacher conducting self-study takes a dual role as the researcher and also the subject of the research being studied. In this study, the researcher also studied his “self” from the perspectives of his students and his colleagues. The study aimed at revealing the strengths and weaknesses of the researcher as a teacher and to document whether the researcher teaches the way he preaches along with the opinions of the students towards his teaching practices. To this end, the researcher conducted a narrative self-study employing personal experience methods at the School of Foreign Languages, at Anadolu University in 2017-2018 spring term. The data analysis revealed some expected and surprising results regarding the “self” and the “teaching practices” of the researcher.