Paidiá: Design Elements for Self-Study Research in Polyvocal Professional Communities

• In Event: On Facilitating Self-Study of Teacher Education Practices in Different National and Transnational Contexts

Abstract

Objective
We are two teacher educators based in South Africa and the United States of America. Each of us is involved in facilitating transdisciplinary professional learning communities with university faculty and students who are interested in learning self-study methodology, regardless of their practice. Building on foundational work in facilitating self-study of teacher education practices (Hoban, Butler, & Lesslie, 2007; Author B et al., 2011), we have worked together for the past 5 years to conceptualize and study transdisciplinary and transcultural interaction and reciprocal learning in self-study research as polyvocal professional learning (collated in an edited volume – Authors, 2015). Our shared objective for the study presented in this paper was to examine our facilitation of self-study research in polyvocal professional learning communities in order to offer what we have learned and encourage further studies to build a fuller knowledge base on this topic.

Perspectives
We draw on Bakhtin’s (1984) exploration of polyvocality in exploring the potential contribution and impact of the interplay of plurality to our work in self-study. Our transcontinental, transcultural research collaboration has generated multiple stories (Adichie, 2009) and new insights that might not have been readily generated by culturally homogeneous research teams or individual researchers (Sleeter, 2014).

Methods
We used dialogue, duologue, and bricolage self-study, including multiple arts-based forms. Generating data virtually and face to face since 2012, we have also worked to bring together multiple stories in the voices of others who have facilitated and participated in transdisciplinary self-study research learning communities.

Data Sources
Data were drawn from a variety of sources, including: audio and video recordings of conversations, presentations, and workshops; emails; poems; collages; memos; sketches; and digital images.

Results
In this paper, we communicate what we have come to understand and practice about teaching self-study and in partnership with others as Paidiá: Design Elements for Self-Study Research in Polyvocal Professional Communities. (These design elements are shown in Figure 1 and will be elaborated on in the paper presentation.) Paidiá, which means children in Greek, reminds us of our responsibility as self-study scholars and teachers to work to contribute to the learning, wellbeing, and growth of others. Paidiá also has associations with play, and this is reminiscent of how we enjoy the process of learning together in polyvocal professional communities through trying out and sharing our ideas and work in progress with supportive colleagues (Author B, 2011).



Scientific and Scholarly Significance
This study adds to the body of knowledge about teaching and learning self-study methodology within a carefully crafted framework of design elements generated and tested from their application in practice. There are possibilities, extensions, and refinement of our elements and they are not finite. We continue to build these guidelines as a community and in dialogue with others. Along with our self-study colleagues, we will keep on considering how we might most effectively teach self-study methodology so that the field can continue to grow and be sustained and its impact multiplied.

Authors

• Anastasia P. Samaras, George Mason University

• Kathleen Pithouse-Morgan, University of KwaZulu-Natal