Abstract:
The profession of teaching, historically, has struggled with the degree
to which the personal experiences of the teacher can or should influence
classroom practice. This chapter explores the benefits of including “the
personal” both for the teacher and student. Personal history – the
formative, contextualized experiences of our lives that influence how
we think about and practice our teaching – provides a powerful
mechanism for teachers wanting to discern how their lived lives impact
their ability to teach or learn. In this chapter, the authors explore the
historical evolution of personal history self-study, the misconceptions
that often limit its potential, and the multiple ways in which it can
promote deeper learning. Specifically, this form of self-study can be
used to: know and better understand one’s professional identity, model
and test forms of reflection, and finally, push the boundaries of what we know by creating alternative interpretations of reality. The benefits
of this method are further illustrated through a case study of the lived
experiences of a teacher educator surfacing her own struggle to unpack
how her identity impacts her teaching and her quest for modeling
self-study as she reshapes a preservice teacher education program.
