In this Self-Study of Teaching and Teacher Educator Practice (S-STTEP), the researchers address a significant gap in the knowledge of one non-Indigenous teacher educator regarding Indigenous History, Culture, Pedagogies, and Ways of Knowing. Grounded in the concept of settler colonial ignorance this study aims to uncover and confront such ignorance within teacher educator practices. The study is part of a broader investigation focused on collaborative curriculum development between an Indigenous researcher and a non-Indigenous researcher, each contributing their distinct perspectives. The emergence of settler colonial ignorance as a theoretical framework prompted a critical examination of how this ignorance serves as a barrier to Decolonization efforts in education. Findings highlight the transformative potential of S-STTEP research in challenging and dismantling settler colonial ignorance. The study underscores the importance of non-Indigenous teacher educators engaging deeply with Indigenous perspectives, histories, and pedagogies to foster educational practices that are inclusive, respectful, and supportive of Indigenous learners. Implications for teacher educator practice emphasize the urgent need for ongoing professional development that addresses and rectifies gaps in knowledge regarding Indigenous issues. By integrating Indigenous perspectives into curriculum development and pedagogical practices, teacher educators can contribute to educational environments that promote cultural understanding, equity, and the principles of Decolonization and Indigenization.

The aim of this research is to understand how teacher educators can engage in complex conversations about race in literacy education settings. Reviewing multiple data points on our self-study research dealing with anti-racist teaching has demonstrated that for multiple reasons, including socialized niceness, power structures at institutions, and norms of white supremacy culture, we often are challenged by the difficult conversations necessary to move toward justice. This research follows 7 cis-female-white teacher educators as they engage in a critical reading of Uncomfortable Conversations with a Black Man (2022) to both learn new perspectives and to better understand the structures of these conversations for their own classrooms. We use the lenses of critical racial literacy, sociocultural perspectives on learning and intersectional positionality to help us to uncover the complexity of socialized niceness in this self-study. Data includes journal entries, recordings of zoom meetings for book discussions, and common assignments/discussions in our teacher preparation courses. Preliminary findings indicate that we are making progress with initiating these conversations, but continue to work on sustaining and/or deepening them and giving teacher candidates (TCs) more access points to join us in the work. We had to get comfortable with our own discomfort to engage in these conversations and the self-study group was a significant support for moving from conceptual understanding and intentions to concrete enactment. We found that examining the world beyond education through the eyes of someone else’s experiences aided in identifying why the conversations were often uncomfortable and thus gave a structure for these conversations with TCs. We entered, negotiated, and retreated from conversations related to justice and inclusion. The group, coupled with the readings, provided simultaneous sources of support, problem solving, knowledge construction, and accountability. Interrupting niceness and whiteness to engage in uncomfortable conversations built critical racial literacy.

This paper explores the challenges faced by teacher-educators in their planning and support for pre-service teachers’ development and learning. Specifically, the authors examined their own capacity to address these challenges while using the Meaningful Physical Education (MPE) approach.

MPE articulates a rationale for teaching physical education, based on the idea of prioritising meaningful experiences, thereby identifying potential and desired outcomes for participants in physical education. MPE is grounded in democratic and reflective pedagogical approaches, with a clear focus on student voice.

Over the course of an entire semester, one of the researchers taught a physical education module on an initial teacher education programme. Using a collaborative self-study approach, written weekly reflections were completed and shared with the second researcher, who was a faculty colleague. The second researcher adopted the role of critical friend, commenting on the reflections and posing questions. The whole dataset comprised eleven written and annotated reflections, and three recorded and transcribed conversations.

The data were analysed thematically, leading to the development of two central themes. Firstly, decisions relating to implicit and explicit instruction were highlighted in the context of the authors’ intention to prioritise the students’ meaningful experiences. It was challenging to retain a clear focus on the creation of a democratic teaching and learning environment, due to the novelty of this approach to the students and, to a lesser extent, to the researchers. The second theme described how the authors balanced teaching a set curriculum, with their intention to teach with a focus on their students’ meaningful experiences. This challenged them to provide enough time and space for sufficient discussion and reflection.

This paper shares how the adoption of a self-study of teacher education practice (S-STEP) approach can support teacher educators’ own professional development, while also scaffolding a positive and meaningful learning environment for their students.

Over the past decade, we have co-written articles on the ways in which we have supported, reflected, and connected with each other as critical friends and teacher educators (Laboskey, 2004). Grounded in the belief that self-study (Hamilton & Pinnegar, 2009), collaboration, and regular critical reflection are essential components to sustaining a teaching career, we have established a research methodology that involves regular check-ins over the phone and penpal-like letters in a shared journal (Authors, 2018, 2020). When the pandemic struck, we struggled to stay in touch and found our work taking a necessary aesthetic turn (Authors, 2021).

In “Watchfulness,” we take our reflective methods to a new place, exploring what it means to co-create a piece of folk art as a dyad. We take turns working on a piece, sending it back and forth in the post, with the trust that there is freedom in the process of co-creation. We have documented our processes and our products through photography and journaling, which will be shared during this presentation, alongside our folk art. Folk art is a purposeful term for us: the “material culture” in which “objects do not exist in a vacuum...[they are] made and used by people, artifacts relate to human values, concerns, needs and desires both past and present” (Jones, 1987, p.4).

We explore how this co-creation, this arts-based research, introduces a new kind of framing for the humanities. Veering away from a positivistic approach towards understanding a phenomena which leads to stability in knowledge-building, arts-based research introduces a kind of “revisiting.”(Barone & Eisner, 2011, p. 16).

We aim for this “watchfulness” – to peer beneath the surface of things, ideas, and practices. What does our craft say about our minds, thoughts, and experiences? In our experiences, teaching during this moment in time, what is true for us?