With the expansions of wars and conflicts, the number of immigrants in the Unites States (US) has grown dramatically from just 10 million in 1970 to more than 45 million in the last few years. This rapid increase is associated with a growing number of culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) students with limited English proficiency in schools across the US. The current study investigated the impacts of teachers’ gender on the attitudes of MAT teachers, seeking Masters of Arts in Teaching, towards students with limited English proficiency. Quantitative method was used to collect the data and ninety- two (92) randomly chosen MAT teachers participated in the study and responded to the questionnaire. The findings of the current study revealed the followings: 1) gender was found a statistically significant factor that impacted MAT teachers’ attitudes towards CLD students; 2) Males teachers showed greater positive attitudes towards CLD than females; and 3) the study showed the importance of having adequate knowledge in teachers’ preparation in order to potentially have more effective teaching and positive attitudes. The current study investigated a part on equitable teaching practices and further investigations are opened for exploration.

This self-study evolved from decades of transcultural learning and teaching experiences. Drawing from self-study, reflexive ethnography and narrative inquiry, Comparative Ethnographic Narrative (Author 1, 2005, 2010, 2022) is used to investigate a father and daughter’s lived experiences. After being estranged for nearly a decade, travel to our ancestral home of Ireland resulted in a profound reconnection and reconciliation. In this paper, we reflect on how this remarkable experience impacted our lives and helped us to heal our broken relationship. Embedded within are several critical incidents that occurred during our 2-week trip to Ireland in September 2023. Through field texts including emails, shared journal writing, reflections, and extended conversations, we make meaning from these life-changing experiences to co-construct our narrative.

Education is reflection on experience (Dewey, 1938). Narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, 2000) is complementary to self-study (Kitchen, 2009; Kosnik & Beck, 2010; Loughran et al., 2004). The origins of self-study are in the seminal work of Joseph Schwab (Craig, 2008). Indeed, self-study has proven a natural fit for teacher educators (Loughran, 2007). Essentially, CEN is a collaborative form of narrative inquiry—comparative (as it involves comparing one’s experiences with others); ethnographic (in situ, long term participant-observation); and narrative (incorporating peer to peer extended conversations). It is like self-study, joint auto-ethnography or other forms of collaborative, interpretive research (Ellis & Bochner, 2000; Loughran, 2007). Since many educational phenomena are culturally embedded and tacit in nature, they are better understood through micro‐level ethnomethodological studies. This study offers a taste of CEN, which like narrative inquiry, is both phenomenon and method. The CEN cyclical process of telling stories, reflecting on stories, and re-telling stories with co-researchers, helps facilitate interpretation and deep analysis to uncover rich, lived experiences. We are seeking further conversations at ISATT 2025 colleagues about CEN and its connections to self-study.

Research aim – To create and communicate an epistemology for the professional learning of self-study, teacher-education researchers.

Theoretical framework – This is provided by the 2024 symposium of the British Educational Research Association on ‘Generating an epistemology for educational research from the responsibility of educators and educational researchers to research their own professional development (Wadsley et al. 2024).

Methods –The methods are focused on the clarification and communication of the embodied values used by self-study researchers as explanatory principles in their explanations of educational influences in their own learning, in the learning of others and in the learning of the social formations within which the professional practice is located (Tidwell, et al. 2009). The methods include empathetic resonance with digital visual data for clarifying the meanings of embodied expressions of values and their use as explanatory principles in explanations of educational influences in learning.

Findings – These are focused on an epistemology that has emerged from the responsibilities of self-study researchers for researching their professional learning in inquiries of the kind, ‘How do I improve the educational influences in my professional practice?’. They include making public their validated, evidence-based and values-laden explanations of educational influences in learning.

Relevance to the Conference theme and specific strand - The epistemology for self-study researchers is derived from researching quality teaching, equity, and socially just classrooms in the generation of each individual’s living-educational-theory.

References

Tidwell, D., Heston, M. & Fitzgerald, L. (Ed) (2009) Research Methods for the Self-Study of Practice. Dordrecht, Springer.

Wadsley, M., Mounter, J., Huxtable, M. & Whitehead, J. (2024) Generating an epistemology for educational research from the responsibility of educators and educational researchers to research their own professional development. Symposium presented at BERA 2024 at the University of Manchester 8-12 September 2024. Retrieved from https://www.actionresearch.net/writings/jack/bera2024/bera2024symposiumprop.pdf