Introduction

What is self-study? Where did it come from, and where is it going? To whom does it appeal, and why does teacher education in particular require an unusual and specialized term such as ‘self-study?’ In the chapters in this opening section, John Loughran, Jeff Northfield and Howard Smith write thoughtfully and perceptively about their experience of self-study. They draw conclusions from their experiences with a view to helping others engage in self-study, and their numbered lists of issues related to self-study and developing collective knowledge can be read as ‘guidelines’ for those embarking on self-study. One goal of this section overview, however, is to discourage reading these chapters solely for guidelines.