Autoethnography, self-narrative and teacher education

Based on the author's doctoral thesis research project which emerged from his personal, professional experience, the book is a study of the professional identity of university-based educators in England. A pivotal assumption is made that valuable insights into the work and identity of teacher educators can be gained by examining our own memories and beliefs, and that the narrative discourses through which we understand ourselves and our work are a source of rich description and insight. The processes of constructing memory and the ways in which it informs practice are central themes, where 'Telling' is both a verb and an adjective in relation to narrative tales of experience. The main purpose of this book is to investigate how we articulate our own selfhood as educators of teachers through narrative, and how this informs and develops our professional identities which we construct and re-construct in response to the continuing uncertainties and ambivalences within the initial education of teachers in England.