Professional Learning Through Arts-Inspired Collaborative Self-Study: Growing from the Inside Out with Rippling Effect

Pithouse-Morgan, Kathleen; van Laren, Linda; Masinga, Lungile

Abstract

Self-study research challenges professionals to closely examine their practices, the decisions and actions that shape them, and their commitment to their own development. Focusing on the self is not about navel-gazing but deepening professional learning to better serve others. We are three teacher educators from research-intensive institutions who have collaborated for over ten years, integrating the arts into self-study methodology to address critical educational challenges in South Africa. This study employed a multilayered approach to explore how and why arts-inspired collaborative self-study as a mode of professional learning both sustains our engagement and motivates us to do more as teacher educators and researchers. Our data sources were a) three published articles demonstrating our self-study research, b) rich pictures we each produced to answer our research questions, and c) voice notes elucidating our drawings. Data analysis involved crafting a collective poem using words and phrases extracted from tweets based on the voice notes. Combining multiple data sources with creative representation and analysis enabled us to depict and view our professional learning in various forms. Dialoguing with each other and critical friends, followed by poetic feedback from a diverse group of conference attendees, expanded our insights. Our creative interactions demonstrated the professional and methodological merit of inviting many perspectives and approaches to self-study. Multiple viewpoints and inventive methods increase self-study research’s potential for enriching professional learning within a creative and resourceful community.

Citation

Pithouse-Morgan, K., van Laren, L., & Masinga, L. (2025). Professional Learning Through Arts-Inspired Collaborative Self-Study: Growing from the Inside Out with Rippling Effect. Studying Teacher Education, 21(1), 7-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/17425964.2024.2440358

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Dec 6, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Dec 15, 2024
• Publication Date: 2025
• Deposit Date: Oct 24, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 16, 2026
• Journal: Studying Teacher Education
• Print ISSN: 1742-5964
• Electronic ISSN: 1742-5972
• Publisher: Routledge
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 21
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 7-21
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17425964.2024.2440358
• Keywords: professional learning; collaborative self-study; arts-based educational research; creative analysis; poetic feedback
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/40866088
• Publisher URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17425964.2024.2440358
• Additional Information: Peer Review Statement: The publishing and review policy for this title is described in its Aims & Scope.; Aim & Scope: http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?show=aimsScope&journalCode=cste20; Received: 2024-12-05; Accepted: 2024-12-06; Published: 2024-12-15