A self-study of my professional development in the early years of my teaching career

Teachers have spent thousands of hours watching other people teach, and those observations and experiences have inevitably influenced how one’s pedagogy is developed. In this self-study, I sought to identify and understand the ways in which my relationships, experiences, and different identities from kindergarten to graduate studies have influenced my teaching pedagogy today as an early career teacher. Engaging in self-study as an early career teacher has proven to be an eye-opening professional development opportunity, as I have experienced new realizations about where the values in my educational credo stem from. It has also offered an opportunity to review the literature supporting those values. Through this experience I have looked carefully at my practice and have identified instances where the way that I was teaching did not align with my beliefs. Additionally, I have become aware of tensions that exist between my different identities.