Abstract
In this chapter, we show ways that written correspondence has shaped a six-year collaboration where self-study of teacher education practices and critical friendship played central roles. In thinking about writing as method, we have come to an increased awareness of how writing has been crucial to the perceived success and survival of our collaboration, supporting knowledge construction and meaning-making of our selves-in-practice. From our analysis, we show how writing supported relationships at both personal and professional levels, was a direct contributor to research design through scaffolding our thoughts and ideas, and offered a source to take stock of work done and work to do. Our written interactions have been a mainstay of our ongoing collaboration, and we demonstrate how others might be more intentional in centralizing the writing process to enhance the richness of engagement in collaborative self-studies.
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Fletcher, T., Ní Chróinín, D. (2021). Pen Pals with Purpose: Letter Writing as Collaboration in Self-Study. In: Kitchen, J. (eds) Writing as a Method for the Self-Study of Practice. Self-Study of Teaching and Teacher Education Practices, vol 23. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-2498-8_2
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