Self-study is inherently collaborative. Such collaboration provides transparency, validity, rigor and trustworthiness in conducting self-study. However, the ways in which these collaborations are enacted have not been sufficiently addressed in the self-study literature. This book addresses these gaps in the literature by placing critical friendship, collaborative self-study and community of practice at the forefront of the self-study of teaching. It highlights these forms of collaboration, how the collaboration was developed and enacted, the challenges and tensions that existed in the collaboration, and how practice and identity developed through the use of these forms of collaboration. The chapters serve as exemplars of enacting these forms of collaboration and provide researchers with an additional base of literature to draw upon in their scholarly writing, teaching of self-study, and their enactment of collaborative self-study spaces.

Critical Perspectives on Teaching in the Southern United States presents new and provocative insights into education in the Southern United States, from the perspective of educators with a variety of experiences. This book foregrounds the Southern United States as having unique sociopolitical, sociohistorical, and sociocultural contexts which directly influence knowledge and classroom pedagogies. Contributors use a range of critical frameworks that coalesce around methods including: self-reflection through research, social justice advocacy, and culturally responsive, culturally relevant, culturally sustaining, and asset-based pedagogies. Through the lenses of these critical frameworks, several contributors also address challenges and strategies for teaching controversial topics in the classroom. Drawing upon unique experiences teaching in various regions of the Southern United States, chapters explore salient topics such as race, language, gender, discrimination, identity, immigration, poverty, social justice, and their influence(s) on pedagogy. This book raises questions considering the ways that history has shaped present-day Southern education and about the myriad complex dynamics that influence pedagogy in the Southern U.S. context. Ultimately, this book affirms the importance of utilizing critical perspectives in contemporary discussions about education in the Southern United States.