“It’s human nature to stretch, to go, to see, to understand.

Exploration is not a choice really; it’s an imperative.”

 Michael Collins, Apollo 11 Astronaut

“A good life is like a weaving. Energy is created in the tension. The struggle, the pull and tug are everything.”

Joan Erickson

To weave is to form, to interlace, to construct, to compose through the interlacing of threads, elements, and details. To explore is to search the unknown, to inquire into and discuss, to examine or evaluate. Chapters in section one illuminate how teachers and teacher educators explore the intricate and complex weavings of their professional practices through self-study. In the process of exploring, self-study researchers ravel and unravel new understandings.

The act of exploration can guide us to discover, see, and re-see self, others, professional practices, the spaces within, between and around us—the tapestries we live, tell, teach, and inquire into. The metaphorical weavings of teaching, teacher education, learning, identity, experience, and knowing are formed, reformed, and transformed through self-study.

Together, chapters in section one interlace threads from diverse professional practice settings for purposes of understanding anew, for improving practice, for informing our scholarly community. Self-study researchers uncover threads that stitch and form their meaning-making. Self-study researchers generate and share knowledge of teaching and teacher education practices, challenging readers to pause and consider the larger tapestries of which we are a part—tapestries we weave, teach, are, and become.