Promoting Professional Conversations and Reflective Practice Among Educators: Unpacking Our Portfolios Using Duoethnography
The use of portfolios is becoming more and more prevalent in university and college programs, especially professional programs such as medicine, nursing, and education (Jones, 2010; McCready, 2007; Ryan, 2011; Woodward Nanlohy, 2010) Portfolio assessment requires students to demonstrate their competency and learning over time through the use of various artifacts and reflections. As researcher participants, we employ duoethnography, a relatively new qualitative method (Sawyer Norris, 2013) to examine our personal experiences with portfolio development and assessment. Using electronic and blended methods of communication, we engage in reflective practice as we examine the professional portfolios that we created in our respective teacher education programs. Throughout this chapter, we demonstrate how engaging in hybrid conversations, conducted primarily online by email, but also in person, by text messaging or phone, can serve as a worthwhile approach for facilitating professional conversations and promoting continuous professional learning.