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own knowledge'. Frequently now I would opt to back myself and create my own knowledgeusing the knowledge acquisition methods that have evolved over time. This is certainly the casewhen it comes to learning a new technology. Did I enrol in a class to learn how to tweet? No, Idownloaded the software and got on with it. Did I purchase a textbook to learn how to use aninteractive whiteboard? No, I found an empty classroom, plugged in a notebook with the Smarttools pre-installed and got on with it. Did I go to a tutor and ask to be trained in scripting PHP?No, I called the helpdesk at claranet (www.claranet.co.uk) and happened upon an enthusiasticengineer, bored with his day job who clearly enjoyed the rare opportunity to act as anandragogical agent.In the context of my own career, what seems to be occurring therefore is a kind of'autopedagogy' where professional challenges and subsequent reflections on these phenomenahave led me to undertake self-directed study. It may even be that 'autopedagogy' is aphenomenon in its own right. On lighting on this term, I experienced a moment of euphoria. I,then, discovered that it is used in America in the context of driving schools. It occurred to methat in the same way that I am not writing an autobiography, but am engaging in auto/biographicactivity, it would be more appropriate to adopt the term auto/pedagogy as the shorthanddescriptor for the phenomenon. This is because I am starting to see that over twenty years, Ihave been engaging in self-directed, professional learning episodes where it has been necessaryto engage in reflexive processes relating to them. To be clear I do not intend to use anauto/pedagogic research methodology to create theory about auto/pedagogy; rather I am using anauto/biographic method to build a theory of auto/pedagogy.127Simon Hughes Ph.D. Thesis (October 2012)