This paper explores the dual and seemingly contradictory potential of self-study research to illuminate our fears, anxieties, tensions and uncertainties as teacher educators, whilst acting as a catalyst for community building. This self-study research was conducted during the founding year of a new school of education, drawing data from surveys and interviews with faculty about their own self-study research and participation in one another's studies. Through these collective self-studies, faculty members constructed and negotiated their identities as teacher educators and as a school of education. As researchers and researched participants, the faculty of the new school of education moved during that first year between vulnerability and community, a process illuminated by their self-study research.