Transformation, based on the values of social justice, inclusion and respect for human dignity, is espoused by the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University as a core value. However, there is a danger that transformation and its accompanying values will remain empty rhetoric unless they are incorporated into everyday practice at micro-levels. I am therefore prompted to ask ‘How can we use educational theory to transform our practices at higher education?’ In this article, I will attempt to demonstrate how values-based, self-study action research can help provide answers to questions about educational theory: I will demonstrate how I, together with colleagues, hold ourselves accountable for our own practices via the generation of living educational theories (Whitehead, 1989) and by so doing, make significant contributions to the growth of educational knowledge. I make a case that self-study practitioner inquiry has a vital role to play in the development of new theories of practice which will contribute to the transformation of the epistemology of educational inquiry in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.