An Invited Outsider or an Enriched Insider? Challenging Contextual Knowledge as a Critical Friend Researcher

Abstract

Researchers conducting studies in communities have long taken an interest in exploring the different merits of positioning themselves as 'insiders', 'outsiders' or 'inbetweeners' in relation to their participants. Yet research exploring the role of the researcher as a 'critical friend' --a supportive yet challenging facilitator in self-evaluation processes-has not been fully examined. This chapter speaks to the FUGuE element of transformation, which in the present context I define as a process where structures and forms undergo conversion. The chapter provides my account as a FUGuE researcher of exploring the methodological implications of my research with a small group of teachers at a primary school located in the Latrobe Valley in Central Gippsland. The emergent relationship now informs my teaching and research practices. The discussion draws on a recently commenced longitudinal study exploring teachers' use of strategies and processes aimed at improving literacy practices --a phenomena known as capacity building--through collaboration in a professional learning team, within a context of school improvement. Due to a prior connection with the school, I was invited to become a critical friend and active participant as the school initiated a new professional learning team (PLT) in literacy. Informed by recorded conversations from the PLT meetings, my aim was to conceptualize the role and transformative implications of researching as an invited critical friend within a professional community. This chapter contributes to the methodological discourse of educational research by offering a contextualized analysis of the tensions among the notions of trust, credibility and positionality as a critical friend researcher.

Uncovering missing links in collegial learning conversations

“…This would suggest that PLC colleagues need to perceive that 'why' considerations that set the direction of the PLC's work need to be of importance, or else the process of working to realise possibilities will go nowhere. The specific content in a PLC cannot be imposed by outsiders (Banks, 1998;Fletcher, 2019), but is created by those who share questions, concerns, problems and needs (Woods & Macfarlane, 2017). A PLC is also characterised by mutual engagement in procedures, tools, con cepts and different ways of acting, i.e., a shared repertoire to illuminate 'why' as well as 'how' questions (cf.…”

“…For example, Banks (1998) presents a crosscultural framework to understand community which includes values, perspectives, behaviours, beliefs and knowledge as its defining points. A recent adap tion of Banks' framework incorporates features of effective learning communities (Coates, 2017;Woods & Macfarlane, 2017), in which a PLC's common reference points relate to shared vision, values, culture and ethos (Fletcher, 2019). The term 'vision' refers to those common ideals and goals the PLC aspires to achieve.…”

The Role of Critical Friends in Action Research: A Framework for Design and Implementation

“…Pine (2009) suggests that such a knowledge claim can be accomplished through a reconceptualisation of action research as a form of professional development with critical friends. Over time, rigorous procedures for incorporating critical friends into action research have been suggested in the literature (see Fletcher, 2019;Franzak, 2002;Swaffield, 2008)…”

Insider status: (Re)framing researcher positionality in international human resource management studies

“…An external-outsider is not a member of the community, whereas an indigenous-outsider is rejected as a legitimate community member despite being socialised within its culture. Fletcher (2019) refers to these group membership categories as different types of ‘critical friendships’ distinguishable by the level of imposing, proposing and/ or sharing of the researcher’s friendship in relation to research participants.…”