Προσφέροντας εναλλακτικές οπτικές και προοπτικές ανατροφοδότησης και αναστοχασμού: Η εμπλοκή των «κριτικών φίλων» σε μια έρευνα δράσης

Abstract

In this paper, authors consider the way two critical friends were involved in the training and feedback sessions of an anti-bias research project that used Persona Dolls method as a vehicle towards approaching difference in classroom. The actions described took place in the framework of a doctoral dissertation that used action research methodology and was, at the time of writing, still ongoing. The two teachers involved as critical friends contribute to the project by observing and supporting the researcher-facilitator, mainly in the context of experiential workshops and feedback meetings with the group of teachers participating in the research. The three of them together try to interpret and invest with semantic content the notion of “critical friend”, as it was developed in the specific research framework. In this effort, they exploit important elements, such as the structural component of flexibility, inherent in action research methodology as well as their own previous collaboration experience in the context of various actions at the Department of Early Childhood Education of the University of Athens. At the same time, they attempt to feature how their participation in the research seems to have contributed both to supporting and enriching the group meeting process and to the overall research progress, as highlighted by the relevant data analysis.