Great location for our supervision session at the Falkland Arms in Great Tew, Oxfordshire.
I mentioned my concern about Sweden not really being on board as I keep having to chase them and not getting replies to my emails. I therefore wondered if I should go with the German connections I made at EECERA in Dublin, but Chris pointed out that I had a clear rationale for choosing the 3 countries I originally chose and that I would have to justify any potential shift with an equally clear reasoning. With his in mind I revisited my rational and will stay with the original country choices.
It might be interesting to bring Germany in as an expert group (for meta-reflection), considering Germany’s strong focus on Democracy since WW2. It may be interesting to have an international (outsider/external) ‘reflection group’ and an insider ‘Practitioner Consultation Group’, as the 2 first members of the group would like to call it. We were questioning the commonly used term 'expert' group and feel more comfortable being known as a practitioner working group.
I mentioned how I am finding my feet in my role as an ‘outsider’ researcher. In my previous research I have mainly carried out research more in line with action research, in settings familiar to me, where relationships and roles were quite clear. Even though I was carrying out research, I was still seen as a teacher and advisory teacher as well, and as such I was expected to act in the capacity of all those roles.
I can see that in my current researcher role, I am not in a setting in the capacity of teacher, advisory teacher nor a parenting class facilitator in the parent focus groups. In other words, conversations with participating staff are not about setting or professional development, and the focus group discussions with parents are not about parenting issues. This may seem obvious but it was something I had to really unpick, as some participants have looked to me for advice and guidance, and I also felt during some interviews that I had missed opportunities to correct misconceptions. To be clear form the start I therefore now ask participants what they want from the dialogues and have information (handouts) with me in case participants want more information. Some staff have wanted more information and some parents have been keen to know more. All participants so far (staff and parents) have asked if they can keep my summary sheet of the 42 substantive Articles of the UNCRC, which I have taken as a positive sign.
