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The purpose of this study is to investigate the influence of critical friendship on a first- and last-year doctoral student’s novice and expert mindsets during role transitions. Doctoral students are challenged to navigate role transitions during their academic programs. Experiences in research expectations, academy acculturation and work-life balance, may impact doctoral students’ novice-expert mindsets and contribute to the costly problem of attrition. Universities offer generic doctoral support, but few support sources address the long-term self-directed nature of self-study.

The authors participated in a collaborative self-study over a 30-month period. The authors collected 35 personal shared journal entries and 12 recorded and transcribed discussions. The authors conducted a constant comparative analysis of the data, and individually and collaboratively coded the data for initial and focused codes to construct themes.

The critical friendship provided a safe space to explore the doctoral experiences and novice-expert mindsets, which the authors were not fully able to do with programmatic support alone. The authors identified nine specific strategies that positively impacted the novice-expert mindsets during the following role transitions: professional to student, student to graduate and graduate to professional.

While researchers have identified strategies and models for doctoral student support targeting specific milestones, this study identified strategies to support doctoral students’ novice-expert mindsets during role transitions. These strategies may benefit other graduate students, as well as faculty and program directors, as they work to support student completion.

The purpose of this manuscript is to reveal how a White social studies teacher educator attempted to go from being a non-racist educator to an anti-racist educator (King and Chandler, 2016) and build her racial pedagogical content knowledge (RPCK).

This manuscript is on part of a collaborative self-study. The authors used critical friendship (Schuck and Russell, 2005) and RPCK as the conceptual framework. The authors used self-study research methodology to analyze and interrogate analytical reflections, course syllabi, and course assignments. All data were analyzed through intentional and analytical dialogue over the course of weekly debriefs and three formal debriefing sessions.

Findings from this study indicate that while stressful and challenging at times, the critical friendship with Taylor was vital in developing her RPCK. The friendship liberated and brought voice to her traditional, racialized self through intentional and analytic dialogue. This dialogue benefited the curricular review she was conducting on her content methods course to develop and integrate RPCK to her pedagogical mind.

The authors show that critical friendships can transform definitions of self and pedagogical practice. If social studies teacher educators are going to do the work of anti-racism, then it is our suggestion that they form a critical friendship to support their self-growth and pedagogical intentions before suggesting pedagogical innovations.

This paper includes visual representation of RPCK that will allow other social studies teacher educators to teach the concept to their students. It also provides a framework to support others who want to work on their RPCK and racialized self.

This manuscript fulfills a need in the field by highlighting how a teacher educator can leverage a critical friendship to describe and reveal the enactment and analysis of balancing the self and practice regarding RPCK development. Visual representations of the conceptualization of RPCK are included.

Over the course of three years (2010-2013), the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate (CPED; a Consortium of 86 colleges and schools of education) Phase I institutions were involved in the Fund for the Improvement of Secondary Education mixed-methods, multi-case study. Data were collected from Primary Investigators, and stakeholders involved in the (re) design of a professional practice doctorate in education. At the conclusion of the research study, each institution was the recipient of a Critical Friends (CFs) Response Report. The purpose of this paper is to provide insights into the effectiveness of CFs in supporting institutional change by developing a collaborative environment in Higher Education.

First, the role of CFs, and Critical Friend Group (CFG) protocol is described. Second, analyzed data from CF Response Reports is reviewed. Lastly, recommendations for the application of the conceptual framing of CFs within the academy are discussed.

CF Response Reports reflect application of CFG protocol All CF Response Reports contained examples of both positive and cool feedback. This outcome supports previous research (Curry, 2008; Kuh, 2006; Butler et al., 2011) which suggest the protocol structure helped the CFs to focus in order to be supportive and positive. Fewer reports (12) identified institutional and program challenges. This may be a reflection of the dichotomy between friendship and critique which may lead to tension (Swaffield, 2005). A CF may be more likely to articulate a challenge in a face to face meeting knowing that any ensuing tension can be immediately addressed as opposed to stating the issues on paper with no immediate opportunity for the recipient to respond.

Several limitations of the data deserve attention. First, the data did not allow us to explore the relationship between CFs, actual practice, and doctoral program reform. Another limitation of the data are that it emanates from Phase I CPED institutions only. As such, these CFs may not be generally representative. The study would be strengthened if the work could be extended to include institutions from Phase II and III CPED institutions. As the authors continue to develop the understanding of critical friendship in academia the authors can apply this knowledge to support colleagues in their doctoral program reform and redesign.

Based on this study, it is possible to identify several recommendations that are instructive within a Higher Education context. Organizational change and specifically program (re) design is a complex process, and there is no clear certainty of success. Pragmatically, the impetus for utilizing the CF model should be intrinsic, developed by the institutions themselves. Organizational support, knowledge sharing, and communication is required to enable the CF model to be implemented with fidelity (e.g. presentations, and web site information).

Faculty may feel vulnerable and lacking in support, but the adoption of a CF model enables them to not only see the institution from a different perspective, but also helps them bring the familiar into a new focus. External institutional support can alleviate faculty vulnerability, enhance faculty resilience to in-house challenges, and facilitate institutional collaboration.

This study suggests that the external advocacy of the CF can positively impact change in the academy, and innovative doctoral program design by first fostering individual resilience to encountered challenges, and second enhancing institutional learning through institutional collaboration.

Teacher retention and continued teacher growth and development have long been critical global issues in education. The recent pandemic crisis and subsequent “great resignation” (Lodewick, 2022) have returned our attention to the need for positive and enriching educational landscapes that promote teacher collaborative reflection, knowledge, and growth in order to sustain teachers in the field. This chapter explores the ongoing teacher learning that has occurred within two knowledge communities (Craig, 1995b) in the United States. It begins with an overview of Craig's early work with teachers, during which her conceptualization of knowledge communities emerged. According to Craig, knowledge communities are safe, collaborative spaces that cohere around teachers' intra/inter-school dialogue and their storying/restorying (Clandinin & Connelly, 1996, 1998) of experiences. Additionally, knowledge communities (Craig, 1995b) begin with originating events, allow teachers' experiences (Dewey, 1938) to resonate with others in the group, feature reciprocity of members' mindful responses, and promote the development of shared ways of knowing. Equally important, knowledge communities evolve and change, fuel ongoing reflection in community, and bring moral horizons into view. Employing these knowledge community qualities as our lens, we examine the interactions of the Portfolio Group and the Faculty Academy. The Portfolio Group is a teacher/teacher educator/researcher group formed in 1998 during a US education reform era (Craig, Curtis et al., 2020). Its sister group, the Faculty Academy, is a cross-institutional, cross-discipline higher education group of teacher educators/researchers formed in 2002 (Craig, Turchi et al., 2020). Employing a parallel stories representation (Craig, 1999), exemplars (Mishler, 1990) from both groups show how teacher collaborative groups have the capacity to be safe spaces in which critical professional dialogue, reflective exchanges, and generous scholarship occur among members. Furthermore, they are nurturing spaces in which teachers can thrive and be their best-loved selves (Craig, 2013; Schwab, 1954/1978). These two groups exemplify the ways in which knowledge communities support teacher collaboration, promote ongoing teacher growth and development, and foster teacher sustainability.

There is currently a dearth of research on the implications of the epistolary as a site for knowledge production. This paper aims to demystify the process of academic theorizing through the co-authors’ co-excavative epistolary method.

Through co-excavative epistolary practices, the co-authors’ relationship was deepened, the collective sense was made of Covid-19, and racial literacy-centered academic theorizing commenced. In the co-authors making meaning of their letter-writing data, they provide examples of and analyze their co-excavative letter-writing process.

The co-excavative epistolary method deepened the co-authors’ relationship to one another and improved their ability to produce useful and complicated knowledge.

The co-excavative epistolary exchanges mark a new site for academic theorizing and incite creative approaches to academic co-writing, as well as more transparency about the academic writing process in general.

Co-excavative methods disrupt traditional academic sites of knowledge production and engender space for relational intimacy.

The work introduces both a new method, co-excavative epistolary writing and a new rational framework, the critical dignity relational framework.

This paper aims to consider the opportunities for embedded methodologies for research into children’s social care and the ethics of this method.

This study draws upon embedded research from a two-year study into developing children’s social work approaches to extra-familial risk. Findings draw upon personal reflections from field notes, case reviews, practice observations and reflections.

Two findings are presented. Firstly, that embedded research provides numerous opportunities to develop child protection systems and practice. Secondly, a number of ethical questions and challenges of the methodology are presented.

This paper draws upon personal reflections from one study and is not intended to be representative of all approaches to embedded research methods.

Two practical recommendations are presented. Firstly, this paper outlines a number of recommendations to university researchers and host organisations on the facilitative attributes for embedded researchers. Secondly, questions are raised to support university ethics boards to assist ethical frameworks for embedded research.

This paper contributes original empirical data to the limited literature on embedded research in children’s services.

Critical management studies (CMS) has been criticised on a number of fronts, not the least of them being its poor track record of reflecting and challenging its internal mechanisms of hierarchy and exclusion. Acknowledging these issues, this chapter explores the role queer theory can play in developing a queer friendship with CMS, whereby CMS might be able to reflect on its normalising tendencies. This chapter does not claim that queer theory is a silver bullet which can deliver itself or otherwise work miracles for solving the complex problems that beset CMS. Rather, it seeks to fan the queer embers that already exist within CMS to spark queerer futures. Part of this endeavour involves bringing CMS and queer theory closer together, but not so close that the two become comfortable companions. As this chapter suggests, a queer friendship will involve antagonisms and tensions between queer and CMS help each other to refute the normative at every turn and gesture towards something more: queerness. Pursuing this project, this chapter provides a brief review of queer theory before outlining current queer stirrings within CMS. The remainder of the chapter focuses on what we might hope to happen from CMS and queer theory being yoked together in a queer friendship, such as bringing queers to the fore in business schools, queering management conferences and embracing forms of queer negativity that condition more radical conceptions of the future.

Identity construction is a dynamic process that encompasses a variety of factors such as commonalities, loyalties, power struggles, and survival instincts (Lei, 2003). The complex dimensions of Black identity are influenced, in part, by community, comfort, and acceptance which at times imposes fixed categorizations, characteristics, and singular depictions. Recent research suggests that more attention be paid to the needs of Black adolescent girls and how their race and gender impact what happens in schools (Koonce, 2012). Moreover, it challenges and influences academic success, as it is challenging and difficult to excel in environments that fail to value every aspect of one's identity or identities (Rollock, 2007).

Black girls' interaction with each other, especially in urban schools, can also be problematic and resemble “relational aggression,” when in fact it is a form of posturing to increase their social status. Contextual factors (e.g., culture, school climate) can serve as risk or protective factors for involvement in posturing, relationship aggression, or increasing one's social status. Research focused on peer relationships has found differences in friendship patterns among ethnically and socioeconomically diverse youth, suggesting the importance of examining friendships within the context of ethnic and socioeconomic diversity (see Brown, Way, & Duff, 1999; Crothers, Field, & Kolbert, 2005). Sisterhood among Black girls can serve as a supportive network that enhances the “Black girl experience” as well as promote wellness and healthy identity.

The literature on friendship reveals particular tensions within the notion of friendship; tensions such as that between the significance of similarity by comparison with difference within the relationship; or the tension between liking a friend for his traits and qualities and liking him uniquely. The work of Jacques Derrida in The Politics of Friendship helps to elucidate the first of these tensions, beginning with an examination of the claim sometimes attributed to Aristotle: ‘O, my friends, there is no friend’ to argue that friendship as fraternity can become the schema that democracy adopts for the future. This paper explores and argues for the inter-relatedness of two questions about friendship in the context of politics: Can friendship act as a model for political community? And is friendship itself a political relationship? It argues that while both these questions can be answered in the affirmative, those answers create value by providing a guide that can support the development of our complex identities as mature individuals and citizens.