"Do You Have Five Minutes?" An Investigation of Two Doctoral Students' Critical Friendship

• In Event: 45.085 - Learning in and Through Collaboration: Communities of Practice, Critical Friendships, and Collaborative Self-Study

Abstract

Critical friendship, where trusted colleagues provide one another with constructive feedback on their research and practice, can be an important source of individualized professional development for teacher educators. Peer critical friendships, where both individuals have equal professional status, may provide greater opportunities for the type of honest critical reflection needed for professional growth. In this paper, we describe the benefits the authors, two doctoral students, experienced in our peer critical friendship, which we initiated during the fall of 2017 to support one another as we undertook individual self-studies. We explore how peer critical friendships between doctoral students can move beyond support on a single self-study project to encompass broader support of one another’s practice, research, and emotional well-being.

Authors

• Megan Stump, University of Maryland - College Park

• Colleen Gannon, University of Maryland - College Park