Critical Friendships as Intra-Actions: Professional Sustenance, Strategic Resistance, and Coalition Building in Self-Study Research

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Saturday 1:30 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 2-3
  In Roundtable Session: Methodological Conversations: Critical Consciouness, Critcal Friendships, and Content Area Considerations (Table 9)

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize critical friendships as intra-actions in the self-study of teacher education practices. Exploring the variables that inform critical friendships can illuminate how self-study research provides insight into teacher education and the more significant equity-oriented or social justice issues that inform the practices enacted by teacher educators. Employing the Baradian notion of intra-actions as a conceptual lens, a review of self-study research, teacher education literature, work on coalition building, and the author's publications highlighted three emergent themes in relation to critical friendships as intra-actions. These highlighted (a) dynamic liveliness and ongoing negotiations; (b) disparate elements and pursuit of a common goal; and (c) daring determination and professional sustenance as intra-active qualities in critical friendships.

Author

• Adrian D. Martin, New Jersey City University