Practices and Impacts of Intimacy: Las Chicas Críticas: A Retrospective Narrative on Las Chicas Criticas’ Intimate Invisible College

• In Event: Invisible Colleges: Small Group Spaces for Growth, Inquiry, Healing, and Repair

Abstract

Background: Las Chicas Críticas, a “unique and organically forming collaboration (with a) generative and productive relationship” (Craig, 2020 p. 214), is a knowledge community (Craig, 2007) where we share and refine our practice. Coming from a larger retrospective study on the output of a long-standing successful invisible college (Zuccala, 2006),

Purpose: Following Lievrouw’s (1990) recommendation to examine invisible college members' perceptions of their interactions, the authors unearth the qualities and impacts of the groups’ intimacy (Hamilton et al., 2016).

Perspective: Engaging in “intimate scholarship” (Hamilton & Pinnegar, 2015) we embrace vulnerabilities to navigate the “messiness” of collaboration (Pinnegar & Hamilton, 2020, p.x), structuring our analytical conversions (Guilfoyle et al., 2004) as critical friends (LaBoskey, 2004). As an extra-institutional invisible college, we have moved beyond a group sharing research initiatives (de Solla Price & Beaver, 1966) to develop core values and paradigms (Kuhn, 1962).

Methods: As part of a collaborative (auto)biographical narrative retrospective (Pinnegar & Hamilton, 2009), we examined co-authored collaborative research publications from the past decade (Author14 et al., 2014; Author12 et al., 2018; Author12 et al., 2020; Author12 et al, 2020a; Author13 et al., 2020; Authors14 et al., 2021; Author12 et al., 2022; Author14 et al., 2022; Author14 et al., 2023a; Author14 et al, 2023b; Author12 et al., 2023b; Author13 et al., 2023c; Author13 et al., 2023d) through recurring self-defining frameworks; Remando (rowing girls), the Hub, and the Shadow, seeking key intimate resonances (Conle, 1996). Data collection included weekly shared meetings, joint and individual restorying (Author11, 2017) and iterative analysis (Charmaz, 2010).

Findings: Emergent themes include individual and collective 1) broadening and deepening of knowledge, 2) professional trajectories, and 3) relationship with institutions. Las Chicas Críticas' hub, “the space to think about how to create the seeds of democracy” and “to “examine and share my own practice has “broaden(ed) my perspective and focus in ways that have been significant to my development” inspiring our “commitment(s) to seek and sustain tenure-track position(s) in higher education.” Supporting individuals teaching, research, and service aims, we have shared self-study research that includes systematic, “purposeful sharing” and “meaningful conversations” where the “thinking about education” sustains and validates the living of our “best-loved-selves” (Authors13, 2023). Continuous alignment of our shared critical values with classroom practices “broadens our methodological reach” and “expands our visibility.” Finally, Las Chicas Críticas has allowed balanced relationships with our other institutions. Initially, we supported each other “to navigate how institutions of higher education work.” Over time through collaborative “recenter(ing) of our core values” we found a way “not lose myself within the institution.” Shared discernment, grounding, and opportunity from our group’s collaborative intimacy tempered often-conflicting demands within institutions, allowing our group to become the central hub for professional work. Like a river tributary, the Chicas Criticas values knowledge and professional identity, have deepened and broadened as a result of our intimacy.

Significance: The significance of this work’s findings transfers in pragmatic, methodological, and theoretical ways to collaborative research communities, invisible colleges, and beyond.

Authors

• Jane Mcintosh Cooper, University of Houston - Clear Lake

• Leslie M. Gauna, University of Houston - Clear Lake

• Christine Beaudry, Nevada State University