‘You Are Just a Teacher’: A Researcher’s Insider Perspectives During a Collaboration with Teachers While Designing and Implementing a Student Renewable Energy Technology Project

Abstract

This paper explores the notion of consultation, collegiality, and cooperation during researcher-teacher collaboration while conducting inside research. Insider researcher is given access more easily to the researched location and its culture compared to an outsider researcher. This is because the researcher normally works at the researched location and this may encounter unforeseen challenges, especially when collaborating with nonresearcher insiders. Moreover, how important decisions, defined as critical incidents, have been treated in the collaboration between an inside researcher and teachers are the scoop of this paper. Identifying potential pitfalls in a researcher-teacher collaboration in technology education are important to be aware of due to future similar collaborations. The collaboration studies in this paper was intended to improve educational practices where students were working on a student project regarding renewable energy technology from sustainable perspectives.

The study was based on design-based research, where a student project about renewable energy technology was developed and implemented in two iterations in collaboration with two colleagues. The empirical material consisted of teacher interviews where both teachers and researcher described and reflected upon the collaboration. This paper has utilised content analysis and focused on critical incidents in the collaboration when decisions and judgments about technology are made, which potentially can influence design-based research, and particularly the researcher-teacher collaboration.

The critical incidents can indicate that the teachers’ perception of the researcher as a researcher varies between outsider researcher and insider researcher or colleague. Factors, such as power relations and honesty, can be influenced, both positively and negatively, during collaboration between teachers and insider researcher due to strong collegiality and trust. Nevertheless, the research results can also indicate that inside research with features of outsideness is generally a positive endeavour but may contain elements of unfortunate episodes that can influence design-based research, the collaboration but also the student project.