Working collaboratively: reflecting on unexpected outcomes

As collaborative researchers and writers we sought a means to support critical reflection on our practice. We drew on broadly ethnographic methods when gathering data, and adapted a model we had used elsewhere (Hurford and Read, 2010) as a tool to support reflection. We wanted to find out if the model was adaptable to and useful in a new context. We found that the model facilitated the identification of, for example, tacit assumptions about ‘good practice’ to a certain extent. However, we remain mindful that the model we applied to our practice was one we devised and adapted ourselves. This raises questions for those engaged in developing strategies to evaluate aspects of practice which are seen as difficult to measure, particularly where the practice evaluated is their own.