While collaboration is common in qualitative inquiry, few studies examine the collaborative process in detail. In our study, we adopt an interpretive, reflexive stance to explore our process as a collaborative qualitative research team. We analyzed transcripts of eight research meetings for aspects and assumptions underlying our collaboration. Three overarching aspects of our process emerged from the analysis: position-taking, meaning making, and producing. We adopt a learning stance in our work together and make meaning through an iterative, dialogic process that foregrounds and backgrounds key elements of the research process. While some scholars have questioned whether truly collaborative research ever occurs among peers, we illustrate through our findings what such a process can look like.
Anfara, V., Brown, K.M., & Mangione, T.L. (2002). Qualitative analysis on stage: Making the research process more public. Educational Researcher, 31(7), 28-38.
2.
Arcidiacono, F. ( 2007). Studying the practice of cooperation and collaboration within an international research project on the everyday lives of families . Integrative Psychological Behavior, 41, 139-153.
3.
Austin, A.E. ( 2001). Reviewing the literature on scholarly collaboration: How we can understand collaboration among academic couples. In E. G. Creamer (Ed.), Working equal: Collaboration among academic couples (pp. 130-145). New York: Routledge/ Falmer.
4.
Barker, H.B. ( 2004). Teachers and the reform of elementary science: Stories of conversation and personal process. Greenwich, CT: Information Age.
5.
Barry, C.A., Britten, N., Barber, N., Bradley, C., & Stevenson, F. ( 1999). Using reflexivity to optimize teamwork in qualitative research. Qualitative Health Research, 9(1), 26-44.
6.
Bray, J.N., Lee, J., Smith, L.L., & Yorks, L. ( 2000). Collaborative inquiry in practice: Action, reflection and meaning-making. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
7.
Bryan, L., Negretti, M., Christensen, F.B., & Stokes, S. ( 2002). Processing the process: One research team’s experience of a collaborative research project. Contemporary Family Therapy , 24, 333-353.
8.
Bruce, C.D. ( 2007). Questions arising about emergence, empirical materials collection, and its interaction with analysis in a grounded theory study. Journal of Qualitative Methods, 6(1). Retrieved March 29, 2009, from http://www.ualberta.ca/~iiqm/backissues/6_1/bruce.pdf
9.
Creamer, E.G. ( 2004). Collaborators’ attitudes about differences of opinions . Journal of Higher Education, 75, 556-571.
10.
Davies, B., & Harre, R. ( 1990). Positioning: The discursive construction of selves. Journal for the Theory of Social Behavior, 20, 43-63.
11.
Denzin, N., & Lincoln, Y. ( 2005). The Sage handbook of qualitative research (3rd ed.). Thousand Oakes, CA: Sage.
12.
Entes, J. ( 1994). The right to write a co-authored manuscript. In S. B. Reagan, T. Fox, & D. Bleich (Eds.), Writing with: New directions in collaborative teaching, learning, and research (pp. 47-59). Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
13.
John-Steiner, V. ( 2000). Creative collaboration. New York: Oxford University Press.
14.
John-Steiner, V., Weber, R.J., & Minnis, M. ( 1998). The challenge of studying collaboration. American Education Research Journal, 35, 773-783.
15.
Kochan, F., & Mullen, C. ( 2003). Experiencing collaboration in higher education: A female perspective. Teacher Education, 14, 153-167.
16.
Lave, J., & Wenger, E. ( 1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation . New York: Cambridge University Press.
17.
Lingard, L., Schryer, C.F., Spafford, M.M., & Campbell, S.L. (2007). Negotiating the politics of identity in an interdisciplinary research team. Qualitative Research, 7, 501-519.
18.
Morrison, P.S., Dobbie, G., & McDonald, F.J. (2003). Research collaboration among university scientists. Higher Education Research & Development, 22, 275-296.
19.
Pontecorvo, C. ( 2007). On the conditions for generative collaboration: Learning through collaborative research. Integrative Psychology and Behaviorial Science, 41, 178-186.
20.
Ritchie, S.M., & Rigano, D.L. ( 2007). Solidarity through collaborative research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 20, 129-150.
21.
Rogers-Dillon, R.H. ( 2005). Hierarchical qualitative research teams: Refining the methodology. Qualitative Research, 5, 437-454.
22.
Sullivan, P.A. ( 1994). Revising the myth of the independent scholar. In S. B. Reagan, T. Fox, & D. Bleich (Eds.), Writing with: New directions in collaborative teaching, learning, and research (pp. 11-29). Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
23.
Wenger, E. ( 1998). Communities of practice: Learning, meaning, and identity . New York: Cambridge University Press.
24.
Woods, P., Boyle, M., Jeffrey, B., & Troman, G. ( 2000). A research team in ethnography. Qualitative Studies in Education, 13(1), 85-98.
25.
Woodside, M., Ziegler, M., & Paulus, T.M. ( 2009). Understanding school counselor internships from a communities of practice framework. Counselor Education and Development , 49(1), 20-38.
26.
Wray, K.B. ( 2002). The epistemic significance of qualitative research. Philosophy of Science, 69, 150-168.
27.
Zittoun, T., Baucal, A., Cornish, F., & Gillespie, A. ( 2007). Collaborative research, knowledge and emergency. Integrative Psychology and Behaviorial Science, 41, 208-217.
