How Was It for You?: the dialogue between researcher and colearner

Abstract

Detailed enquiry into the learning process requires in‐depth case studies of individual learners, which involves the ‘subjects’ in considerable time commitments, and the risk of exposing their personal limitations as learners. Case studies into learning can be informative for the researcher, but could also be threatening to the researched. The present article considers a research project where a key principle was that the ‘research subjects’ should feel that they were benefiting from being involved in the research. The students who committed time to the project were considered to be colearners. The core of the article is a dialogue constructed around one colearner's comments, as a narrative device to illustrate the frustrations and rewards of being the ‘subject’ of the research process. The extent to which the composed text can be considered to represent the authentic voice of the colearner is discussed.