Radical Listening and Dialogue in Educational Research
We seek to trouble the construct of radical listening through an interpretive analysis of our work in a collaborative research project with primary school teachers. At the heart of this project is a focus on researching together with the study participants. During two years, we worked with a group of teachers in a "teacher inquiry group" which sought to shed light on the possibilities of using narrative assessment approaches as an inclusive tool for teaching and learning science. The original goal of the study was to empower teachers to utilize a variety of dialogic assessment tools as tools for learning with their students. Through a guiding focus on radical listening and dialogue, the design of this overall study shifted and changed over time to fit the needs of the different stakeholders, and our focus on narrative assessment approaches also evolved over time. We will use different examples to illustrate the interactions of the teacher inquiry group, and also draw on our own work within our research group to complexify what it means to "listen" learn from, and "dialogue" with the Other.