Peer Validation Groups
Ensuring Challenge, validity and Rigour in Research
A Peer Validation Group acts as a circle of critical friends who engage you in dialogue about your claims to knowledge in your research.
They:
- Question your interpretation of your data
- Challenge assumptions and biases
- Ask for evidence that your claims (such as I am living my values in my practice) are grounded in lived experience
This dialogue process enaures that your interpretations are not merely self-justifying but stand up to critical scrutiny - adding rigour through reasoned debate and mutual accountability.
Testing the redibility of Living Contradictions
Living Educational Theory researchers explore living contradictions - moments when their actions do not align with their values. Peer Validation Groups help ensure rigour by:
- Checking whether the identified contradictions are genuinely evidenced in practice
- Helping refine the articulation of values so that they are clearly expressed and observable
This helps to guard against self-deception and strengthens the validity of claims.
Strengthening the Evidence Base
Critical friends in your Peer Validation Group can review data such as:
- Video clips of practice
- Reflective living archive
- Data from students, colleagues, etc.
Their feedback or data as researchers themselves, ensures that evidence is sufficient, relevant, and directly supports the claims. This aligns with what Whitehead and McNiff (2006) describe as, "Communicative validation", where others confirm that they can see what the researcher claims to see.
Ensuring Alignment Between Values, Actions and Explanations
In Living Educational Theory Research, validity depends on showing that oyur explanations of educational influence in learning are consistent with your values.
Peer Validation Groups help to ensure:
- Logical coherence between your espoused values and the way you interpret your actions
- That oyur narrative demonstrates a genuine learning journey, not a retrospective justification
This reflexive accountability enhances the internal rigour of your research.
Collaborative Generation of Living Standards of Judgement
Through dialogue, the Peer Validation Group helps to develop living standards of judegment - criteria grounded in the researcher's values (e.g. care, inclusion, social justice) rather than imposed external standards.
These shared standards provide a rigorous basis for evaluating the quality of your research claims.
In Summary
A Peer Validation Group ensures validity and rigour in Living Educational Theory Research by:
Function Contribution to Validity & Rigour
Dialogic Critique Tests claims through reasoned dialogue
Critical Friendship Reduces bias and increases reflexivity
Evidential Review Checks adequacy & Relevance of data
Value-Action Coherence Confirms alignment between theory & lived practice
Living Standards of Judgement Grounds rigour in the reseracher's own values and educational context
