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Small Group Research
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Us and Them

Conflict, Collaboration, and the Discursive Negotiation of Multishareholder Roles in School District Reform

Jesse Gillispie

University of California, Santa Barbara

Janet H. Chrispeels

University of California, San Diego

This article explores the conflict that emerged during the work of university researchers, education consultants, and district multishareholder teams engaged in a partnership for school reform. The authors draw on analysis of naturally occurring talk and other data collected over 2 years to explore the presence of conflict between a multishareholder team and a group of consultants during a 4-day learning lab. Investigation shows how discursive practices produce, reproduce, and transform the group over time, ultimately leading to the collaboration necessary for implementation of the reform plan. The authors elaborate on two main discursive practices: (a) the juxtaposing and problematizing of behavior, positioning participants' group membership in relation to the speaker, and (b) the use of certain pronouns. Analysis informs educational leaders working in multishareholder teams by illustrating discursive practices that might facilitate and hinder collaboration among different shareholders.

Key Words: collaboration • analysis of discourse • management teams • educational change • conflict

Small Group Research, Vol. 39, No. 4, 397-437 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1046496408319877
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