Working with Tensions

Enacting Relational Ethics through Situated Moves in Learning-Circle Co-Research

Abstract

Learning circles are an approach to collaborative adult learning. This article explores how learning circles can be adapted as a co-research method attentive to power and care when addressing cross-organizational challenges in elderly care recruitment and retention. We introduce tension zones and a logic of care as sensitizing lines guiding our analysis of ethnographic material on enacting learning circles as co-research. We analyse three empirically-derived ‘situated moves’ by researcher-facilitators: mattering (negotiating what becomes a shared concern), weaving (relating voices, interests and differences across organizational positions), and pacing (tuning rhythm and tempo to resist premature closure and sustain participation). Rather than seeking early alignment, we show how inquiry was kept open through tinkering with agendas, formats and tempo. We suggest that these situated moves offer a way of naming and navigating ethical work by working from within tensions to support knowledge co-production on more balanced terms across organisational divides.