Tales from the frontline: The experiences of early childhood practitioners working with an ‘embedded’ research team

In late 2006, SDN Children’s Services, an Australian not-for-profit provider of services for children, families and communities, engaged a research team that was ‘embedded’ within the organisation for 1 year. This action represented a significant investment of resources, such as staff time and organisational funds, and demonstrates SDN’s strong commitment to research and evaluation as a means of supporting organisational learning and development. This paper highlights the innovative nature of the approach by positioning the role of the embedded researcher within the current theoretical and socio-political context. It also provides evidence of the success of the approach by reporting on the findings of a study that investigated staff’s experiences of being involved in this type of collaborative investigation of their work. I argue that the employment of an embedded researcher can have positive benefits both for the organisation and the practitioners—but who the researchers are really matters.