The two presenters had been interested in the roles that education developers were undertaking today where many occupy marginal or liminal spaces between disciplines and undertook a study with 15 developers who were in five countries. Interviews were undertaken with these developers and these were analysed using grounded theory and oral history.

They discovered there were three key roles. Some felt that when working with what was termed more powerful groups they might undertake a “passing role” which meant they joined the group and changed their role and speech to get things done but they did not want to become assimilated because this was seen as a “sell out” to the group. There was then the intermediary role where most felt they predominantly worked and acted as brokers, translators and mediators. The last role was that of being an advocate and this was used with those who were seen as less powerful as a group and so needed someone to advocate for them.

The presenters agreed this was early research into these roles and would be doing further work on this.