167 The Methodology of Theological Action Research 4 TAR, however, works from a paradigm of transformation rather than from a paradigm that departs from a descriptive-positivistic focus on objectivity. In the former paradigm, the insider can have an advantage. With regard to outsiders, doubts are sometimes expressed about whether they will be able to fully understand what is going on in the religious organisation. Cameron at al. (2010) responded to the objections as follows: TAR tries to make creative use of this tension by building it into the design of the research. The insiders need to build sufficient trust with the outsiders to regard them as partners in the gathering and interpretation of data. The outsiders need to be sufficiently different from the insiders to stimulate reflection that goes beyond current assumptions. The relationships need to be sufficiently robust for each to challenge the other without feeling diminished. (p. 76) To each of the three criteria that Cameron et al. (2010) established in this quotation, the DCU project responded positively. The insider team reached out to the outsiders for help when DCU was lacking the type of (cultural) experience they had with ethnic, social and religious diversity. In this regard, the members of the outsider team differed sufficiently from the members of the insider team. Meanwhile, the differences were not so significant that they rendered the relationships less robust. All of the team members were Christian, trusted each other and were striving towards Christian citizenship formation for a modern, fragmented society. The experiences within the TAR project confirmed the following assumption by Cameron at al. (2010): ‘Genuine curiosity about practice, a desire to understand it theologically and some energy from team members is sufficient to take a TAR project forward’ (p. 87). Special attention was required, however, concerning the project leadership. For insider-led TAR, Cameron et al. (2010) noted the risk that too little attention may be paid to what the outsiders bring to the table. The insider team, therefore, should not avoid any effort in time, logistics and commitment to really include the outsider team (Cameron et al., 2010): We feel that good quality reflection rarely occurs without someone from outside the situation to ask the obvious questions and challenge assumptions. They can also help sharpen up the research question and suggest creative sources of data and methods of gathering it. It also provides the opportunity to work with people from another part of the Christian tradition or to involve theologians in a context that is faith-based but does most of its work in a secular language. (p. 94)
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