Critical friend
Encyclopedia
Critical friend has its origins in critical pedagogy
education reforms in the 1970s and arose out of the self-appraisal activity which is attributed to Desmond Nuttall . One of the most widely used definitions is from 1993,
Andrew Hutchinson, a public sector consultant, introduced the term to the Local Government Consortium at the University of Warwick
in 1998 and it is cited in several papers produced by Professor Jean Hartley of the Local Government Consortium. The critical friend is characterised as falling between the extremes of the "hostile witness" and the "uncritical lover" whereas earlier texts go so far as to allude to Janus in discussing the concept.
This dichotomy appealed to Hutchinson who frequently used the term while leader of the South East Midlands Citizen's Charter Quality Network run by the Cabinet Office
in Whitehall. In his time running the network he came into regular contact with fellow Lancastrian and Government Minister Peter Kilfoyle
MP, Public Service Minister who was responsible for the running of the networks as minister. When Kilfoyle found himself increasingly distanced from the policy agenda of Prime Minister Tony Blair
and he chose to resign from Government, Hansard
quotes him as saying that he wished to return to the back benches but remain a "critical friend" of the Government.
He was misquoted in the Daily Telegraph as they claimed that he had said that he wished to be a "candid friend" to Government. It is not unreasonable to suppose that the term critical friend has its origins in the softer sounding notion of the candid friend. Nonetheless following the resignation of Peter Kilfoyle The Guardian
newspaper (a popular publication amongst the intelligentsia and public sector middle management) began to popularise the term which is increasingly entering into general usage. The phrase is still most commonly used in education circles but its wider use in the public sector can to a large part be attributed to Andrew Hutchinson and his natural enthusiasm for the concept, being described as 'a natural critical friend acting with positive intent' in 1999 by the then Chief Executive of Coventry City Council, Iain Roxburgh, who is now Director of the Warwick Research Consortium. While a variety of useful and interesting quotations are to be found on the web http://www.criticalfriend.eu perhaps the reason for the popularity of the phrase is best summed up by the following quotation,
Critical pedagogy
Critical pedagogy is a philosophy of education described by Henry Giroux as an "educational movement, guided by passion and principle, to help students develop consciousness of freedom, recognize authoritarian tendencies, and connect knowledge to power and the ability to take constructive...
education reforms in the 1970s and arose out of the self-appraisal activity which is attributed to Desmond Nuttall . One of the most widely used definitions is from 1993,
Andrew Hutchinson, a public sector consultant, introduced the term to the Local Government Consortium at the University of Warwick
University of Warwick
The University of Warwick is a public research university located in Coventry, United Kingdom...
in 1998 and it is cited in several papers produced by Professor Jean Hartley of the Local Government Consortium. The critical friend is characterised as falling between the extremes of the "hostile witness" and the "uncritical lover" whereas earlier texts go so far as to allude to Janus in discussing the concept.
This dichotomy appealed to Hutchinson who frequently used the term while leader of the South East Midlands Citizen's Charter Quality Network run by the Cabinet Office
Cabinet Office
The Cabinet Office is a department of the Government of the United Kingdom responsible for supporting the Prime Minister and Cabinet of the United Kingdom....
in Whitehall. In his time running the network he came into regular contact with fellow Lancastrian and Government Minister Peter Kilfoyle
Peter Kilfoyle
Peter Kilfoyle is a British Labour Party politician who was the Member of Parliament for Liverpool Walton from 1991 to 2010.-Early life:...
MP, Public Service Minister who was responsible for the running of the networks as minister. When Kilfoyle found himself increasingly distanced from the policy agenda of Prime Minister Tony Blair
Tony Blair
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair is a former British Labour Party politician who served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 2 May 1997 to 27 June 2007. He was the Member of Parliament for Sedgefield from 1983 to 2007 and Leader of the Labour Party from 1994 to 2007...
and he chose to resign from Government, Hansard
Hansard
Hansard is the name of the printed transcripts of parliamentary debates in the Westminster system of government. It is named after Thomas Curson Hansard, an early printer and publisher of these transcripts.-Origins:...
quotes him as saying that he wished to return to the back benches but remain a "critical friend" of the Government.
He was misquoted in the Daily Telegraph as they claimed that he had said that he wished to be a "candid friend" to Government. It is not unreasonable to suppose that the term critical friend has its origins in the softer sounding notion of the candid friend. Nonetheless following the resignation of Peter Kilfoyle The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
newspaper (a popular publication amongst the intelligentsia and public sector middle management) began to popularise the term which is increasingly entering into general usage. The phrase is still most commonly used in education circles but its wider use in the public sector can to a large part be attributed to Andrew Hutchinson and his natural enthusiasm for the concept, being described as 'a natural critical friend acting with positive intent' in 1999 by the then Chief Executive of Coventry City Council, Iain Roxburgh, who is now Director of the Warwick Research Consortium. While a variety of useful and interesting quotations are to be found on the web http://www.criticalfriend.eu perhaps the reason for the popularity of the phrase is best summed up by the following quotation,