I would not think in terms of "how positive critical theory fits or
doesn't fit with notions of collaborative research." Rather, I would
relate the idea of what I have been calling positive critical theory
(and not clearly explicating) to the idea of design experiment used
by Alan Collins, Ann Brown, myself. This is, I think, a version of
the Russian practice of conducting formative experiments. When
experimenting by design, the ebodiment of the design is a positive
moment of applying theory to practice, of "rising to the concrete,"
of learning how underspecified your theory is, etc. The critical half
is the analysis of the system into which the designed artifact is to
be inserted, in order to overcome its (supposed) inadequacies. It is
in the interplay of the two moments in the overall process of interacting
with the object that our conjectures are or are not sustained, and
development does/doesnt occur.
Hopefully the last chapter of CP is relevant to this discussion.
mike