Action learning in John Lewis

A small group of training professionals within the John Lewis Partnership set up an action learning group about 2 years ago. The main aim was to explore the technique for our own learning and development. The timing and lifespan of the group reflected the generally strategic and long-term nature of our projects. One of these was to introduce action learning to a group of operational managers in one of our department stores. Key benefits which arose for this group were: the opportunity to spend time thinking about one aspect of work in a focused way; the learning that arose both about the action learning experience as well as about our projects; the challenge provided by the group, which proved an incentive to move work along quickly; the bonds of trust and support established which have continued after the group ended it's life. We have been able to learn from our own experience and that of the pilot operational managers group to help us expand both the use and the usefulness of action learning for the organization.     

Making facilitation work: the challenges on an international DBA action learning set

This account relates my experiences as facilitator of an action learning set on a DBA cohort comprising international students and myself. It outlines the reasons for my selection as facilitator and describes my initial expectations and assumptions of action learning. I chart the difficulty in separating the ‘what’ of my own research from the ‘how/why’ of the action learning set. The account discusses my experiences as a new facilitator and my attempts to engage fellow students in the set in order to gain a collective benefit. I reflect on the challenges encountered in progressing the action learning set caused by a lack of common understanding within the set of the expectations and potential benefits of an action learning approach, and also the feasibility of maintaining a successful action learning set separated by geography, time zones, and language. The account also discusses the practical, technology-supported approaches to facilitating the action learning set.     

Action learning: nothing so practical as a good theory

Kurt Lewin's epigrammatic paradox is particularly true for action learning. Marquardt and Waddill (2004), and previously Yorks O'Neil and Marsick (1999) have approached the issue of the relationship between theory and action learning by looking at a variety of theories which they have placed in ‘schools’. This provides an interesting analysis, but may be less well fitted to demonstrate the ‘practical’ element in Lewin's statement. While it is interesting for many of us to know that our ideas or our actions can be interpreted and, even better understood, in relation to a school, it is my experience that for many people action is more related to the ideas of a particular individual rather than to a diffuse categorisation such as a school. From this perspective, it is even more bizarre than it first seemed that Reg Revans, otherwise acknowledged by Marquardt and Waddill as their main source about action learning, does not appear in any of the five schools they have created. Moreover, the twenty six names they include in their schools embrace a number of theorists who are really peripheral in terms of the specifics of action learning, whatever their merits as general theorists about learning in total. In this article I look at the potential for understanding about, and implementation of, action learning through the work of the five theorists who I believe to be most significant. Significant because of the content of their theories, and because they are theorists most likely to be known to, and at least partially understood, by facilitators of action learning.     

Action learning dissertations: structure,supervision and examination

In qualification programmes based on action learning, there has hitherto been little articulation of what is particular to research dissertations undertaken in an action learning mode. This article addresses the questions of what such a dissertation entails and how it can be undertaken, supervised and examined. It discusses some of the foundations of action learning research and how accounts of practice may be integrated with reflection. It suggests that an action learning dissertation may be framed around Revans' Systems Alpha, Beta and Gamma as interlocking systems that address the investigation of the problem on which the dissertation is based, its resolution and the learning of the participant. A blueprint is presented that incorporates four elements: (i) the work and organisation and the participant's engagement with it, (ii) the action learning set and what the participant learned through it, (iii) the information and literature which have made a difference to the participant's thinking and (iv) the personal and professional learning of the participant.     

Systemic action and learning in public services

Complex, systemic issues continue to challenge public services without respect for organisational and professional boundaries. In practice, collaborative working with others who have differing professional cultural norms and systems confront members with the need to learn about each other's values, priorities and practices. This paper explores the potential of action learning for the development of systemic leadership capabilities within public services. Starting from core principles it is argued that action learning be seen not simply as a small group process for problem-solving or individual development, but as a collective process for inquiring into and taking action on projects and practices within their complex, multi-agent contexts.     

Three theses on teaching and learning in higher education

In our article, we explore the possibility of formulating theses about teaching as one way to use research as a basis for educational action. The theses are formulated from current educational research on teaching and learning in higher education. We also explore the potential for action and the consequences derived from the theses. With our theses, we criticise less complex ways of using research for educational purposes. Through theses we can suggest directions for action without prescribing certain methods or procedures and provide answers without reducing the teachers' possibilities for choice or diminishing their responsibility for their actions. Our exploration is an invitation to a collaborative exploration of theses on teaching and learning in order to broaden and deepen our shared basis for educational action.     

Incorporating a transformational learning perspective in action learning sets

A field study focused on learning capabilities within action learning sets was used to evaluate potential opportunities between action learning and transformational learning. The use of action learning as a methodology for the acquisition, sharing and transfer of information while integrating an added perspective for transformational learning within the action learning set was investigated. There could be occurrences of transformation within action learning and critical action learning sets. However, there could be the added possibility of using action learning as a potential vehicle for an enhanced or more specific focus on transformational learning. It is useful to explore this potential, especially when there is an increased awareness regarding associations between action learning and transformational learning. Within such learning environments, there could also be the increased potential for outcomes that transform an individual, group or organization. The use of transformational elements based on discussions and resulting themes that occur within action learning sessions are discussed with the aim of encouraging personal development, enhancing skills and engaging in adult learning that could lead to organizational development. Recommendations for these environments are also presented.     

Action learning as invigoration

The present account of action learning describes its adoption for pragmatic reasons by the University of the Third Age (U3A). The reason for the existence of this movement is the education of retired people. The account seeks to explain why the action learning method spread from one local U3A to another and across it to other local U3As. The case is that the directness of action and its power to involve people brought action learning a following among persons so that they could carry out specific activities even though the persons concerned would never have heard of the term action learning. The successful use of the method fed through into the users' minds and brought about a mode of thought, one which unconsciously was capable of extension into an outlook that could be applied to a variety of situations. Thus two types of learning took place: that between U3As and that within U3As.     

Participating in a Collaborative Action Learning Set (CAL): beginning the journey

Action learning is being increasingly utilised as a strategy to underpin practitioner focused development and research projects in healthcare generally and nursing in particular. Whilst facilitators of and participants in action learning have a variety of resource materials to guide their practice and participation, there continue to be few systematic and/or evaluative accounts of the experience of participating in action learning for potential action learning participants to draw upon. This paper attempts to address this agenda. The paper presents an interpretive evaluation of the experience of nurses participating in action learning as the learning strategy underpinning a 3-year emancipatory practice development/practitioner research programme. In particular, the paper focuses on the experience of ‘joining a learning set’. This focus has been adopted as the theory of action learning emphasises the principle of ‘voluntariness’, but yet action learning is increasingly being pre-prescribed as a component of development and research programmes. Such was the case with the programme reported on in this paper. The paper describes an approach used to evaluate learning that was adopted in this programme and in particular the initial evaluation stage that focuses on participants' feelings about joining an action learning set. The data collection and analysis processes are described and the key themes arising from the analysis (‘self-preservation’ versus ‘development of self’) discussed. It is concluded that working with principles of enlightenment is essential to successful action learning and the transformation of workplace cultures.     

Differences and impacts through action learning

Here, we argue that action learning (AL) has been evolving into different variations, whose respective advocates appear to concentrate on one of the several components inherent in Revans’ formulation of AL as L?=?P?+?Q. They do this – sometimes inappropriately – to the virtual or relative exclusion of other aspects, and this has consequences for the outcomes and impact of the AL process. In an attempt to delimit the boundaries between various versions and indeed to identify what Johnson [2010. A framework for the ethical practice of action learning. Action Learning: Research and Practice 7, no. 3: 267–283] called ‘inauthentic’ AL, we have been developing our ideas for a scanning device or framework. We refer briefly to some of the theoretical underpinnings of this framework. We then introduce a fresh taxonomy to explain and illustrate features of five principal variations of emphasis in AL that we have identified. The aim of this framework is to help stakeholders to work towards selecting and co-creating the most appropriate variation of ‘authentic’ AL to suit their unique set of circumstances at any given time. We outline the likely outcomes of each respective variation if taken to extremes and conjecture about their implications. This taxonomy should also help one to reduce the mystique and confusion that often surround AL while acknowledging its complexity. We suggest that by taking advantage of insights provided by this framework, purchasers and potential AL set members in particular are more likely to participate in learning conversations that lead to more informed decisions and actions to address or adjust their respective interests and needs. In conclusion, we identify some areas for further research and development.     

Narratives of learning communities in environmental education

Abstract

This article introduces the core concepts that emerged from five environmental education action research studies conducted by a group called Learning Communities in Environmental Education, Science and Mathematics (CEAMECIM) from the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande (FURG) in the south of Brazil. The studies focus on teacher education processes in learning communities involving teachers, researchers and environmental educators, and the critical writing and reading texts of classroom recordings to problematise participants’ teaching practices. CEAMECIM used action research cycles to examine narratives of educational action, narratives from teachers concerning their development as environmental educators, and narratives of their development of a sense of belonging, with a particular focus on critiquing social models that are based on hierarchies and individuality. From this analysis, we propose a new perspective on being and learning how to become a learning community, crystallised by the belief that ‘we are more when we are together’.     

Action learning set meetings: getting started by ‘checking in’

This account of practice is about starting action learning set meetings. It focuses on a process sometimes known as the ‘check-in’. The paper is based upon the experience of one of the authors (Mark). It raises questions about the contribution of the check-in to an action learning set meeting and whether the checking-in process has a role in extending the ethos of action learning to other social situations. The paper concludes that the check-in serves four main roles: personal contextualisation, helping set members to step out of their professional roles, as an orientation ritual and as a means of enhancing empathy. It also concludes that checking in has a potential contribution to make to other forms of meetings and this contribution may be relevant to the broader action learning community.     

Investigating change in young people's understandings of Japan: A study of learning about a distant place

This article demonstrates how a set of complementary qualitative methods can be used to construct a detailed picture not only of the nature of young people's representations of a distant place but the processes of learning by which such representations develop over the medium term. The analysis is based on an interpretive case study of a class of 13‐ to 14‐year‐olds in England learning about Japan as part of their geography curriculum. The findings identify three processes through which students’ representations of Japan became more detailed and nuanced over time: transfer of existing knowledge from other locational contexts to the distant place; active connection with new information; and processing of that information through categorisation and category refinement. Evidence from the study suggests the potential for learning activities designed to encourage these processes and highlights the need for additional longitudinal research in geography education.     

Increasing the Value of the Environment: A 'real options' metaphor for learning

Academic debate continues about the meaning (or lack of meaning) of the terms 'sustainable development' and 'sustainability', and about the nature of any relationship these might have to education and learning. At the same time there are non-academic forums in which certain ideas about sustainable development (or sustainability) are becoming common currency. These are forums in which, typically, policy or compliance issues compel more or less prompt action of one sort or another. Learning is almost always implicit to some degree in such action. In this article, one widely held idea about sustainable development is critiqued in a constructive way, and an approach to thinking about issues of sustainable development and learning (including formal education) advanced. This approach employs a metaphor for possible human interactions with non-human nature that is derived from the world of financial management.     

Blending Q and P: incorporating action learning in a Master's programme

This paper is based on the experience of incorporating action learning within a Master's degree programme over a period of 14 years. The MA in Leading Innovation and Change was launched in 1995. It was first developed, and subsequently delivered, by a small group of staff working collaboratively across organisational boundaries. It is currently provided by York St John University. The programme attracts, and has always attracted, mature managers and professionals who undertake their studies part time, gaining the qualification over a period of two years. Action learning has been a part of the programme from the outset, with action learning sets a part of every meeting, alongside more traditional ‘P’ elements, such as lectures, seminars and tutorials and other exercises and activities. Records of participant evaluations of the programme over its lifespan indicate that action learning has been a valued part of the process. The paper explores potential difficulties in incorporating action learning into a programme of this nature and suggests four factors that supported its successful incorporation: the culture of the programme, the stability of the participant and tutor group over time, the size and variety of the participant group and the availability of skilled and experienced action learning facilitators.     

Following the action in action learning: towards ethnomethodological studies of (critical) action learning

Action learning is a pedagogical practice that helps participants learn by talking about their workplace action with fellow participants (‘comrades in adversity’) in their action learning set. This paper raises questions about the action in action learning, such as: how do members of an action learning set learn from and through each other? How do they learn through their developing conversation and interaction?

To answer such questions, I argue that, ‘ethnomethodology’ (the study of ‘member's methods’ or ‘folk methods’ for doing any kind of practical action) is useful for showing the intricacy of the practical learning process in action learning, as in learning in action, more generally. The paper illustrates the conversational and interactional work of members doing things and learning together in action (for example discovering things in science and in board meetings); and argues that this approach may also be used to study action learning in practice.     

From silos to solutions: How one district is building a culture of collaboration and learning between school principals and central office leaders

Large urban school districts often struggle with hierarchy, fragmented processes and cultures whereby organisational silos between school and central office staff serve as a major barrier for reaching the desired strategic goals of improving student achievement. In addition, school district staff are undergoing change requiring leaders and staff in these organisations to adapt and build their capacity to support changing demands. However, little attention is paid to how to build the necessary systems and learning environments to support capacity building and leader development. This article reports on an action research study using mixed methods that reveal how central office leaders and school principals break down organisational silos to build a culture of learning using learning organisation principles. Using the Dimensions of the Learning Organization Questionnaire (DLOQ) short form, participants completed questions related to the school district's capacity for learning. Data from the survey and interviews outline key findings that illustrate how the learning organisation framework served as a model to create the organisational conditions and culture to enable support and cooperation for learning, capacity, change and improvement to occur. This action research case study is a look at one organisation's approach to addressing a gap in learning organisation research in the area of learning organisation interventions. In addition, it extends current research on schools as learning organisations with an example of data-informed change in one large school district in the southern United States.     

Practising what we teach: vocational teachers learn to research through applying action learning techniques

Action learning techniques are well suited to the teaching of organisation behaviour students because of their flexibility, inclusiveness, openness, and respect for individuals. They are no less useful as a tool for change for vocational teachers, learning, of necessity, to become researchers. Whereas traditional universities have always had a research culture, new Australian universities, such as the one under study here, have, until recently, concentrated on consulting to industry, and teaching. Faced with strong competition for government research funds to enable its survival and growth, Swinburne University set in place a number of strategies aimed at changing the old consulting culture into a thriving research culture. One such strategy was to hold a colloquium to promote and support teachers' research efforts. A number of iterations of an action learning process took place over a period of time, with each iteration addressing a different research question. The result of academics' engagement with the process of feedback and reflection has been instructive. Unquestionably, the majority of the academics who initially engaged in the ‘learning by doing’ process were encouraged to actively address the problems that beset them, resulting in significant changes in behaviour and a dramatic increase in research output. However, without a commitment to the process that is ongoing, and critical, further interest in research and development as researchers may come to a standstill, predetermining a level of research output that may yet see the School succumb to the internal and external pressures to which it is subject.     

Action learning from a participant's perspective

The overall aim of this paper is to give an account of action learning in practice. It demonstrates the potential strengths and weaknesses of action learning. The information given is derived from five years in an action learning set. Significant events from within and without the action learning set will be explored using the themes clarifying; attending; and disengaging. The subsequent impact of the action learning experience on my professional practice will also be discussed.     

All in a knot of one another's labours: self-determination,network organising and learning

This essay is about how to learn to organise to tackle the intractable and most difficult problems of organisations and societies. It opens with a discussion of the nature of such problems, which are the spur for Revans' action learning and the focus of some recent thinking on leadership. Action learning works on the basis of peer relationships and self-determination lends itself naturally to attempts to organise in networks rather than in hierarchies. Taking cancer care as an example of an intractable problem, the centre point of the essay is a case study of an NHS Cancer Network which shows the complex dependencies and connections of this way of working. Although the recent history of organising has been summed up as a trajectory ‘from hierarchies to networks’, I argue that our capabilities with the intractable and wicked problems are limited by our dependence upon hierarchical models of organising and also by management practices that are best suited to ‘tame’ problems and a management education tradition that produces ‘subalterns’ rather than self-determining actors. These points are made via an excursion through three philosophies of freedom: post-colonialism, anarchism and Quakerism. These ideas reveal the cultural legacies to be overcome in the quest to learn how to organise with free actors. The triple practices of action learning, distributed leadership and network organising are offered as being part of the solution.