Using working agreements in participatory action research: working through moral problems with Malaysian students

In this paper we propose that taking time before the work begins to develop agreements about how to work together in participatory action research enables researchers to directly address several ethical issues that can be problematic in this type of research: gaining fully informed consent; in-group confidentiality; cultural misconceptions; and protecting participants from risky self-disclosures. We begin by discussing some of these ethical challenges that can arise in participatory work, especially with young people. We argue that these issues are magnified and politicised in certain politico-cultural settings, and therefore are all the more important when working cross-culturally. Drawing on the findings of the lead writer’s doctoral thesis, which sought to find a more relevant way of teaching moral education in a Malaysian setting by including the voices of young people, we show how participants responded to attempts to address these issues by creating a safe space in which to discuss sensitive topics through the use of a working agreement. Responses indicate that when such an agreement was in place, the young people in this Malaysian study experienced a greater sense of safety, greater encouragement to participate, and were more confident in their ability to solve ethical problems than in situations where there was no working agreement. Furthermore, the agreement enabled the researcher to be more aware of, and responsive to, the cultural context of the participants.     

管窥英国专业博士学位教育

首先分析了英国专业博士学位教育发展的特点,然后从招生要求、课程设置、培养模式和评估等四个方面论述英国专业博士学位的总体要求,随后对英国五种主要的专业博士学位进行了简要介绍,最后提出了对中国发展专业博士学位教育的借鉴意义。     

Teacher researchers in action research in a heavily centralized education system

Action research is characterized by a new paradigm of empowering teachers to monitor their own practices in a more autonomous manner with a vision of challenging and improving their own techniques of teaching through their own participatory research. Yet in spite of this apparently radical shift in the function of the teacher from the constant consumer of scientific theories to a researcher, as envisioned, the concept of action research as an in-service teacher education strategy has not received due attention in practice. For this reason, the presented case study was undertaken to examine whether the notion of action research by teachers was a viable option for in-service teacher development in a highly centralized education system. More specifically, this paper sought to answer whether teachers have any vision of what they can achieve with action research, whether there is scepticism on the part of teachers about the effectiveness and feasibility of action research as practice-based undertaking, and whether there are inherent structural problems that preclude teachers from undertaking such a role. Three English Language Teaching teachers were involved in this action research. The findings indicate that teachers, being capable of carrying out action research, were quite positive about action research and hopeful for overcoming some inadequacies in their educational environment, making it an asset for personal-professional development despite a highly centralized education system.     

Developing an equalities literacy for practitioners working with children,young people and families through action research

ABSTRACT

The Marginalisation and Co-created Education (MaCE) project was developed between the University of Southern Norway, VIA University in Denmark and the University of Cumbria in the UK and funded by Erasmus+. The project aims to co-create proposals to achieve an equitable and socially just education system through participative action research with ‘Early School Leavers’. This paper establishes a conceptual framework called ‘Equalities Literacy’ that evolved from the first action research cycle of the project. The framework is informed by the practice experience and theoretical knowledge of the international and interdisciplinary research team. It is applied to one youth narrative in this paper to illustrate its efficacy in revealing socio-cultural in/equalities. The Equalities Literacy framework is proposed to challenge and inform practice and further research. Further, the ‘Indirect Approach’ is introduced and located within action research as a participatory methodology that other researchers may wish to adopt.     

Developing critical understanding by teaching action research to undergraduate psychology students

Action research assumes the active engagement of the stakeholders, such as the community, in the research, and a multiple‐level process of reflection in order to evaluate and monitor the actions taken. This makes action research a suitable methodology to increase the critical understanding of the participants. In this paper we describe the challenge of teaching action research within the context of an undergraduate community health psychology module. The module was designed using principles from transformative learning, critical pedagogy and action learning. The module took place over one semester; and 15 students (13 females, two males) took part in it. We discuss the background to the module development and the alignment of the learning objectives with the teaching and assessment methods, and reflect upon the students’ experiences in the module and the learning outcomes. We conclude by addressing the major challenges involved in teaching action research to increase critical understanding: the ability to engage in deep learning of undergraduate psychology students; our role and expectations as tutors on the course; and the current higher education system in which action science yet has to find a place.     

The benefits and challenges of enterprise education: results from an action research project in the third grade in Finnish basic education

This article is the result of an action research project conducted in 2014 in a primary school in the city of Vaasa in Finland. The project focused on developing the practice of integrating enterprise education as a part of everyday teaching in Grade Three. The project involved three class teachers, the headmaster and a university researcher. This article focuses on the teachers’ perceptions of the benefits and the challenges of the project. The teachers viewed the project as beneficial to their own professional development as well as to the students’ learning. The process, however, also revealed several challenges associated with applying enterprise education in Grade Three, such as time or different personalities. Based on the experiences from this particular project, the article broadens the understanding of how enterprise education can be realised in Grade Three, as well as its benefits and challenges.     

Assessment in higher education in the professions: action research as an authentic assessment task

The argument of this article is that assessment in higher education in the professions can benefit from quality assessment tasks linked to professional practice. Such an assessment task would need to be authentic requiring considerable intellectual skill as well as attending to the realities of professional demands. The idea of authentic assessment is developed by using five of Boud et al.'s propositions in higher educational assessment. This idea is illustrated by the use of action research in a teaching internship, that is, data driven learning in the workplace which also serves as an assessment task in the final year of a professional Bachelor degree. Some difficulties and some illustrative, positive student reactions are presented.     

Learning about democracy at school: an action research project in early childhood education

This article examines part of an action research project carried out in a Spanish public school. We explain the complex reality of an early childhood education classroom. Focusing on early childhood education, the project was developed in collaboration with a teacher from one of the classrooms of four year olds. Several of the children in the class have serious behaviour problems. The teacher (Lucía) is very concerned because they take their anger and frustration out on objects, classmates and adults by hitting them. She has a lot of difficulty working with these problem children. This research work deals with transforming the practices of the researcher, the pupils and the teacher. One of the first critical challenges was to turn classroom discussions into opportunities for addressing the injustices that the children experience daily. Teaching should serve to empower children. Programmed classroom discussions can be a place where pupils are given the chance to speak out about conflicts, and where important decisions are made to address them.     

Participatory action research as pedagogy: investigating social and ecological justice learning within a teacher education program

A research collective comprised of teacher candidates, graduate students, and faculty set out to investigate the role and impact of social and ecological justice learning in a teacher education program. Amidst the tensions, negotiations, and articulations of the research design, the collective came to recognize the spaces of participatory action research as sites of growth and efficacy toward justice learning. And, each began to perceive themselves as both impacted by educational structures and as agents enacting their own visions of professional practice. These outcomes are discussed in the context of the growing body of participatory action research, emphasizing the dynamic learning precipitated within the intersections of the research collective. The empirical analysis, involving survey and interview data, brought to bear the rarity of events participants (teacher candidates) recognized as invoking meaningful social and ecological justice learning, and goes some way to describe such learning in terms of embodied experience. The paper closes with a selection of testimonials provided by members of the research collective, offering personal accounts of what was gained through participating in the research process.     

Educational action research to initiate discourse on inclusion in an e-learning environment in teacher education

This paper reports on a fragment from an educational action research in a teacher education setting, ascertaining the possibilities of using the online environment of google.doc for initiating pre-service teachers’ discourse about the nature of inclusive relationships between individuals and the environment, and the ways of their enhancement. The method of discourse analysis applied to the generated data demonstrates contradictory evidence as regards the effectiveness of the chosen medium for discourse in terms of the participants’ involvement. However, content analysis of the generated discourse yields a system of 15 approaches that pre-service teachers use for communicating about the nature of and prerequisites for inclusive relationships as well as for contemplating the role of education in enhancing them. We suggest that teacher educators can apply these approaches as a framework for exploring the frames of reference that future teachers use in making sense of the phenomenon of inclusion. The identified approaches can help to identify the paths to be pursued to develop these frames, on the grounds of an assumption that a balance can be found between the cognitive, affective, experiential and action orientations.     

Human rights education and the research process: action research as a tool for reflection and change

Human rights education (HRE) aims to achieve a change of mindsets and social attitudes that entails the construction of a culture of respect towards those values it teaches. Although HRE is a recent field of study, its consolidation in Latin America is a fact. During the latest decades several authors have carried out research related to HRE that has made it easier to understand the process of inclusion of HRE in public policies as well as reflection about research processes as a whole. They favour a discussion about the most frequently used strategies and tools, how the latter contribute to strengthen the production of knowledge in HRE, and to what extent there is an actual interrelation between theory and practice. This research article intends to show the state of these questions in HRE, building on the research and studies carried out in Latin America during the last 10 years. At the same time, the article aims to discuss the importance of action research for HRE, understanding its potential as a tool for reflection and change. In general terms, this research article concludes that the studies on HRE rely more on field research and experience report than on action research methodology. The article is concluded noting an important and current challenge for HRE: a more frequent use of participatory action research in human rights-related work, so the knowing-understanding and applying fields can be constructed.     

Transformative change in higher education through participatory action research: a capabilities analysis

As a methodological approach, participatory action research (PAR), and its variant of critical action research in education, aims to further social justice and generate transformative change. Although this understanding of PAR is well rehearsed, there is still a gap in detailed explorations of the transformative impact of PAR projects in higher education settings beyond the classroom: how do we then know whether transformative change through PAR has taken place, in which ways, through which processes, and for whom. This article aims to address these questions through proposing the use of a participatory action research cube (PARC) as a human capabilities evaluative framework for personal and structural transformative change enabled by PAR projects. Evaluating transformative change from this perspective rests on both the normative nature of the capabilities approach in its justice concerns, as well as consideration for individual well-being, understood as the expansion of freedoms people have to live the lives they value. Evaluating change both includes personal well-being as well as broader social or structural impact in the direction of more social justice. To demonstrate this empirically, we report on an eight-month PAR project on one rural South African university campus, where 13 undergraduate students were involved in researching gender inequalities on their campus. The PARC analysis highlights the development of capabilities and agency through axes of participation, knowledge development, and public deliberation, as well as identifying the developmental impact of these axes on transformative change for the participants, as well as the university.     

Literature review on the use of action research in higher education

This literature review considers the use of action research in higher education. The review specifically looks at two areas of higher education activity. The first concerns academic teaching practice and includes a discussion of research and pedagogy practice, and staff development. The second considers student engagement. In both of these core features of higher education, action research has proven to be a central approach to the investigation, reflection and improvement of practice. Each of these main foci includes a discussion of the limitations of the literature. The review illustrates the extent and range of uses to have benefited from an action research approach.     

Benchlearning – an action research program for transforming leadership and school practices

ABSTRACT

In this paper, we investigate how a Benchlearning program for principals in Norway and Sweden supports changes in Norwegian principals’ leadership practices. The program design builds on principles for practical action research. The aim of the program was to inspire changes in the principals’ leadership practices that encourage innovative school practices. The program includes learning modes such as theoretical inputs, sharing experiences, school visits, training, and trialling of new leadership practices. Drawing on data from participants’ reflections on their learning and changes in their leadership practices, we identify transformations that have been realized and the ways in which the Benchlearning program has supported the transformations. The findings indicate that the program can be seen as a systematic and disciplined process, a ‘meta-practice’, that supports changes in the principals’ leadership practices, their understandings, and the conditions of their practice. More specifically, the findings show that the theoretical inputs and practical learning modes stimulated transformations of the principals’ thinking about leadership practices, what they do in practice and how they relate to others. In particular, the study suggests that the principals’ active participation in trialling new leadership practices in their own schools stimulated transformations.     

The student voice in well-being: a case study of participatory action research in positive education

Positive education blends academic learning and student well-being. Although research and application in positive education is growing, most has involved psychologists and educators applying strategies in schools, with little research that involves student voices in the development and implementation of a school’s positive education strategy. Assumptions are frequently made about what is best for student well-being, with little input from the students themselves. This paper describes a case study of participatory action research (PAR) carried out by students (N = 10) at a publically funded Australian school aiming to implement positive education. PAR is a form of collective inquiry undertaken by the people that the issue directly affects. The PAR group researched the school community regarding well-being during the school year. Mixed methods examined PAR student’s well-being, self-efficacy, autonomy, social and emotional assets, and other competencies before and after the process. Student involvement allowed the school to better understand their students’ well-being, and student-led communication about positive education laid the groundwork for its implementation. Results suggested benefits for the PAR students, particularly in engagement and self-efficacy. This realistically scaled study suggests that involving students using a framework of PAR is a promising, accessible, evidence-based, and developmentally beneficial approach to the implementation of positive education.     

Using images to promote reflection: an action research study in Zambia and Tanzania

This paper focuses on the use of images to promote reflection and analysis of inclusive practices. The image-based work was set in the context of a two-year action research study, which took place in Tanzania and Zambia, 2001–2003, in collaboration with researchers from the Enabling Education Network (EENET), based at the University of Manchester's School of Education. This study, entitled, 'Understanding Community Initiatives to Improve Access to Education' involved the use of a wide range of processes to promote reflection, analysis and documentation, including a range of different types of images. We reflect here on the learning, which took place among the researchers in all three countries in using images as a basis for reflection on inclusive education.     

Bridging theory and practice in Norwegian teacher education through action research

Handling the relationship between theory and practice is seemingly an endless challenge in Norwegian teacher education, and bridging theory and practice is highlighted whenever discussions about improvement of teacher education are raised. This article contributes to this discussion by shedding new light on the relationship through an analysis of empirical findings recorded in a subject-oriented action research project. The project was conducted as part of the subject Religion, Philosophies of life and Ethics integrated into teacher education at the University of Stavanger in 2008/09, and its name was ‘Teaching about Religious Diversity in School – Applying and Developing an Interpretive Cultural Approach to Religious Education’. As the name indicates, the project has tried out a particular approach to religious education. The tryout has been done by a community of practice. In this article I am asking whether findings from the project are pointing towards pedagogical approaches possible to categorize on a meta-level, and in which way these detected approaches shed new light upon the relationship between theory and practice in teacher education.     

Reviewing work-based learning opportunities in the community for physiotherapy students: an action research study

Physiotherapy became a graduate profession in the 1990s marking a shift from ‘training’ to ‘education’. This means students are required to develop as reflective, innovative and autonomous practitioners. Traditional work-based learning has remained a key component in the curricula of physiotherapy programmes in higher education. This is delivered by qualified physiotherapists who take on the role of ‘practice educator’ with responsibility for teaching, supervision and assessment. The teaching and learning strategies of the university and work-based components of physiotherapy curricula are aligned. Concomitantly the delivery of physiotherapy services have become increasingly diverse and the wider health and social care context has changed. In response to these challenges the Chartered Society of Physiotherapy (2006) published guidance on the development of work-based learning in community and non-traditional settings. This study explored how community-based placements could be developed to ensure work-based learning continues to meet students’ needs. An action research methodology was used because any change to established practice is more successful if it involves the people who are responsible for its implementation. Thematic analysis identified three important considerations in the development of community placements: Skill acquisition within community settings; expectations of the available learning and teaching opportunities; effects of health service improvements. This research has highlighted the importance of consultation between all those responsible for physiotherapy work-based learning. A review framework has subsequently been developed to both facilitate this consultation and evaluate placement opportunities available in a specific community setting.     

The unexpected journey: renewing our commitment to students through educational action research

This article presents four cases of journeys of discovery and renewal, and the unexpected learning that results from exploring our practice with others. The authors are three classroom teachers – Steve, Stephanie and Bennyce – all of whom took part in a year-long action research sequence and the two professors – Helen and Mary – who co-taught these courses. Taking part in this process, whether as teachers or students, we gained new insights into important relationships that are too frequently taken for granted in busy teaching days, and discovered, in doing so, a renewed commitment to both our students and to the power of action research to bring about change