Ethical dilemmas of youth participatory action research in a democratic setting

ABSTRACT

This article discusses ethical issues involved in facilitating the research of young people on controversial issues. This article considers the potential ethical dilemmas of teachers facilitating a particular form of activism – youth participatory action research (YPAR). We consider how teachers foster school-wide conversations on difficult issues and support students who wish to take a critical stand on issues of race, class and gender. The article also discusses how to scaffold the exploration of topics that require emotional maturity and might lead to shifts in beliefs that run counter to the values of one’s family.     

Learning in activity: exploring the methodological potential of action research in activity theorising of social practice

Cultural–historical activity theory (CHAT), founded on the seminal work of Vygotsky and evolving in the subsequent work of Leont’ev and Engeström, continues to emerge as a robust and increasingly widely used conceptual framework for the research and analysis of the complex social mediation of human learning and development. Yet there remains ongoing methodological ambiguity around its use in qualitative research and therefore questions regarding its effectiveness in fulfilling its intrinsic interventionist aspiration. Meta‐level research suggests that the primary methodology theorised for CHAT – Engeström’s development work research that is based on a highly localised developmental ethnography – is not in widespread application in CHAT‐based research. Instead, the majority of research employs an eclectic array of qualitative and quantitative methodologies and uses CHAT more as a heuristic device rather than engaging its more authentic interventionist motive. Given this, it is perhaps surprising there has been limited conceptualising around the prospective relationship between CHAT and action research, which remains largely under‐developed. This paper argues that action research may offer CHAT a legitimate and viable complementary interventionist methodology to investigate the increasingly complex environments of social activity, particularly given escalating expectations of more democratic and participatory modes of research engagement and social learning.     

Technology Integration and the Classroom Learning Environment: Research for Action

This article describes initial results of a collaborative action research endeavor between a regional university and a local school (Grade 6 level) using learning environments research to monitor alignment of classroom learning activities with a constructivist viewpoint while integrating technology into the curriculum. Student perceptions as measured by the Constructivist Learning Environment Survey (CLES) were explored. Teacher logs, teacher interviews, and fieldnotes from team discussion groups and classroom observation provided further understanding of interactions in the classroom. A one-way analysis of variance in which the set of four classroom learning environment variables for the CLES, the set of five variables for each of the CLES-Mathematics and the CLES-Science and time of administration (prior to technology integration and after technology integration) yielded no significant changes in student perceptions of the classroom learning environment over the duration of the academic year. Interpretation of results led teachers to construct a new set of questions and a new plan of action to bring their classroom learning environment into closer alignment with a constructivist perspective for teaching and learning. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

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.     

Learning communities and fair trade in doctorates and development: report of a collaborative project

This article reports the second stage of a study examining an academic partnership in which Bangladeshi doctoral students in a western university focus their research in the grounded context of Bangladesh and investigate the processes for change. After briefly outlining the previous published stage which examined the academic trade in higher education with developing countries, the article builds on the concept of fair academic trade to critically reflect on the development of a doctoral learning community, a publication project and three specific doctoral studies. The methodological approach is one of participatory action research, with focus on critical reflection on practice.     

Participatory Action Research and Critical Race Theory: Fueling Spaces for Nos-otras to Research

Drawing on the intersections of a justice oriented participatory action research and critical race theory, this essay explores the possibilities for research embedded in the theoretical, ethical and methodological overlaps between the two. Using the Echoes project as a case study, a participatory collective of intentionally diverse youth from New York and New Jersey brought together in the long shadow of Brown, to document and perform educational injustice in their schools, the essay asks social scientists what it means to engage research that takes seriously the idea of mutual implication, or what Anzaldúa (Borderlands/La Frontera, The New Mestiza, 1999) calls nos-otras—whereby research is designed to seek knowledge at the nexus of everyday lived experience and intricate social systems; to ask questions that allow individuals to hold multiple, even opposing, identities; to provoke analyses that requires historical re-memory; to destabilize naturalized power hierarchies. Research that calls for socially engaged questions that demand to be answered collectively through research and action.

Power,participation and decision making in the primary classroom: children as action researchers

This article discusses a project focused on children researching their role in decision making in their classrooms and schools, with a view to increasing their involvement. The action research project was carried out by children, their class teachers and university researchers in six Norfolk primary schools from 2004 to 2006. As the project aimed to introduce more participatory approaches to decision making in classrooms, this necessarily had implications for the ways in which adults worked with children as action researchers. The article explores the constraints encountered by both children and teachers in sharing decisions and in carrying out action research, and identifies two dimensions: the teachers’ thinking and action, as well as children’s research and decision making. The teachers struggled with their need to mediate the project aims in the context of the changing nature of their professional role in the current target‐driven school culture.     

教育学研究方法反思：知识论和学习论的视角

教育学的研究方法问题一直是学术界关注的热点。从知识论和学习论视角出发,探讨隐喻现象研究方法和协作式探究方法对教育学的启示,为拓展新的教育学研究方法提供了可能。     

论外语教学行动研究的重要性

This article mainly gives a brief introduction to the general idea of Action Research and the wayshow it can be applied in the foreign languages teaching. A very practical teaching approach can be derived fromthe study of Action Research,and so we can do something better to manage how to teach to learn and how tolearn to teach well in the real situation.     

Developing Food Science Core Competencies in Vietnam: The Role of Experience and Problem Solving in an Industry‐Based Undergraduate Research Course

Although many educators now recognize the value of problem‐based learning and experiential learning, undergraduate‐level food science courses that reflect these pedagogical approaches are still relatively novel, especially in East and Southeast Asia. Leveraging existing partnerships with farmers in Vietnam, a food science course for students at Nong Lam Univ. was designed and taught. The aim was to give students the opportunity to work in small groups and conduct evidence‐based research with farmers, apply food science principles, and develop Success Skills, including the ability to think critically and communicate clearly. Drawing on the experience of 2 student groups, this exploratory study describes what students learned from the process of conducting research. In one group, students learned to work through and resolve the challenge of initial disagreement and misunderstanding with farmers and ultimately carried out a project that aligned with the students’ research interests and farmers’ needs. Another group of students learned to consider the financial limitations of farmers when attempting to develop solutions for problems and ultimately worked with farmers to address a different problem that was less financially taxing. It is important to note the challenges of planning and teaching a course in which instructors are not able to predict exactly what students will learn or experience. This is largely dependent on each student's prior knowledge, experiences, and interests; yet this study demonstrates the transformative potential of teaching a research‐based food science course that gives students authentic opportunities to identify and address real‐world challenges.     

高职高专人力资源管理专业实训教学研究——基于构建主义学习理论

建构主义学习理论主张学生为主体、学生自主建构知识技能的教学理念和教育模式,在高职教育教学改革中越来越受到广泛亲睐,通过以企业调研为载体的人力资源管理专业的实训教学,探索如何把建构主义学习理论更好的融入高职教学中来。