New understandings of communities and ourselves: community-based participatory research with Alaska Native and Lower 48 youth

In the summer of 2014, students from universities in the contiguous United States (Lower 48) and Inupiat youth from Alaska carried out a pilot project as participants/co-researchers in a process called Intergenerational Dialog, Exchange, and Action (IDEA). This action-oriented, community-based, and participatory research method was first developed in 2008, as a platform for structuring dialog between adults, Elders and youth within a community, and for extending resonant ideas emerging from these discussions through Photovoice and digital storytelling amongst youth participants. This pilot study was designed to investigate the feasibility and potential of university students from the Lower 48 and Indigenous youth from Alaska to carry out the IDEA process together as co-researchers. The results of the pilot suggest that it is both possible and meaningful for IDEA to be conducted by a team of youth co-researchers. We found that participation in IDEA expanded the perspectives of youth co-researchers from both Alaska and the Lower 48 in parallel, yet different ways. Exploring the strengths of older community members, being exposed to different ways of living and being, and having opportunities to reflect on and build narratives around these ideas, allowed all the co-researchers to develop a new understanding of their own communities and their roles and responsibilities within them. This paper shares youth co-researcher reflections of the process and the ways in which the process prompted these new perspectives about themselves, their respective communities and their roles within them.     

What builds student capacity in an alternative high school setting?

Good mental health is a learning enabler for adolescents, demonstrating a reciprocal relationship between mental health and learning outcomes. This article describes a Canadian participatory action research partnership between students, staff and a nurse researcher working together to explore student capacity-building experiences at an alternative high school. Fourteen themes including the importance of supportive healthy relationships within the school environment demonstrated what was happening that built capacity in students. We found that when students’ voices were nurtured and they participated in school decision-making processes, a sense of capability resulted; often extending into long-term positive effects. Research outcomes were shared with key decision-makers including the Board of Education Trustees.     

‘Designing the plane while flying it’: concept co-construction in a collaborative action research project

In the field of collaborative action research (CAR), the quality of the collaborative partnerships between university researchers and practitioners has received much attention. Most accounts focus on three areas: the question how to organise and optimise the encounter of these ‘worlds’ of scientific and practical reasoning; the professional development and emancipation of practitioners; and the enhancement of the practical utility of a CAR-project. In this article, we look at CAR projects from a different angle and explore the question how theoretical concepts are co-constructed in CAR-projects, thereby acquiring both practical as well as scientific relevance. We have focused on the participatory process of conceptualization during a CAR project in primary education, in order to find out how a key concept in the considered project is co-constructed and operationalized in multidisciplinary communities of practices. Both the theoretical validity of the concept is evaluated as well as the validity of collaboration. An ‘hourglass’ model is introduced for analysing participation in CAR projects, holding a more relational and dialogic interpretation of participation than the ‘Participation Ladder’ model. Furthermore, a heuristic approach to conceptualization in CAR projects is proposed.     

Beyond the Mission Statement: Alternative Futures for Today's Universities

ABSTRACT

Many post-secondary institutions utilize the mission statement as the key tool for positioning and marketing their strategic direction. Unfortunately, most mission statements found in higher education are far too simplistic and general to give substance and direction to differentiation and positioning of universities. This paper presents findings from a three-month participatory action research process at a large urban Canadian university seeking to establish a marketing mind set. Five possible futures reflecting the range of thinking regarding the role of universities emerged from the research process. Each alternative represents separate and different possible directions, the implications of which become more evident by contrast.     

构建基于对话的研究共同体:教师专业成长的可靠路径

新一轮基础教育课程改革的启动,愈加凸显了教师专业成长问题.研究表明,教师参与教育行动研究将有力促进教师自身综合素质的提升;而教师与专业研究者合作,构建基于对话的研究共同体,是教师逐步发展和提高自身实践研究能力的可靠路径.