Social impact of participatory health research: collaborative non-linear processes of knowledge mobilization

Social impact, defined as an effect on society, culture, quality of life, community services, or public policy beyond academia, is widely considered as a relevant requirement for scientific research, especially in the field of health care. Traditionally, in health research, the process of knowledge transfer is rather linear and one-sided and has not recognized and integrated the expertise of practitioners and those who use services. This can lead to discrimination or disqualification of knowledge and epistemic injustice. Epistemic injustice is a situation wherein certain kinds of knowers and knowledge are not taken seriously into account to define a situation. The purpose of our article is to explore how health researchers can achieve social impact for a wide audience, involving them in a non-linear process of joint learning on urgent problems recognized by the various stakeholders in public health. In participatory health research impact is not preordained by one group of stakeholders, but the result of a process of reflection and dialog with multiple stakeholders on what counts as valuable outcomes. This knowledge mobilization and winding pathway embarked upon during such research have the potential for impact along the way as opposed to the expectation that impact will occur merely at the end of a research project. We will discuss and illustrate the merits of taking a negotiated, discursive and flexible pathway in the area of community-based health promotion.     

How a verbatim drama based on the lived experience of women casual academics in Australia resonated with its audience and transformed a narrative inquiry into an action research project

This article discusses how a performed drama based on a narrative inquiry into the lived experience of women casual academics in Australian universities is understood by an audience. The audience, principally comprised of casual and ongoing academics, described the drama as authentic and personally recognised many of the main scenarios and preoccupations re-presented. In particular, they identified that the drama’s re-presentation of casual academics’ feelings of insecurity, precarious collegial relationships, and a lack of belonging and voice strongly resonated with them. The presentation also provoked them to communicate their own lived experiences of academia, which constituted a second set of narrative data. Moreover, when the audience was invited to engage with and respond to performed data they became active and collaborative participants in the research project by sharing personal insights and narratives which extended the scope and depth of the initial research project. Therefore, a public re-presentation of narrative research can transform narrative inquiry research into an action research project if the researcher adjusts her/his research approach and accepts that the audience narrative response can function as a second phase of data gathering. Adjusting to the emergent generation of data in turn further democratises research processes and relationships.     

Individual,co‐operative and collaborative data use: A conceptual and empirical exploration

In recent decades, the belief has originated that data use contributes to more thought‐out decisions in schools. The literature has suggested that fruitful data use is often the result of interactions among team members. However, up until now, most of the available research on data use has used ‘collaboration’ as an umbrella concept to describe very different types of interaction, without specifying the nature of collaboration or the degree of interdependency that takes place in interactions. Therefore, the current study investigates and describes Flemish teachers’ individual, co‐operative and collaborative data use. In doing so, the level of interdependency of teachers’ interactive activities (storytelling, helping, sharing, joint work) is taken into account. The results of a qualitative study with semi‐structured interviews show that teachers’ data use is predominantly of an individual nature and that felt interdependencies among teachers are few. The study enhances knowledge and opens the conceptual debate about teachers’ interactions in the context of data use.     

Turning to case studies as a mechanism for learning in action learning

Case studies are a useful means of capturing and sharing experiential knowledge by allowing researchers to explore the social, organisational and political contexts of a specific case. Although accounts of action learning are often reported using a case study approach, it is not common to see individual case studies being used as a learning practice within action learning sets. Drawing on a network action learning (NAL) project, this paper explores how the process of coaching, articulating, authoring, sharing and editing case studies provided a vehicle for learning and research within a NAL set. The intended contribution of this paper to the theory of action learning is to extend the range of learning practices to include the case study within the NAL set. It discusses how case studies act as boundary objects, which are artefacts that can be used to cross boundaries between groups in order to facilitate learning that might not otherwise occur.     

Can an educational intervention,specifically Theatre in Education,influence students’ perceptions of and attitudes to cultural and religious diversity? A socio‐educational research

Contemporary thinking seems to be particularly interested in the investigation of the role of culture in socio‐political life. This article presents aspects of a research project, undertaken in Greece, looking into whether a cultural product can foster intercultural communication and influence young people’s perceptions of and attitudes to cultural and religious diversity. Such cultural products are the Theatre in Education (TiE) programmes, which focus on the use of the art of theatre as a means of educational intervention. For the purposes of our research a specially designed TiE programme was used as a means of intervention and as a research tool. Our research examines secondary education students’ perceptions of and attitudes to cultural and religious diversity prior to and following the intervention in Thessaloniki and in Thrace, Greece. This cultural intervention, which incorporates art and religion, offers new insights into the possibility of the use of TiE for the religious education of young people.     

微博的后现代主义文化特征

微博是一种可以即时发布信息的系统。微博除了自身“微”之特点外,在后现代主义文化发展之下,它还具有一系列其他特征：主体中心主义消解、艺术的游戏、行动阐释意义等。作为一种新兴的文化现象,它所带来的影响也是双方面的。     

Translation of EST-A Constructivist Perspective

In light of the main characteristics of EST texts, this paper uses the constructivism translatology to guide the translation of EST into Chinese. Regarding EST translation as a communication in the field of science and technology, the author adopts the three constructivism translation criteria to evaluate the translation, and draws to the conclusion that constructivist the three constructivist translation criteria could guide effectively the translation of EST.     

人民调解与诉讼程序衔接机制探究

由于社会主流意识将诉讼手段推崇至解决纠纷的第一乃至唯一手段,加之立法滞后、自身效力薄弱,人民调解制度在我国纠纷解决体系中日渐萎缩。但“诉讼爆炸”、诉讼迟延、诉讼成本高昂现象的出现,又使社会意识重新转向重视多元化纠纷解决机制的建立和完善。人民调解在很大程度上能弥补诉讼自身的弊端,形成功能互补、程序衔接、良性互动、彼此支持的有效机制。我国上海等地的司法实践,为探索人民调解与诉讼程序有效衔接机制提供了实证考察的标本。     

The Consortium and the Commissioner: A Grass Roots Tale of Fighting High Stakes Graduation Testing in New York

The following paper provides a case study of the resistance of the New York Performance Standards Consortium to the state’s unitary high stakes testing policy from 1998 to 2006. After detailing the history of the grass roots actions undertaken by the group of alternative high schools called ‘The Consortium’, the analysis seeks to apply sociological and philosophical theory of, among others, John Rawls and Charles Willie to explain: (1) the success of the subdominant people of power in fighting the implementation of the battery of high stakes graduation tests; and (2) the failures of the dominant state authority to uniformly enforce its policy, with particular regard to the decisions of New York’s Commissioner of Education. Implications of the case are then discussed to place this little known educational struggle in a broader social, political and historical context.

“行动中反思”的实践认识论评述及其对教师发展的意义

针对实证主义认识论所造成的理论与实践、研究者与实践者相分离的状况,舍恩在《反思性实践者》一书中提出"行动中反思"的实践认识论,描述了知行合一的反思性实践者的形象。本文对其理论渊源进行了梳理,并通过对其在教育界的反响进行评述,探讨了舍恩的实践认识论对于教师专业发展的意义。指出这一理论框架为揭示教师的缄默知识和实践性知识、帮助教师进行专业自主发展以及探索教师的知行合一等问题提供了有力的支持。