Action-oriented Research Project Research Articles

Adapted agency: how connected (Dutch) police professionals rework their professional capabilities

Abstract Increasingly, public professionals deal with complex issues, stakeholders, and publics. The so-called protective notions of professionalism no longer seem sufficient; they are reconfigured into more ‘connective’ forms. This involves dealing with tensions, dilemmas, and contradictions, calling for abilities to tackle these. Professionals will have to work on how they work, on their standards, routines, and practices. On the basis of an action-oriented research project, aimed at understanding the rise and results of new forms of police professionalism, we analyze what Dutch police professionals actually do when they perform connective work. We focus on policing, as this field experiences a transition from practice-based to knowledge-intensive forms of professionalism, relating police actions to societal stakeholders and issues. Based on observations of work practices of higher educated police professionals as well as interviews and educational interventions, we conclude that police professionals cannot simply ‘apply’ knowledge and competencies to practice, in order to solve societal problems. Rather, they gradually ‘develop’ capabilities (i.e., situational, analytical, and normative capabilities), in order to combine different forms of professional knowledge in real-life situations. Our research shows this is complicated. They ‘mess with’ how police professionalism ‘normally’ works. Police professionals are adapting their agency; they are performing ‘agency work’. They try to get a sense of the situation, explore multiple viewpoints, and demonstrate their added value. We argue that our conclusions are relevant for other professional fields.

Towards a Reflexive Framework for Fostering Co—Learning and Improvement of Transdisciplinary Collaboration

Scholars in sustainability science as well as research funders increasingly recognize that a shift from disciplinary and interdisciplinary science to transdisciplinary (TD) research is required to address ever more complex sustainability challenges. Evidence shows that addressing real-world societal problems can be best achieved through collaborative research where diverse actors contribute different kinds of knowledge. While the potential benefits of TD research are widely recognized, its implementation remains a challenge. In this article, we develop a framework that supports reflection and co-learning. Our approach fosters monitoring of the collaboration processes, helps to assess the progress made and encourages continuous reflection and improvement of the research processes. The TD co-learning framework has four dimensions and 44 criteria. It is based on a substantial literature review and was tested in a Horizon 2020-funded research project ROBUST, which is applying experimental governance techniques to improve rural-urban relations in eleven European regions. The results demonstrate that the framework covers the key facets of TD collaboration and that all four broad dimensions matter. Each research-practice team reflected on how their collaboration is going and what needs to be improved. Indeed, the coordination team was able to see how well TD collaboration is functioning at a project level. We believe the framework will be valuable for actors involved in the planning and implementation of any type of multi-actor, interactive, innovation, transformation and action-oriented research project.

Enriching project organizations with formal change agents

PurposeProject success requires effective and efficient cooperation between the project organization and the permanent organization in which the project takes place. The purpose of this paper is to discuss potentials and pitfalls from enriching project organizations by appointing peers as formal change agents.Design/methodology/approachThe paper is based on a literature review and a multiple-case study in which six organizations participated in an action-oriented research project. The aim for the organizations was to obtain a better health status among the employees by accomplishing an internal change project that enhanced physical activity at the workplace and in leisure time. Change agents in the form of peer health ambassadors were selected by middle management and hereafter trained by the project representatives.FindingsThe findings suggest that the selection of change agents and middle and top management support are major determinants of success within change projects. To select change agents that the employees respect and can identify with, combined with top management prioritization, is important in order for the project organization to benefit from the additional role.Practical implicationsSelecting the “wrong” change agents can jeopardize a change project, even when the project is supported by top management and the target group members at the starting point are highly motivated to change.Originality/valueThe research contributes to the understanding of project organizing by building theory on how formal peer change agents can enhance project success in change projects.

Making sense of everyday sexism: Young people and the gendered contours of sexism

Synopsis Many feminist scholars have traced the discursive effects of postfeminism with concern, noting how its ascendency has made sexism difficult to name and to challenge. As feminist critiques of persistent, pervasive gender inequalities trickle into media and popular consciousness, we ask whether and how possibilities for identifying and accounting for sexism might be transformed. We draw from an action-oriented research project that explored whether (and how) feminist ideas offered secondary school students critical purchase on their everyday experiences. Participants described copious examples of everyday sexism directed at women and girls but very few instances of “sexism” towards men and boys. Even so, interviewees often spoke about sexism in ways that prioritised boys' and men's experiences while downplaying sexism towards girls and women. In this article we explore how young people made sense of sexism around them, attending to the discursive effects of their talk.

Understanding 'Education for All' in Contexts of Extreme Poverty: Experiences from Burkina Faso

This paper examines the meanings attached to Education for All from the often ignored or misunderstood perspectives of people living in extreme poverty. Allowing people to voice their own understandings of the difficulties they face offers new insights into the essence of the tension between the worlds of reproduction and innovation and the possibilities of achieving harmony between them. Community meanings attached to Education for All were explored by way of a major participatory, action-oriented research project conducted in contexts of poverty in Burkina Faso. The study noted that the experience of poverty and famine influence the value that parents and children attached to formal education, and therefore their interest and ability to engage with it. Community-based education, for example, helped to reproduce knowledge associated with day-to-day living and achieving, at least, a basic livelihood. Formal schooling, on the other hand, was associated with developing new understandings and ambitions, yet also distanced children and young people from local knowledge, social networks and sources of support often needed if the outcomes of school-based education did not lead to improved livelihoods.

Managing performance and learning through reflective practices

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the role of performance management (PM) in the use of reflective work practices. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical evidence was collected during a one-year, action-oriented research project. Findings – According to the results, PM can support the use of reflective work practices by affecting and guiding the human behavior in an organization. In this study, five roles of PM are emphasized in order to support reflective practices at work: making reflective work practices visible, supporting reflective dialogue, creating a favorable measurement culture, clarifying the goals at all organizational levels and motivating employees to use reflective work practices by means of compensation and rewards. Practical implications – The results of the study can help professionals realize that reflective work practices may benefit organizational performance. Originality/value – There is limited research and discussion on how a PM process through the use of reflective practices contributes to human resource management (HRM) and organizational effectiveness. In addition, PM literature has neglected the potential of reflective work practices in achieving performance at different levels (individual, group and organization). Reflective work practices, where individuals learn from their own and from each other’s professional experiences, may be the most important source of professional development and improvement. This paper argues that PM can also support this type of learning, and thus guide and motivate people in attaining business goals.

Ethics, Risk, and Media Intervention: Women's Breast Cancer in Venezuela.

Breast cancer incidence and mortality rates are of concern among Latin American women, mainly due to the growing prevalence of this disease and the lack of compliance to proper breast cancer screening and treatment. Focusing on Venezuelan women and the challenges and barriers that interact with their health communication, this paper looks into issues surrounding women's breast cancer, such as the challenges and barriers to breast cancer care, the relevant ethics and responsibilities, the right to health, breast cancer risk perception and risk communication, and the media interventions that affect Venezuelan women's perceptions and actions pertaining to this disease. In particular, it describes an action-oriented research project in Venezuela that was conducted over a four-year period of collaborative work among researchers, practitioners, NGOs, patients, journalists, and policymakers. The outcomes include positive indications on more effective interactions between physicians and patients, increasing satisfactions about issues of ethical treatment in providing healthcare services, more sufficient and responsible media coverage of breast cancer healthcare services and information, a widely supported declaration for a national response against breast cancer in Venezuela, and the creation of a code of ethics for the Venezuelan NGO that led the expansion of networking in support of women's breast cancer healthcare.

Risk, Activism, and Empowerment: Women's Breast Cancer in Venezuela.

The prevalence of breast cancer in Venezuela is particularly alarming, which is attributed to healthcare inequalities, low health literacy, and lagging compliance with prevention methods (i.e., screening and mammography). While the right to health is acknowledged by the Venezuelan constitution, activism beyond governmental confines is required to increase women's breast cancer awareness and decrease mortality rates. Through the development of social support and strategic communicative methods enacted by healthcare providers, it may be possible to empower women with the tools necessary for breast cancer prevention. This paper discusses issues surrounding women's breast cancer, such as awareness of the disease and its risks, self-advocacy, and the roles of activists, healthcare providers, and society. Specifically, it describes a four-year action-oriented research project developed in Venezuela, which was a collaborative work among researchers, practitioners, NGOs, patients, journalists, and policymakers. The outcomes include higher levels of awareness and interest among community members and organizations to learn and seek more information about women's breast cancer, better understandings of the communicated messages, more media coverage and medical consultations, increasing positive patient treatments, expansion of networking of NGOs, as well as a widely supported declaration for a national response against breast cancer in Venezuela.

Digital Video Cameras, Main Ideas, and Supporting Details: The Process and Potential

Understanding and explaining the relationships between main ideas and supporting details are well-known and necessary processes in transitioning adult learners to college-level literacy abilities (Neufeld, 2005). The use of digital video cameras, which students operate to film each other, offers a dynamic 21st-century option to investigate and teach critical thinking, reading, and writing processes.In this article, we present pedagogical examples from an ongoing action-oriented research project for integrating digital video cameras into the instruction on reading and writing processes in pre-college courses. We first provide a brief explanation of a theoretical approach grounded in older Vygotskian and newer semiotic approaches to adult literacy, all of which support the idea that social interaction is germane to understanding human cognition (Tbmasello, 2003; van Lier, 2004; Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch, 1998). We then present a specific process-Main Idea Video Presentations-for integrating digital video cameras into students' productions of summaries and responses to readings. Finally, while referring back to the overall theoretical approach, we present a brief summary of student exemplars from our data pool to demonstrate the process and potential of these methods. We begin with our overall theoretical approach.Signification, Mediation, Pointing, Intention-Reading, and Joint Attentional FramesOf particular importance to our action-based research and classroom procedures are the processes of signification, mediation, and the concepts of intention-reading and Joint Attentional Frames (Tbmasello, 2003). Each of these processes and concepts are inseparable from the act of pointing, which is a crucial part of communication and language learning, and emerges early in human development; pointing also develops as part of the many semiotic systems that are a part of human existence (Kita, 2003; Tbmasello, 2003; Vygotsky, 1978). Before providing more on the act of pointing and the creation of Joint Attentional Frames, we first present signification and mediation.SignificationSignification can be generally understood as the process of assigning meaning to objects, ourselves, and the world around us (Vygotsky, 1978; Wertsch, 1998). One illustrative paraphrase of a well-known Vygotskian (1978) description of signification is the idea of tying a knot in rope to indicate the number five, as in the first duck farmer who ran out of fingers and toes to count her ducks. Suppose she grabbed the nearest vine, tied a knot, and assigned each knot to mean five ducks. The knot is now a sign that stands for five ducks, and this is precisely the kind of mind-inseparable-from-sign cognitive relationship that is prominent in the field of semiotics (see Eco, 1976; Peirce, 1991), the process of creating and using signs (see van Lier, 2004, p. 57).MediationSignification is also inseparable from the process of mediation, which can be described as the use of concrete objects and abstract signs and concepts to regulate and monitor mental activity. This idea can be illustrated in the use of knots as mediational means (Wertsch, 1998, 2007) for the farmer who needs to calculate how much grain she needs for her ducks. Perhaps the farmer will also draw a map to mediate a plan for how much land she needs to clear for grain. As the farmer creates additional mediational means for regulating her physical activity with the world, she works with more complex, layered systems of mediational means (see also Davydov, 1999), including language.The Act of PointingKita (2003) argues that all pointing activity is foundational to human communication and cognition (see also Goodwin, 2003; McNeill, 2005; Tbmasello, 2003). Concrete and abstract deictic gestures (i.e., pointing gestures) are ubiquitous in our everyday communications. For example, when asked the question, Do you live around here? it is very common to see people in a conversation point at the floor, and perhaps in the general direction of another town, or over their shoulders to indicate a past event (see McNeill, 2005). …

Multisector Collaboration: An Action Research Approach

<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; margin: 0in 0.5in 0pt;"><span style="color: black; font-size: 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Times New Roman;">This article provides an overview of the action-oriented research literature – making a case for a methodological approach that endeavors to lessen the gap between theory and practice in the context of a multisector collaborative effort. A brief description of the first author’s involvement in an action-oriented research project illustrates this point from the perspectives of the board of directors of a (then) newly-created joint venture with thirteen partner organizations representing the academic, pharmaceutical industry and government sectors. <span style="mso-no-proof: yes;">The contribution lies in demonstrating the utility of an action research approach when the overall objective of the research is to gain insights into the phenomenon of interest while simultaneously having these insights available to directly inform management practice.</span></span></span></p>

Using formative evaluation in an implementation project to increase vaccination rates in high-risk veterans: QUERI Series

BackgroundImplementation of research into practice in health care systems is a challenging and often unsuccessful endeavor. The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Quality Enhancement Research Initiative (QUERI) research teams include formative evaluations (FE) in their action-oriented VA implementation projects to identify critical information about the processes of implementation that can guide adjustments to project activities, in order to better meet project goals. This article describes the development and use of FE in an action-oriented implementation research project.MethodsThis two-year action-oriented implementation research project was conducted at 23 VA Spinal Cord Injury (SCI) Centers, and targeted patients, staff and the system of care, such as administration and information technology. Data for FE were collected by electronic and paper surveys, semi-structured and open-ended interviews, notes during conference calls, and exchange of e-mail messages. Specific questions were developed for each intervention (designed to improve vaccination rates for influenza in veterans with spinal cord injury and disorder); informants were selected for their knowledge of interventions and their use in SCI Centers.ResultsData from FE were compiled separately for each intervention to describe barriers to progress and guide adjustments to implementation activities. These data addressed the processes of implementing the interventions, problem-solving activities and the status of interventions at SCI Centers.ConclusionFormative evaluations provided the project team with a broad view of the processes of implementing multi-targeted interventions as well as the evolving status of the related best practice. Using FE was useful, although the challenges of conducting FE for non-field researchers should be addressed. Work is needed to develop methods for conducting FE across multiple sites, as well as acknowledging variations in local contexts that affect implementation of interventions.

Transportation Research for Community Objectives

An action-oriented research project was initiated by the Transportation Institute of North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University. The researchers initially conducted a preliminary analysis of transportation problems faced by the low-income neighborhoods. They then designed and conducted a research project that emphasized the possible solutions to the problems investigated. Language: en