Action Project Research Articles

Age-Friendly University Models for Engaging With Retired Community Members

The pioneering Age-Friendly University (AFU) initiative, endorsed in 2016 by GSA’s Academy for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE), calls for institutions of higher education to respond to shifting demographics and the needs and interests of our aging populations through more age-friendly programs, practices, and partnerships. This symposium will focus on AFU Principle 9 that advocates for engaging actively with an institution’s retired community. Appreciating the diversity of ways in which this principle can be put into practice, participants will discuss the various ways their AFU campuses have built connections with members of their local communities of retired adults. Montepare (Lasell University) will discuss the living and learning model of the institution’s affiliated-retirement community (Lasell Village) that coordinates engagement in 450 credit hours of educational activity as a benefit of residency. Berman (Ithaca College) will discuss the Gerontology Institute’s longstanding relationship with the Longview senior living community and how intergenerational educational and social experiences serve as enriching activities for students, faculty, and residents. Elfenbein (University of North Georgia) will discuss campus collaboration with The Wisdom Project, a community organization of adults 55+ interested in using their skills and talents to benefit their community through action and advocacy projects. Wenrick (Drexel University) will discuss Writers Room, a university-community literary arts program, and their intergenerational co-living initiative, creating a network of homeowners and student tenants whose shared interest in writing and storytelling forms the foundation for meaningful cohabitation.

Priorities for End-of-Life Care Reporting in Nursing Homes: Results From a Mixed-Methods Study

The aim of the “Trajectories” project is to compile measures of nursing home (NH) quality to better characterize the final year of life for residents. In the first phase, we worked with various stakeholder groups to identify their priorities to focus the selection of possible outcomes relevant to end-of-life needs. Policy- and decision-makers from 5 Canadian health regions participated in an on-line, modified Delphi process to reach consensus on 3-4 measures of each burdensome symptoms and potentially inappropriate care practices. NH residents and families or care aides participated in an interview process using the Action Project Method. To date, all participants identified pain, mental health care, polypharmacy, and dyspnea as priorities. Policy- and decision-makers additionally identified infections and acute care transfers as priorities, while residents and families additionally identified mobility, cognition, and pressure ulcer care as priorities. There was general consistency across groups in terms of priorities but additional measures seemed to reflect either a system-wide or more personal perspective, depending on the source. Data collection with frontline staff and managers is on-going. Moving forward, we will use this list of prioritized outcomes to quantitatively assess the trajectories of these outcomes and associated factors, and to create a profile that allows for monitoring of end-of-life care in NHs.

The Action Project Method Applied in Nursing Home Settings

The action-project method (APM), developed in counselling psychology and used in various disciplines, has been shown to be useful for understanding major life transitions in different contexts. We argue that the APM is beneficial for studying the impact of nursing home (NH) home admission and daily life of residents and their families/friends. The APM enables researchers to explore how residents and their families/friends experience NH-life at individual and supraindividual levels of analysis. We applied the APM to solicit the views of residents and individuals close to them to understand their priorities for quality care. The APM data collection consisted of three stages. First, a resident and family member or other caregiver met with the interviewer who initiated a conversation about their experience in the NH. The interviewer then left the room but video-recorded the conversation. Second, the interviewer met with each participant to review the video with each participant offering reflection on the original conversation. These sessions were also recorded. Following transcription and analysis of the conversations, 3 lay-language narratives were created: 1 for each individual and 1 for the pair. Third, participants reviewed their own and the pair’s narrative for additional comments. The APM offers a means to give a voice to NH residents and allows for people to talk about their experiences without the presence of a researcher. By using the APM, researchers can break down individual actions of participants and how these actions come together to form the project of navigating care in NHs.

Por um modelo nacional de prevenção do trabalho escravo? Desafios e conflitos na nacionalização do projeto Ação Integrada

Resumo O artigo contribui para os estudos de políticas de combate e prevenção do trabalho escravo ao analisar o processo de implementação nacional do projeto Ação Integrada, ocorrido entre 2014 e 2018, quando se tentou alçá-lo à condição de modelo de prevenção da reincidência de trabalhadores/as em situações análogas à escravidão. A análise baseia-se na observação das relações institucionais do campo de combate ao trabalho escravo no Brasil pela participação em situações sociais ocorridas durante o processo e reveladoras da estrutura e dos conflitos intrínsecos ao campo. Como resultado, foram revelados desafios sociais e entraves políticos ao enfrentamento do problema, como a impossibilidade de replicar um projeto de prevenção em um mundo do trabalho complexo e dinâmico produtor de vulnerabilidades específicas para o trabalho escravo nas diferentes regiões do país, ao lado de conflitos institucionais que, acentuados pela disputa por recursos escassos, ameaçam a atuação conjunta do campo.

Funding as a Determinant of Strategic Planning Implementation Case of Health Project in Action against Hunger in Kenya

Funding as a Determinant of Strategic Planning Implementation Case of Health Project in Action against Hunger in Kenya

Student Understanding and Learning in Team Sports: Understanding through Game-Play Analysis

The purpose of this paper is three-fold: (a) to summarily examine the matters of team-sport subject-matter knowledge and student team-sport pedagogical content knowledge learning as they evolved in France since the 1960s, (b) to recall briefly the main constitutive elements of the Tactical-Decision Learning Model (T DLM) and their ties with student understanding and learning, and (c) to illustrate the use configurations of play and effective play-spaces as tools for enhancing student learning. Through T-DLM, students are challenged to collectively plan action projects, implement them in game play situations, and conclude as to their level of success or failure, going through several iterations of the process until stabilization of their acquired knowledge. This learning process unfolds under the teacher’s learned and facilitating guidance. Keywords: T-DLM, team-sport understanding, debate-of-ideas, configuration of play, student-centered approach

Queer Self-Representation Inside the Museum

Most museums claim to foster the democratisation of their collections through top-down educational programmes. However, it is possible to challenge this perspective and, instead, encourage self-empowerment in lieu of imitation, hosting, and fostering cultural contributions offered by different communities that cultivate independent paths toward creating identities and institutional recognition. Although ‘discrimination’ seems to be a constitutive feature of museums, in that their entire structure is based on exclusion/inclusion processes at multiple levels, their structure offers unlimited possibilities to enact different approaches. If we consider museums as hypertexts that enable continuous re-readings, we can adopt them as generative spaces for critical and innovative practices. Several events that took place at the Modern Art Museum of Bologna (MAMbo) over the past decade show different approaches to tackling discrimination in museums. Each offered a range of reflections and activities concerning specific topics: the audience of sightless people in contemporary art museums (Collezioni mai viste, 2008), women’s art (Autoritratti, 2013 ), and gender representations (Performing Gender, 2015). Each event was developed as a research action project and carried out by groups strongly committed to contemporary art, respectively representing communities of sightless people, women, and LGBTQI+. Framing specificity as a tool for more diverse forms of representation, museums might question their own history, collections, practices and contexts, cooperating with existing communities representing cultural diversity to foster new narratives and enable the creation of new sources for different discourses and histories to be told.

Public Perceptions of Mangrove Forests Matter for Their Conservation

Many thanks are due to Leo Thom (Mangrove Action Project) for assembling Figure 1. The authors acknowledge the 12 photographers of the photos indicated in the caption of Figure 1 and the numerous online posters of inspiring mangrove photographs and stories.

Evaluating food hubs: Reporting on a participatory action project

Food hubs create a range of economic, social, and environmental impacts through a wide variety of activities and programs. Evaluation of these impacts is important; however, many hubs lack the capacity (including time, resources, knowledge, and expertise) to do effective, ongoing evaluation work. This lack of capacity is exacerbated by the difficul¬ties inherent in capturing the kinds of complex, multidimensional, context-specific impacts and outcomes that many of these businesses and organizations strive to achieve. This paper reports on a participatory research project designed to develop a resource to support food hub evaluation efforts. It presents highlights from the guide that was created and discusses associated insights regarding the tensions and opportunities of food hub evaluation. We argue that food hubs need to be engaging in evaluation efforts, even in the face of significant resource constraints, as a means of strengthening individual entities and the sector as a whole. These efforts must be carefully aligned with a hub’s stage of development and context-specific, multifunctional goals. They should also account for food hubs’ emergent, dynamic, and adaptive nature. To that end, participatory evaluation methodologies that take a flexible, collaborative, action-oriented approach are especially relevant.

Aprendizagens dos saberes indígenas na escola: Desafios para a formação de professores/as indígenas

O “Projeto Ação Saberes Indígenas na Escola – Rede UFMT” é uma ação política voltada à educação escolar indígena a fim de atender os direitos específicos dos povos originários do Brasil. Em Mato Grosso, focaliza a formação continuada de 115 professores de 12 povos indígenas, com vistas a atender a alfabetização, o letramento e o numeramento, bem como a produção de material didático bilíngue. O respeito aos processos de aprendizagem próprios, a língua e a cultura numa perspectiva intercultural é um direito que analisa-se a partir do processo de produção dos materiais didáticos com três povos. A pesquisa colaborativa para a produção de materiais didáticos teve por referência as pedagogias indígenas próprias na produção de material didático e a política sociolinguística que permeia as lutas históricas dos povos originários. Com os dados analisados neste artigo, compreende-se a complexidade da ação política voltada à educação escolar que considere os saberes e práticas interculturais e possibilitem aos povos a construção de suas identidades e cosmovisões, no processo de alfabetizar-se no mundo. Conclui-se que os desafios se sustentam em estratégias de redes solidárias de aprendizagens para o enfrentamento dos percalços políticos com a retirada de direitos e políticas públicas específicas que impactam diretamente os povos indígenas do Brasil.

Evaluating Regional Strategies towards a Circular Economy in the Built Environment

In particular relation to the UN 2030 Agenda for sustainable development goal No. 12 (“responsible production and consumption”), the implementation of a circular economy into the building industry has special potentials. More circular flows of material and information can simultaneously decrease resource extraction, fossil energy consumption and environmental pollution, while allowing new business models. However, this chance still remains largely neglected by decision makers. In order to transform this situation, it is necessary to understand and re-weave the entire value chain – requiring new collaborations between various stakeholder groups. In a three-year project that was dedicated to setting up a strategy for the implementation of circularity in the building sector within a region in Germany, stakeholders were involved to work towards circular value creation beyond waste management. The project proceeded in three dimensions: 1) Action-oriented networking and strategy making, 2) Conceptualizations and implementation steps for a pilot location that makes high-value products from building waste, 3) Identification of action items and project initiations. Based on a stakeholder analysis, this paper reflects upon the entire process, with a focus on qualitative information flows. The paper concludes with a critical view regarding the stakeholder network method of the project and its efficiency in implementing the circular economy on a regional scale.

Nnimmo Bassey: The Activist and His Poetry of Environmental Activism

Nnimmo Bassey’s poetic oeuvre projects environmental concerns, as presently occupying prominent place in Nigerian literary sphere, thus, twining this literary voice with the momentum of the ongoing global ‘greening’ campaigns. However, in the Nigerian situation, a sustained undertone of anger, protestation and ethno-political activism remains pronounced in the contemporary context of environmental literature. After the brutal execution of the prominent Ogoni-born ethnic nationality rights activist, environmentalist and writer, Ken Saro-Wiwa, by the Sani Abacha military dictatorship in 1995, Nnimmo Bassey’s environmental watch persists and vehemently echoes in his poetry. His voice has come to serve as a veritable instrument that re-echoes the passionate outcry and activism of Ken Saro-Wiwa. This poetic voice thus reverberates most vociferously in the Nigerian literary firmament and in global environmental action project. This paper, therefore, examines the social import of the convergence of artistic endowment and ecological consciousness in Bassey’s poetry, using ecological postcolonialism as analytical tool. Thus, the conclusion of this work is that artistic talent could be harnessed to advance the cause of socio-political re-engineering of society.

Educational intimacy: Learning, prefiguration, and relationships in an LGBTQ+ youth group’s advocacy efforts

ABSTRACT Background Using a conceptualization of learning as the act of organizing possible futures, I examine prefigurative relationship-building processes. Youth organizing research has shown that relational and political development are outcomes of participation, but offers limited examples of how these developments co-occur in discourse. Methods I research alongside Chroma, an LGBTQ+-themed community-based youth group whose members offer training to teachers and others about working with LGBTQ+ youth. Drawing on critical ethnography and discourse analysis, I engage the question: What was the character of the social relations Chroma youth organized together as they worked to advance their educational advocacy projects? Findings I develop a notion of educational intimacy, which describes relationships that allow for inclusive and productive engagement in advocacy and learning while also mirroring desired future social configurations. I ground my development of educational intimacy in audio data from Chroma meetings, workdays, and trainings. Contribution I situate educational intimacy in queer theoretic perspectives and existing learning sciences research. I conclude with some open questions about educational intimacy and learning in collective action projects. Educational intimacy offers a way of talking about how relational and political developments co-occur as learning processes in social movement spaces.

Herramientas para una niñez libre de violencias

La autora describe y analiza en este artículo las acciones llevadas a cabo en el marco del proyecto de extensión de la Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata (UNMDP) «Crianza con derechos. Construcción de herramientas para una niñez libre de violencias en el hogar, las aulas y la atención sanitaria». El trabajo con familiares, con docentes y con profesionales de programas sociales en el oeste y norte de la ciudad de Mar del Plata (Buenos Aires, Argentina), acompañó la construcción de prácticas de crianza fundadas en el buen trato, a partir del fomento de espacios de reflexión y del desarrollo de herramientas para el apoyo y la promoción de la crianza con derechos.

Co-design of Adaptable Learning Outcomes for Sustainable Food Systems Undergraduate Education

Higher education institutions are increasingly offering Sustainable Food Systems (SFS) degree programs in response to societal demand for training a professional food systems workforce. As a relatively young field, there is a need for clearly articulated learning outcomes (LOs) for SFS education to define student learning through degree programs, design new programs, and evaluate and modify existing programs. New and established SFS programs are often fragmented over multiple academic departments which impedes the development of a coherent and holistic curriculum for approaching the complexity of food topics. Here, we address these needs through the co-creation of adaptable LOs for Baccalaureate degree-level SFS programs which are aligned to a SFS Signature Pedagogy and based on outcomes-based education towards contributing to a solid conceptual basis for SFS education. The SFS Signature Pedagogy is a framework that can be applied to develop students’ systemic capacities, including holistic and pluralistic ways of understanding sustainability challenges, multi-, inter- and trans-disciplinarity, experiential learning, and collective action projects. Our co-design of LOs was based on qualitative content analysis of existing LOs of established SFS programs, a cross-sectional survey with SFS educators and, refinement of LOs from feedback in an expert panel. This process resulted in the eight adaptable LOs: (1) systems thinking, (2) critical reflection, (3) diverse ways of knowing, (4) practical application, (5) multi-context communication, (6) teamwork, (7) collective action, and, (8) advocacy for SFS. We anticipate the adaptable LOs proposed here to be applicable for diverse student communities and geographic and cultural contexts as well as to provide insight for sustainability-related academic programs towards developing professionals equipped with skills and capacities to address complex challenges.

Os vestígios da memória na frequência do Rádio: O MEB e suas releituras atuais.

O objetivo desse trabalho é analisar a experiência de uma modalidade de educação remota na cidade de Caicó, estado do Rio Grande do Norte, EJA em Ação, na excepcionalidade de distanciamento social ocasionado pela pandemia de Covid-19. Com a necessidade do isolamento social, a comunidade escolar é desafiada a proporcionar uma “continuidade” da relação professor e aluno em outros espaços não escolares. Como exercício comparativo, tomar-se-á a experiência histórica na década de 1960, a instalação da Emissora de Educação Rural, com a implantação do Movimento de Educação de Base – MEB e o uso do rádio como elemento mediador do ensino-aprendizagem. Foi através das ondas do rádio que as informações sobre saúde, evangelização e educação chegaram até as residências de grande parte da população caicoense. Os vestígios dessa memória, de uma educação através do rádio, é um dos fios condutores da releitura das escolas radiofônicas nos tempos atuais. A metodologia aplicada se dará através da análise da discussão dos “lugares de memória” de Pierre Nora, do rádio como mediador e ferramenta pedagógica no ensino e a análise das publicações nos meios de comunicação sobre o Projeto EJA em Ação, realizando exercício comparativo entre as temporalidades do Movimento de Educação de Base – MEB e o Projeto EJA em Ação na cidade de Caicó.. Palavras-chave: MEB; Memória; Rádio; Educação, Projeto EJA em Ação; Caicó.

Creating a more inclusive environment for students with disabilities: Findings from participatory action research

The goal of this participatory action research (PAR) project was to engage and empower students with disabilities and raise awareness of disability-related issues to campus communities. Ten student co-researchers and six faculty/staff co-researchers attended weekly research meetings to discuss challenges faced by students with disabilities. The team presented PAR findings to the campus community as their action project. Twelve themes generated by the co-researchers were presented and illuminated lived experiences of students with disabilities within university settings. Themes included the physical university layout and internal experiences such as internalized stigma and isolation from peers. Results of the PAR project as well as a focus group post-PAR project describe individual and systemic outcomes. This study demonstrates the power of incorporating students' voices in creating university programming initiatives that not only supports their academic success but also allows students to feel heard and supported. Success in increasing campus inclusion requires a collaboration among key university gatekeepers and students particularly in support of students who may not have visible disabilities.

Dialogic science-policy networks for water security governance in the arid Americas

Addressing wicked problems challenging water security requires participation from multiple stakeholders, often with conflicting visions, complicating the attainment of water-security goals and heightening the need for integrative and effective science-policy interfaces. Sustained multi-stakeholder dialogues within science-policy networks can improve adaptive governance and water system resilience. This paper describes what we define as “dialogic science-policy networks,” or interactions -- both in structural and procedural terms -- between scientists and policy-makers that are: 1) interdisciplinary, 2) international (here, inter-American), 3) cross-sectoral, 4) open, 5) continual and iterative in the long-term, and 6) flexible. By fostering these types of interactions, dialogic networks achieve what we call the 4-I criteria for effective science-policy dialogues: inclusivity, involvement, interaction, and influence. Here we present several water-security research and action projects where some of these attributes may be present. Among these, a more comprehensive form of a dialogic network was intentionally created via AQUASEC, a virtual center and network initially fostered by a series of grants from the Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research. Subsequently, AQUASEC has significantly expanded to other regions through direct linkages and additional program support for the International Water Security Network, supported by Lloyd's Register Foundation and other sources. This paper highlights major scientific and policy achievements of a notable suite of science-policy networks, shared practices, methods, and knowledge integrating science and policy, as well as the main barriers overcome in network development. An important gap that remains for future research is the assessment and evaluation of dialogic science-policy networks' long-term outcomes.

Engaging Youth in the Bipolar Youth Action Project: Community-Based Participatory Research.

BackgroundWe describe the methodological dimensions of community-based participatory research through a description of study design, youth engagement, and methods/processes in the cocreation of knowledge within a Canadian study, the Bipolar Youth Action Project. This collaborative partnership—carried out by a team composed of academic, community, and youth partners—was designed to investigate self-management and wellness strategies for young adults living with bipolar disorder.ObjectiveThe aim is to describe the opportunities and challenges of this collaboration and to reflect upon the process of involving youth with bipolar disorder in health research that concerns them, and share lessons learned.MethodsThe project was conducted in multiple phases over 2 years: (1) grant-writing, with youth contributing to the process; (2) recruitment, in which 12 youth were selected and trained to help shape and conduct two research forums; (3) the first research forum, where more youth were consulted about the strategies they apply to stay well (self-management strategies); (4) data analysis of Forum I findings; (5) research Forum II, which consulted youth with bipolar disorder about knowledge translation of Forum I findings; and (6) data analysis of Forum II findings. Youth peer researchers with bipolar disorder were involved in a significant capacity at every stage in the process.ResultsOf the initial 12 youth peer researchers, 7 remained on the project from the recruitment phase until the project ended. They collaborated in the creation of two youth research forums that consulted youth with bipolar disorder on their self-management strategies.ConclusionsThis article shares what was learned from the process of partnering with youth with bipolar disorder in a community-based participatory research study.

Individual responsibility and climate action: some lessons from a perception survey administered in Hauts-de-France

ABSTRACT Given the public’s limited concern about climate change, it is hard to imagine individual climate action. In recent decades, environmental policies in France have focused on a citizen accountability approach that encourages “virtuous behaviour”. But this may not be adequate. Results from a 2017 perception survey conducted in the Hauts-de-France region show that this approach is not reaching its objectives among those who are financially less secure and mistrustful of authorities. This population is delegating responsibility to collective actors. In Lille and Chauny it appears that there can be no long-term projection of actions to combat climate change because everyday needs are more important. Individual and collective actions need to be balanced and part of the same dynamic. The disengagement of the welfare state does not favour this balance.