Action Research Project Research Articles

Household niche experimentation in sustainability transitions and everyday life: A novel framework with evidence from low-waste living in Melbourne

Sustainability transitions research and policy treat households and the home in a narrow way. The paper reviews niche-based experimentation and social-practice theory informed sustainability transitions literature to develop a novel framework for deliberate household experimentation. The usefulness of the framework is explored in an action research project on low-waste living in Melbourne. Data was collected through interviews, weekly self-reports and three participatory workshops. The research confirms the usefulness of the framework and offers reflections on deliberate household experimentation. The conclusion is that similar to other niche spaces, household niches are instrumental in demonstrating, learning about, advocating for and critiquing different aspects of sustainability transitions. But in contrast to other niche spaces, households are deeply embedded in the everyday life of what matters to people. If the transition to low-waste living is to be successful, it needs to be planned from the perspective of everyday household life.

Colour-evasive racial ideologies underpinning the hidden curriculum of a majority-minority occupational therapy school in London, England: an analysis of minoritised undergraduate students’ experiences

ABSTRACT The concept of ethnoracial ‘majority-minority’ was introduced to describe changing population demographics where racial or ethnic groups traditionally in the majority have become a numerical minority. Despite their increase in recent years, very little is known of how hidden curricula manifests in these settings. Hence, this study sought to interrogate the hidden curriculum of race at an Occupational Therapy school with a majority-minority student-educator population in London, England. We conducted a secondary analysis of qualitative data from a larger action research project. The main data source was derived from two group interviews involving 11 racially minoritised student participants, and thematically analysed through a hidden curriculum lens. Trustworthiness of the analysis was enforced through crystallisation. The hidden curriculum of race was identified as embedded within (1) formal learning, (2) the null curriculum, (3) the informal curriculum, and (4) administrative structure and functioning. It is underpinned by pervasive colour-evasive racial ideologies which perpetuate health and workforce inequities. This paper concludes that majority-minority population demographics are insufficient to mitigate the impact of wider societal norms of oppression on hidden curricula. Thus, concerted and collective efforts involving all professional stakeholders are needed to embed intersectional, critical race-conscious approaches throughout formal learning across the academic curriculum.

‘Can we Mec the Municipality?’ Emerging voices of young people in a segregated urban landscape

This article details the failure and success of an action research project that experiments with foregrounding young people’s perspectives in visions of future, sustainable, urban landscapes in Malmö, Sweden. In a range of future-creation workshops, the author, an assistant, and 34 young people aged 15–20 from two low-income neighbourhoods developed analyses, visions, and concrete change proposals for meaningful interventions in Malmö’s urban environment. The primary contribution is the young participants’ analyses of the subjective experience of a segregated urban landscape, the facilitation and contextualisation offered by the action researcher, and the integrative visions and actions that arose. The open-ended approach allowed participants to accentuate both diverse experiences and gathering points (such as a shared metaphor). The article highlights the discursive limits encountered by participatory processes related to urban landscape planning, as well as the methodological openings offered by critical utopian action research to experiment with overcoming these limits.

Doing place through data: Proliferation, profiling and the perils of portrayal in local climate action

Building on work which has shown the role of digital technologies in reframing environmental relations, this paper explores ethnographically how environmental data is reconfiguring the concept of place. The paper takes as its focus an action-research project within a UK based, citizen-oriented initiative called Newtown Energy Futures, in which we sought to enfold climate and energy data into a social-justice informed attempt at climate action. By exploring how the project used data as an invitation for citizens to engage with and participate in local infrastructural and environmental dynamics, the paper sheds light on how environmental data came to participate in the making of place and in doing so raised questions about how to rebuild the socio-material relations through which ‘a sense of place’ might be reproduced. As climate and energy data increasingly demand that places become enrolled into environmental projects our findings suggest that data enables place to emerge as a ‘socio-technical potentiality’ an observation that has implications both for both engagement with, and the study of data and place. In practical terms, we suggest that this refiguration of place has the effect of creating hopeful trajectories for change, whilst also posing difficult questions about the limits of participation in a data-infused form of place-based politics.

Deepening our understanding: Collaboration through online peer-to-peer participatory action research with children.

Child-led research is growing globally, yet there are still limitations for children's leadership in all phases of research. This article, co-written with adult and child researchers, examines child-led research undertaken online with 9 children from Ontario and Quebec over a one-year period. The article explores the process of participating in and collaborating on an online peer-to-peer participatory action research project from the brainstorming stage to recruitment, design, data collection, analysis, and dissemination of knowledge. While much literature exists on older children and youth leading research, this research provides a unique contribution to the literature on the possibilities of creating space for children ages 11 to 14 to lead research. This article finds that the child researchers most valued: (1) Play and fun; (2) Engaging in new experiences; and (3) Learning. The article concludes that child-led research is feasible, and it can create better research and provide a transformative opportunity for child and adult researchers.

The Threefold Role of the University in Fostering the Energy Transition: The Case of Bologna and Its Cesena Campus

As acceleration toward the transition to a carbon-neutral energy production becomes an urgent imperative, universities are called to play a multifaceted role: to produce knowledge and cutting-edge research for the pursuit of energy transition; to transform infrastructures to promote circular economy practices and a more sustainable use of their building stock; and to promote energy citizenship through formal and informal education. The authors aim to move from these considerations to critically present some actions and programs in education, research, and campus operations in which the University of Bologna is engaged. The first part presents an overview of the role of universities in this transition, with a focus on the UI GreenMetric international standard for assessing the different dimensions of sustainability. In the core section, an empirical focus is provided on Bologna and its Cesena campus through three directions: the University’s multicampus sustainable strategy (campus operations), the relevant research–action projects on energy justice and the energy transition (research), and the EN-ACTION project to foster energy citizenship and behavioral change in students and citizens (education). This study concludes that the comprehensive approach of the University of Bologna in integrating sustainability into its operations, education, and research while fostering student engagement in energy citizenship, provides a replicable model for other institutions. It highlights the need for consistent and ongoing support to ensure the long-term impact and effectiveness of sustainability initiatives. The integration of social components and engagement with civil society is crucial for fostering a collective behavioral shift toward low-carbon systems, which can be further supported by interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research approaches.

Youth Participatory Action Research for Equitable Urban Design

The Nashville Youth Design Team (NYDT) is a youth participatory action research and design collective based in Metro Nashville-Davidson County, Tennessee, USA. Developing out of a longstanding collaborative partnership between the Civic Design Center, a Nashville-based nonprofit that supports community engagement in urban design and planning, and researchers from Vanderbilt University, the NYDT seeks to improve youth health and well-being through research, design, and advocacy. In this paper we briefly describe the origins and goals of the NYDT before applying the NYDT’s action research process to the team’s most recent project, the Dream City Workshop, to illustrate how the team’s work aims to center youth voices in decision-making spaces and challenge structural inequities within the built environment. The Dream City Workshop is a two hour design thinking workshop, where youth participants are encouraged to create a city specifically designed to meet the needs of young people; a city where the only limit is their imagination. The goal of this workshop is to help young people think creatively to resist hegemonic norms and challenge structural inequities like structural racism and classism to imagine a better and more inclusive city for all. Following a detailed description of the development and implementation of the Dream City Workshop, we consider the strengths and weaknesses of the NYDT’s action research process and the workshop, specifically exploring how the team, through their work, seeks to address structural racism and work towards health equity. We conclude the paper by providing recommendations for others interested in cultivating similar locally focused action research projects and collectives.

Facing power: navigating power dynamics in a youth participatory action research project situated within a healthcare setting

ABSTRACT Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR) is oftentimes cited as a method guided by social justice principles to uplift youth voice and pursue youth priorities in research. However, to uphold these principles, YPAR researchers must address how youth and adults alike negotiate power differentials to be equal partners in research and scholarship. We explore YPAR power sharing through a reflexive thematic analysis of in-depth, semi-structured interviews (n = 42) and focus groups (n = 2) conducted at three timepoints (baseline, mid-point, and exit) with youth (n = 8) and adult (n = 6) researchers engaged in a YPAR exploring health equity at a large, safety-net hospital. Our analyses suggest that both youth and adult researchers negotiate power dynamics in a YPAR at every stage of the project. YPAR researchers made four recommendations to negotiate power: 1) preserve time for relationship building, 2) structure group expectations, 3) require training for adults working with youth of color, and 4) designate youth-only spaces. This study provides an in-depth analysis of youth and adult reflections on power across a YPAR project. Our findings indicate that YPAR requires significant investment in resources, including time to reflect on and process power, transparent and structured expectations, and ongoing training to uphold principles of YPAR.

In choppy waters with a critical friend: the benefits of intimate reflexive encounters in participatory action research

ABSTRACT We explore the benefits of intimate reflexive encounters with a ‘critical friend’ in the context of a Participatory Action Research (PAR) project. We conceptualize these encounters as an evolving relationship between a kayaker who supports the swim (research) and the swimmer (researcher). Methodologically, we adopt a form of co-constructed autoethnography and contribute to ongoing collective approaches to reflexivity and explorations in co-writing. We demonstrate how through asking clarifying questions, probing assumptions, listening to, and validating emotions, and orienting towards solutions, a ‘critical friend’ can support the researcher in engaging in reflexive sensemaking. Overall, these intimate encounters reveal assumptions, anxieties, challenges, limitations, and a range of emotions involved in conducting PAR. The kayaker and swimmer harness the power of peer support and create spaces of collegiality to resist the growing individualization and ever-increasing pressures of academic work.

Art for Social Change: Aligning Values and Actions Toward Effective Activism

This participatory action research project involved 11 members of Art for Social Change, a higher education social activism group in the United States, using art to impact social change. Through cycles of action, reflection, and dialogue, members made changes within their organization and developed a deeper understanding of themselves and each other. Co-researchers reflected on their intersectional identities and how dialogue and art making in community helped widen and deepen their connections with each other. They identified how effective activism could be achieved in their group alongside two types of ineffective activism that impeded their goals. By fostering a community culture of change, the project exemplified how authenticity, compassion, and embracing tension and uncertainty cultivates critical consciousness and growth.

A multicriteria vulnerability index for equitable resource allocation in public health funding.

This paper describes an action research project with the Centre universitaire intégré de santé et de services sociaux - Capitale Nationale (CIUSSS-CN) who identified a need to assess vulnerability in their territories in order toensure equitable distribution of the Integrated Perinatal and Early Childhood Services (SIPPE) program funds. The objective was to design and validate a multicriteria model to provide a more accurate portrait of vulnerability based on recent social realities. Our multidisciplinary research team of 7 members included experts in analytics, decision aiding, and community and public health. In collaboration with 6 CIUSSS-CN professionals, we co-constructed, during 9 workshops, a multicriteria model to aggregate the multiple dimensions of vulnerability. We used a value-focused thinking approach and applied the method MACBETH assisted by a geographic information system. Criteria, scales, and weights were validated and led to a vulnerability score for each CIUSSS-CN territory. This score provides a more accurate portrait of territorial disparities based on data and the participants' experience. The model was implemented in a dynamic user-friendly tool and serves to support decision-makers in the resource allocation process. Knowledge transfer was conducted during and after the process. This multidisciplinary research has served to anchor public health funding in local realities, with an emphasis on equity and stakeholder engagement. Our mixed-method approach integrating qualitative and quantitative data is adaptable to other contexts. Our results can enhance intervention effectiveness and allow for a better response to the needs of the population targeted by the SIPPE program.

Benefits of reflection-based monitoring in action research projects

Benefits of reflection-based monitoring in action research projects

Action research as a meta-methodology: insights from an operations development project

This research addresses action research (AR) as a meta-methodology and uses an operations development project as an illustration to provide some insights on AR as a meta-methodology. First, we report on a six-month action research (AR) project concerning analysing and improving production and inventory performance in an industrial firm in the food and beverage industry. The implementation of a new, basic period cyclic production approach resulted in higher production volumes and higher customer service levels while maintaining inventory levels. Second, we discuss the insights from the project concerning success factors related to novelty, rigour, relevance and usefulness, and applicability in other situations. The use of mixed methods, including case study research, conceptual modelling, mathematical modelling, and heuristic approaches, and the strong research interest of the management team at the company contributed to the success of the project. The novel cyclic production approach was subsequently transferred to other production lines. This AR project supports the perception of AR as serving as a meta-methodological framework, where different research methods can be used at various project stages where required and for triangulation purposes.

Untapped transformative potential in decentralised groundwater systems that improve households' resilience in India's water-scarce urban environments

Off-grid, decentralised water infrastructures are increasingly being promoted to help cities meet their water delivery targets and build resilient water systems in the face of changing water availability. Against this background, this paper examines how integrating off-grid, decentralised groundwater systems with centralized piped supply helps water utilities and urbanites achieve transformative resilience under conditions of chronic water scarcity in the secondary city of Tiruppur, India. Empirical findings on users' water access practices from off-grid systems like municipal or private borewells to remain resilient, their role in the everyday governance of these systems, and the costs of building resilience through borewells—obtained through a participatory action research project where 94 households recorded month-long water access using a ‘water and waste calendar’—reveal that Tiruppur's public borewells are an affordable and mostly inclusive resilience building measure but are far from being transformative. Moreover, diverse arrangements for their everyday governance unevenly enable user participation, impose invisible costs on female members of borewell-reliant households, and create differentiation in service quality across the city. The paper argues that the potential to achieve transformative resilience through off-grid sources like borewells remains untapped in Tiruppur and concludes with some reflections to pursue just and inclusive resilience.

Women’s Academic Career Trajectory to the Top: Strategies and Ways of Doing Gender

ABSTRACT In recent years, the political approach to gender balance in academia has shifted from “fixing the women” to “fixing the system”. Based on an action research (AR) project aimed at enabling more women to qualify for senior positions in the academic field and conducted at one of Norway’s largest university colleges, this study explores the expectations of the participants during the initial phase of the project regarding what measures and strategies the project should offer. Using method triangulation, I have garnered insights into the priorities of these women, the polarizations that arose, and the consequences of these polarizations—all regarding the differences between the participants in strategic preferences and ways of doing gender. More specifically, this research unpacks conflicting norms of these women concerning factors such as community, support and care versus self-protection, individual competition, and professional goal-orientedness. This study mainly draws on the discourse analysis resources and theoretical contributions of Judith Butler and Michel Foucault.

The Effect of the Application of Differentiated Learning as an Effort to Increase Student Learning Motivation in Biology Subjects

The purpose of this study was to increase students’ interest in the biology curriculum. Three components of differentiated learning, namely visual, auditory, and kinesthetic, were used in this study. This research was a two-cycle classroom action research project that began with a pre-cycle. Each cycle consists of planning, action, observation, assessment, and reflection. For the 2022-2023 academic year, the research focused on class XII, even semester students at SMAN 1 Belitang III OKU Timur. Based on the results of research involving 29 students, the number of students who completed pre-cycle activities was 8 (27 points, 58 percent), while students who did not complete were 21 (72 points, 42 percent), with an average score of 55 points, 17. In cycle I, there was an increase in the number of students who completed 15 (51 points, 72 percent), while the number of students who did not complete was 14 (48 points, 28 percent), with an average score of. This study proves that the use of differentiated learning can increase the motivation to learn biology in class XII, even for semester students of SMAN 1 Belitang III OKU Timur in the 2022-2023 academic year. There was a very high increase in cycle II compared to the previous cycle, with the number of students who reached the minimum brilliance criteria as many as 28 students (96,55%), while the number of students who did not complete was 1 person.

Top Tips for Starting a Sports Coaching Business

The recommendations in this article came from two coaching colleagues and professional friends who reflected on their coaching careers as part of an action research project. The recommendations in this article primarily come from the perspective of the lead author’s coaching business experience, while the second author took on the role of providing feedback as the critical friend. It is hoped that this article will be of interest and value to coaches who are thinking of setting up their own sports coaching business.

InCHARGE: Co-creating, implementing and evaluating interventions to utilize nurses' competence and achieve person-centred fundamental care-A research protocol describing an action research approach.

This research protocol presents an action research project with the aim to demonstrate the value of person-centred fundamental care to nurses and nurse managers in surgical care units to encourage a far-reaching change in this direction. The objectives are to describe this process and to evaluate the effects on missed nursing care and person-centred fundamental care. In a novel collaboration between nursing science and medical humanities the action research design will be used to interact with nursing staff and leaders in three surgical care units and design interventions with the purpose to affect the direction of nursing. Initially, the care units will be presented with interactive workshops including evidence-based education on person-centered fundamental care, person-centredness, nurse role responsibility and leadership. This will be followed by cocreation of interventions to stimulate person-centered fundamental care. The Fundamentals of Care framework will be used as the overarching theoretical framework. Data on missed nursing care, person-centred climate and person-centered fundamental care will be collected repeatedly from patient- and nursing stakeholders through interviews and validated questionnaires. Additionally, data from written reflections following clinical observations and focus group interviews will be included. The duration of the study will be approximately five years from ethical approval. It has been previously reported that the current working environments of registered nurses are forcing them to ration their caring responsibilities, leading to a lack of fulfillment of patients' fundamental care needs, with possible severe consequences for patients. The action research design helps researchers gain an understanding of the contextual factors important for forthcoming interventions, enabling reflective processes and cocreation of interventions with stakeholders. This may lead to feasible interventions and strengthen nursing leadership in the involved units.

A dialogic approach to transform teaching, learning & assessment with generative AI in secondary education: a proof of concept

ABSTRACT This paper explores the pedagogical potential of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in secondary education through a dialogic approach to teaching, learning and assessment. It presents an ongoing action research project in collaboration with a high school in Western Australia, involving four teachers to integrate GenAI in their classrooms. The study aims to develop and evaluate innovative pedagogies for leveraging GenAI to enhance educational practices and student learning outcomes across three action research teams focusing on critical questioning, assessment and differentiation. Drawing on Bakhtin’s concept of heteroglossia, the study conceptualizes GenAI not as a definitive knowledge provider but as a dialogic agent that facilitates collaborative dialogue and co-construction of knowledge among students. This perspective aims to encourage students to critically engage with AI-generated content and integrate multiple viewpoints into their learning, thus fostering key epistemic skills. Initial findings demonstrate active student engagement in dialogues with GenAI, highlighting the use of follow-up questions that indicate critical thinking and creativity. These findings underscore the significance of integrating multiple perspectives and fostering epistemic skills among students, promoting a comprehensive and ethical approach to AI use in education. The research calls for further exploration of GenAI’s pedagogic potential and its broader implications for educational practices, suggesting a promising avenue for pedagogical innovation and the development of critical thinking skills in the digital age.

Collaborative work on the activity of internship supervision by Ifsi trainers

Supervision of student nurses during internships is evolving towards learning-centered support, readjusting the roles of the players involved. An action-research project in Saint-Brieuc, France, highlights the complexity of this practice. A guideline encourages a flexible approach, fostering a relationship of trust. Confidentiality, respect and adaptability are essential for an environment conducive to learning. This work underlines the importance of internship supervision and offers recommendations for an individualized approach, while maintaining a balance between academic rigor and human qualities.