Action Researchers Research Articles

Introduction

Introduction

Environment Actors Confronting a Post Climate-Related Disaster Scenario: A Feasibility Study of an Action-Based Intervention Aiming to Promote Climate Action.

(1) A climate change awareness-action gap still prevails in our society, with individuals showing significant social inertia regarding environmental issues. The communication on climate change is pointed out as one of the causes of the social inertia; (2) Following an action-oriented transformation research, the main goal of this study was to ascertain the feasibility of an action-based communication intervention, based on the participants’ exposure to a post climate-related disaster scenario. The feasibility of the action-based communication intervention was assessed in a focus group meeting, whose content was qualitatively analysed; (3) The results of this study demonstrate that action-based communication interventions are feasible to trigger an attitude transformation, catalysed by the experiential processing of climate change and by the affect arousal; (4) This study comes to contribute to a transformation of the climate change communication praxis, by highlighting the urgency to shift the for a new paradigm of communicating climate change, in which the affect and the experiential processing should account for conveying environment-related information in order to promote society’s climate action.

An Integrated Urban Gardens and Peer Nutritional Counseling Intervention to Address Food Insecurity Among People With HIV in the Dominican Republic.

Food insecurity negatively affects HIV prevention and care, and sustainable interventions are needed. Here we describe the development of an integrated urban gardens and peer nutritional counseling intervention to address food insecurity and nutrition among people with HIV, which included: (1) peer nutritional counseling, (2) gardening training, and (3) garden-based nutrition and cooking workshops. The intervention was developed using community-based participatory research over multiple years and stages of data gathering and implementation and evaluation. Lessons learned include the importance of cross-sectoral partnerships to achieve multifaceted, integrated, and sustainable interventions and a shared commitment among partners to an ongoing cycle of action-oriented research, and the need for home-based and community-based gardens to enhance food security and social support. The development process successfully combined an evidence-based framework and community engagement to yield a multicomponent yet integrated food security and nutrition intervention appropriate for people with HIV and potentially adaptable for other chronic conditions.

Housing is not a crime: Madrid’s post-crisis squatters’ movement tell our story through activist research

Since the financial crisis the rate of squatting in Madrid has increased eightfold, a structural response to waves of evictions affecting upwards of 75 000 households in the region and the proliferation of vacant housing. But – predictably – squatters have been criminalised and persecuted by local and national authorities, the courts, the media and the banks who own the vast majority of their homes. Since 2015, Laura Barrio and Tom Youngman have co-ordinated a movement research project by and for the Coordinadora de Vivienda de Madrid, the assembly bringing together Madrid’s thirty or so neighbourhood housing mutual aid groups. Centred around a book published in 2017 and follow up interviews carried out in 2019, the project tells the story of Madrid’s post-crisis squatting in the first person plural as another tool in the squatters’ struggle for their right to housing. We tell the story through four lenses: speculation, poverty, criminalisation and legalisation. In this article we share the conclusions of our five year research project in English for the first time, unravelling the challenges of realising a research project as part of a social movement. We reflect on the complex emotions of sharing the project at academic conferences in Lisbon, London, Brighton and Stockholm, often finding ourselves feeling outsiders as activists doing research rather than researchers studying movements.

Academic activist research in times of COVID-19

Collaborative feminist research that brings together different communities and positionalities is challenging. Those challenges become even greater in a global pandemic, as individuals are forced t...

Computer says no? Limitations of tech-focused transitions to higher education for Australian LSES students

ABSTRACT This article explores the limitations of technology-focused teaching and online learning in ‘widening participation’ tertiary preparation programs, from the perspective of non-traditional university students, and in their own words. Specifically, the article draws on data derived from the Life Literacies academic preparation and action research project which was designed to enhance the capacity of students from low socioeconomic (LSES) backgrounds to successfully undertake undergraduate study at a regional Australian university. Reflecting on this data, as an action researcher and critically reflective practitioner, I argue for a more human-centred and holistic approach to teaching LSES students in widening participation programs. This approach does not overestimate the potential of computer-mediated learning, but provides embedded digital literacy support through positive, supportive social relationships. What enabling educators need, is not ever more complex communications technologies, but the time, through-care and people skills to be authentically and consistently available and present for their non-traditional students.

Application of action research in the field of healthcare: a scoping review protocol

Background: Traditional research approaches are increasingly challenged in healthcare contexts as they produce abstract thinking rather than practical application. In this regard, action research is a growing area of popularity and interest, essentially because of its dual focus on theory and action. However, there is a need for action researchers not only to justify their research approach but also to demonstrate the quality of their empirical studies. Therefore, the authors set out to examine the current status of the quality of extant action research studies in healthcare to encourage improved scholarship in this area. The aim of this scoping review is to identify, explore and map the literature regarding the application of action research in either individual, group or organisational domains in any healthcare context. Methods: The systematic scoping review will search the literature within the databases of CINAHL, PubMed and ABI/Inform within the recent five-year period to investigate the scientific evidence of the quality of action research studies in healthcare contexts. The review will be guided by Arksey and O'Malley’s five mandatory steps, which have been updated and published online by the Joanna Briggs Institute. The review will follow the PRISMA-ScR framework guidelines to ensure the standard of the methodological and reporting approaches are exemplary. Conclusion: This paper outlines the protocol for an exploratory scoping review to systematically and comprehensively map out the evidence as to whether action research studies demonstrate explicitly how the essential factors of a comprehensive framework of action research are upheld. The review will summarise the evidence on the quality of current action research studies in healthcare. It is anticipated that the findings will inform future action researchers in designing studies to ensure the quality of the studies is upheld.

Application of action research in the field of healthcare: a scoping review protocol

Background: Traditional research approaches are increasingly challenged in healthcare contexts as they produce abstract thinking rather than practical application. In this regard, action research is a growing area of popularity and interest, essentially because of its dual focus on theory and action. However, there is a need for action researchers not only to justify their research approach but also to demonstrate the quality of their empirical studies. Therefore, the authors set out to examine the current status of the quality of extant action research studies in healthcare to encourage improved scholarship in this area. The aim of this scoping review is to identify, explore and map the literature regarding the application of action research in either individual, group or organisational domains in any healthcare context. Methods: The systematic scoping review will search the literature within the databases of CINAHL, PubMed and ABI/Inform within the recent five-year period to investigate the scientific evidence of the quality of action research studies in healthcare contexts. The review will be guided by Arksey and O'Malley’s five mandatory steps, which have been updated and published online by the Joanna Briggs Institute. The review will follow the PRISMA-ScR framework guidelines to ensure the standard of the methodological and reporting approaches are exemplary. Conclusion: This paper outlines the protocol for an exploratory scoping review to systematically and comprehensively map out the evidence as to whether action research studies demonstrate explicitly how the essential factors of a comprehensive framework of action research are upheld. The review will summarise the evidence on the quality of current action research studies in healthcare. It is anticipated that the findings will inform future action researchers in designing studies to ensure the quality of the studies is upheld.

Improving the Quality of Religious Islamic Education Learning through Collaborative Learning Approach in SMP Muhammadiyah Pandan Tapanuli Tengah

The product quality of education is determined by teachers in learning processes underlying curriculum (official), which results of highly dependence on what is done by the teacher in the classroom (actual). Atmosphere of learning and teaching was directed so that learners can develop her potential. Previous learning approach which concentrates on the teacher (teacher-centered) to the student-centered approach to learning (student-centered), it takes master-teacher teaching methods, classroom management, and the ability to motivate students. Mastery of the teaching method is far more important than the provision of subject matter (al-Thoriqoh ahamm min al-hymn). The problems related to this study include: (1) description of the educational approach that can improve the quality of teaching Islamic education in junior high school students of class VII in Muhammadiyah Pandan Central Tapanuli. (2) collaborative learning education approach can improve the quality of teaching Islamic education in junior high school students of class VII Muhammadiyah Pandan. This study applies the quality approach and collaboration from any action researchers. The study was carried out in SMP Muhammadiyah Pandan Central Tapanuli. Data source were derived from class VII.The subject of study comprised 30 students.

Ko te Tika, ko te Pono, ko te Aroha: Exploring Māori values in the university

This research is offered as a koha (contribution) to the ongoing debates within the university where all co-authors work as academic staff, Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in Auckland, Aotearoa New Zealand. We set out to critically investigate three key Māori words, tika, pono, aroha, and the results of their adoption as ‘university values’ by AUT. In the sections below, we synopsise and synthesise scholarly literature from a critical Māori perspective, informed by collective lived experience, including our experiences of being Māori academics, working at AUT. This research offers an internal critique of our employer university and is therefore an exercise in academic freedom and a form of activist research, as is consistent with the political nature of Kaupapa Māori approaches. While this article restricts itself to one university, the conundrum of using Māori knowledge in educational and other contemporary social institutions is topical across the nation. The key question we investigate is: Are these three words, tika, pono, aroha, being used by AUT in ways consistent with their Māori meanings?

Making a Case for Ecofeminist Popular Education in Times of Covid-19

Ecofeminism offers a framework that brings together patriarchy, capitalism, and the degradation of the environment, and helps to make sense of and address a world in desperate need of radical transformation. The Covid-19 pandemic has magnified existing fault lines of inequality, poverty, gender-based violence, and turbulence in the biosphere. This paper uses an ecofeminist lens to critically investigate the case of a woman’s health course that employs a popular education approach. As imbedded activist researchers, we question how the curriculum should change so that the knowledge generated really becomes useful for transformative action. Thus, the paper brings together popular education theory and ecofeminism. After an overview of ecofeminist principles, we introduce a case study to apply these principles. We conclude that elements which relate to the participants’ lives in immediate ways, like food security and water, are entry points for challenging the perception of Nature as a “thing” rather than as a complex interrelated ecosystem. We argue that ecofeminist principles have widespread relevance for popular education and its transformative impulses beyond Covid-19.

Enhancing Human-Centered Design With Youth-Led Participatory Action Research Approaches for Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Health Programming.

Existing participatory research approaches have failed to identify innovative methods that overcome the persistent barriers to adolescent sexual and reproductive health service demand and access. Increasingly, programmers have turned to human-centered design (HCD), a problem-solving process that centers the needs, perspectives, and experiences of people, when developing solutions to complex SRH challenges. This article describes the application of a youth-engaged version of HCD as part of Adolescents 360, a transdisciplinary initiative to increase 15- to 19-year-old girls' use of modern contraception in Nigeria, Ethiopia, and Tanzania. Youth-adult design teams (including 111 "youth designers" trained in HCD methods) undertook formative research to inform the design and implementation of interventions. We reflect on the practical implications of using instrumental strategies of HCD with a youth-led participatory approach. Our experience indicates that (1) engaging youth as project partners in transdisciplinary teams requires planned and dedicated financial and human resources; (2) involving youth as action researchers can help identify opportunities to improve program empathy and responsiveness; (3) it is difficult to recruit "extreme users" as project partners because of the high competencies needed in HCD; (4) centering empathy and employing design standards during prototyping can drive decision-making and resolve questions raised by conflicting evidence claims in existing bodies of literature; and (5) testing tangible services and products in real-world settings continues long after the intervention design phase. Youth-adult partnership should continue throughout this iterative and adaptive phase to ensure that the adolescent experience of the intervention remains at the core of intervention delivery.

Demographic Representation and Collective Storytelling in the Me Too Twitter Hashtag Activism Movement.

The #MeToo movement on Twitter has drawn attention to the pervasive nature of sexual harassment and violence. While #MeToo has been praised for providing support for self-disclosures of harassment or violence and shifting societal response, it has also been criticized for exemplifying how women of color have been discounted for their historical contributions to and excluded from feminist movements. Through an analysis of over 600,000 tweets from over 256,000 unique users, we examine online #MeToo conversations across gender and racial/ethnic identities and the topics that each demographic emphasized. We found that tweets authored by white women were overrepresented in the movement compared to other demographics, aligning with criticism of unequal representation. We found that intersected identities contributed differing narratives to frame the movement, co-opted the movement to raise visibility in parallel ongoing movements, employed the same hashtags both critically and supportively, and revived and created new hashtags in response to pivotal moments. Notably, tweets authored by black women often expressed emotional support and were critical about differential treatment in the justice system and by police. In comparison, tweets authored by white women and men often highlighted sexual harassment and violence by public figures and weaved in more general political discussions. We discuss the implications of this work for digital activism research and design, including suggestions to raise visibility by those who were under-represented in this hashtag activism movement. Content warning: this article discusses issues of sexual harassment and violence.

Forging Political Cadres for Re-Peasantization: Escuela de Acción Campesina (Spain)

Bolstering the political formation of agrarian organizations has become a priority for La Vía Campesina and the Food Sovereignty Movement. This paper addresses the Spanish case study of the Escuela de Acción Campesina (EAC)—(Peasant Action School), which is a tool for political formation in the Global North in which the philosophical and pedagogical principles of the “peasant pedagogies” of the Training Schools proposed by La Vía Campesina are put into practice within an agrarian organization in Spain and in alliance with the rest of the Spanish Food Sovereignty Movement. The study was carried out over the course of the 10 years of activist research, spanning the entire process for the construction and development of the EAC. Employing an ethnographic methodology, information was collected through participant observation, ethnographic interviews, a participatory workshop, and reviews of internal documents. The paper presents the context in which the EAC arose, its pedagogical dynamics, the structure and the ideological contents implemented for the training of new cadres, and how there are three key areas in the training process: (1) the strengthening of collective union and peasant identity, (2) training in the “peasant” ideological proposal, and (3) the integration of students as new cadres into the organizations’ structures. It is concluded that the EAC is a useful tool in the ideological re-peasantization process of these organizations.

Framing and localizing anti-corruption norms in transnational civil society organizations: Transparency International in Portugal

ABSTRACT Social mobilisations against corruption have been found to be notoriously difficult to sustain. A major problem from a frame analysis perspective is that the opaque and often abstract, systemic nature of the problem makes consensus about who is responsible and what should be done about it hard to reach. Based on an ethnographic case study tracing the local implantation of Transparency International in Portugal, this article shows how social mobilisations can be successfully created and maintained despite divergent and sometimes outright contradictory ways of framing the addressed social problem (i.e., corruption) among leaders, members and supporters. Process-tracing techniques serve to highlight ‘scholarly activism’ and trans-European advocacy coalitions as key mechanisms: Action-oriented social research fulfils the double function of providing funds for an independent non-governmental and non-business organization and, maybe more importantly, of creating common reference points for members and supporters (frame alignment) despite the persistence of divergent individual frames. However, the intellectually elitist nature of the self-identified ‘grassroots movement’ and the strong emphasis on academic ‘objectivity’ and social ‘respectability’ prevents broader advocacy coalitions with more dispersed, non-hierarchical social movements which address similar causes albeit with a very different repository of action.

From Being System-Involved to Changing the System: Infiltrating the System

One model for engaging young people to be more civically minded and to help them develop a critically conscious sociopolitical identity is through youth organizing and participatory action research. Over the last 3 years, I have worked with Leaders Organizing 2 Unite and Decriminalize (LOUD) members—a majority of which we system-involved—who have worked toward creating a more socially just and humanizing juvenile justice system through youth activism and youth participatory action research (YPAR). Through this process, youth have developed their sociopolitical identity by finding their voice, speaking out against injustices, and raising awareness on critical issues that are needed to reform the juvenile justice system, where minoritized youth are overrepresented, sentenced longer, and face more severe punishments. Thus, this paper seeks to address the processes of YPAR that empower system-involved youth to advocate against racist policies and challenge the oppression found in the juvenile justice system.

Sounds like ‘home’: The synchrony and dissonance of podcasting as boundary object

Working at the intersection of migration studies and radio studies, we interrogate podcasting’s potential as a practice-based activist research method. This article documents podcasting’s role in an ethnographic project conducted together with Konstkupan (The Art Hive), a migrant-focused community arts space in Malmö, Sweden. We argue that the value of podcasting as a practice-based research method exists in its potential to function as a boundary object. Boundary objects are technologies and processes bridging social worlds and providing sites of communication and translation between groups. Challenging narratives that detect a decline in podcasting’s radical potential, we argue that as a boundary object, podcasting’s political significance continues in how it convenes small, diverse, but attentive ‘listening publics’. A boundary object does not demand consensus on the meanings or representations it produces, affording space for both the synchrony and dissonance of narratives produced by migrants.

What can we learn from anthropological practice to conduct socially just participatory action research?

ABSTRACT This paper explores the potential for using approaches and methods from anthropology to address inequalities and work with marginalised, voiceless groups to engage actively in decisions that affect them. We test and illustrate participatory action research (PAR) methods from anthropology that seek to understand tacit/implicit knowledge and values that may only be revealed through the study of day-to-day practices, behaviours and discourse over longer timescales. This is done through a case study of a planned development in Malta that included 170 interviews supported by situated listening and observation, observational visits over a period of time to the site and surrounding areas and public/stakeholder formal/informal meetings and workshops. Ethnographic methods helped build trust during the planning process, creating a communicative bridge for knowledge sharing. This qualitative research provided new insights based on tacit and implicit knowledge and values, highlighting specific subtleties, critical awareness, empathy and observational capacity, which are essential ingredients in socially just PAR. This included new insights into the way participation was shaped by broader socio-political contexts. By eliciting, analysing and integrating ‘knowledges’ in this way, action researchers can contribute to more socially equitable opportunities to participate and share power in knowledge creation.

Lessons Learnt on Designing a Community-Based Participatory Research Study on Trauma: A Qualitative Study with Arabic Speaking Refugee Newcomers and Their Service Providers

Few studies engage refugee newcomers in the design phase of a research project even when studying issues that are of significance to them. This preliminary study aimed to engage Arabic speaking refugee newcomers living with trauma and their service providers in designing a community-based participatory research (CBPR) approach to the study of trauma within this community. Focus groups with Arabic speaking refugee newcomers and their service providers confirm participants’ views of trauma as a significant issue in their lives, affirm CBPR’s principles of participation and action-oriented research, and highlight the benefit of research that informs the integration of trauma responses within resettlement processes. Lessons learnt about implementing a CBPR approach to studying trauma include addressing power imbalances in research, the essential role of action within research, and the value of experiential knowledge and engagement.

A University as the Center of Change: Preparing Educational Activists and Change Leaders

The East Carolina University International EdD supports school leaders in the United States and across the globe to address local educational equity challenges. To achieve this, we prepare and support school and district leaders to use evidence as practitioner-researchers together with members of their educational community. As a result, the reimagined EdD harnesses the power and utility of participatory action and activist research to address a contextualized, equity-focused dissertation in practice. We explore how two doctoral students have transformed their practices during and after their EdD experience.