Collaborative Inquiry Research Articles

‘We are changed yet the same…we can make a difference’: using a critical, creative, collaborative inquiry process to understand and develop professional artistry in nursing

ABSTRACT Professional practice in health and social care is embodied by the practitioners concerned, embedded in practice contexts and creative in nature. It is therefore complex to investigate, understand and develop. Current health and social care contexts can present practitioners with increasingly constraining circumstances and spaces that can feel closed instead of open to exploration and development of practice. The collaborative, critical and creative inquiry methodology presented here was developed among nurses practising in such challenging circumstances. It enables nurses and other health and social care practitioners to reveal, explore and develop their embodied practices, systematically and collaboratively, amid busy daily practice situations. However ‘small’ the space they are in, the process described here can help practitioners to enlarge their space for becoming. The iterative cycle and the use of participatory arts help illuminate otherwise hidden and difficult to articulate aspects of practice, enable the involvement of stakeholders in coming to new understandings and lead to an expanded view of professional practice and its potential for transformation. The purpose of this paper is threefold. First, to present the methodology, methods and lessons learned during the doctoral study in which this approach was developed. Second, to reveal the professional artistry of facilitating this space for becoming and of supporting professionals to reveal their own and others’ professional artistry. Lastly, to offer inspiration and a guide for others considering similar participative inquiry work and to encourage debate and critique of the approach taken.

Cultural Collaborative Ways of Knowing, Doing, Valuing and Becoming: A ‘Pandheri Guff’ Inquiry of Nepali Women Scholars

In Nepal, women are facing challenges in academia due to gender biases and limited opportunities. This article explores the experiences of Nepali women scholars who are redefining traditional knowledge, which is typically confined to textbooks, notes, and lectures. These critical issues are often ignored in academic settings. However, women academicians can overcome these barriers by collaborating, reflecting on their experiences, and seeking innovative solutions. To this end, the authors introduce Pandheri Guff, a traditional Nepali method for discussing and addressing such issues. Subscribing Pandheri Guff as a method, the authors engaged in a cultural Nepali collaborative inquiry, combining their narratives to create meaning. Their virtual weekly meetings, which began during the COVID-19 pandemic, focused on reflections about class participation, assignments, and learning experiences over two months by documenting their insights in Google Docs. The analysis is categorized into four themes: believing, meditative, doubting, and dismantling ways of knowing. This method fosters a judgment-free environment for sharing experiences, enhancing their learning, and empowering them to transform themselves. This article argued that this cultural approach advances understanding of women’s knowledge acquisition and enhances higher education learning by providing a collaborative and reflective space to overcome gender biases and improve learning experiences

Knowing, Being and Becoming a Person-Centred Nurse Leader: Findings from a Transformative Professional Development Programme.

Background/Objectives Leadership is central to the development of effective workplace cultures and as such should be viewed as a practice that is relational, exercised through a process of mutual and reciprocal influence. Person-centred leadership is an approach to leadership that supports a way of being that is authentic, prioritising values lived out in action. However, there is an increasing recognition that leadership development has not been impactful in relation to workplace culture. This paper reports on the ongoing evaluation of an innovative development programme (Queen's Nurse Development Programme), the overall aim of which was to illuminate the participants' experiences of engaging in transformative learning and development and identify the technical and transformative outcomes arising. The programme focused on developing leadership capacity for societal change and maximising the health impact of community nursing leaders. Methods The methodological framework for evaluation was underpinned by a Collaborative Critical Creative Inquiry. Twenty community nurses were selected to undertake the programme during 2020. The collection and analysis of data was consistent with the Collaborative Critical Creative Inquiry and was conducted as a one-day workshop, with participants engaged in a cycle of creative hermeneutic analysis. Results A total of seven themes were identified, including: sense of belonging; personal growth; developing new skills; finding voice; importance of self-care; and creating a safe place. This illuminated how the transformative learning and development processes within this programme were experienced and how these enabled participants to explore how they influence their practice and workplace. It is the journey with self that generates a sense of belonging and enables personal growth and the ability to care for self and others. Conclusions The key learning from this innovative development programme is the importance of focusing on the attributes of practitioners and the key building blocks for knowing, being, and becoming a person-centred practitioner.

“I sit here thinking I can do this”—Developing justice‐centered ambitious science teaching identities in professional learning communities

AbstractExplicitly attending to justice in science teaching and learning is long overdue. Here, we examined the professional teacher identity development of 13 science teachers as they collaborated in networked professional learning communities (PLCs) to implement and revise a culture‐setting unit focused on the science of COVID and engaging in collaborative inquiry cycles to identify and refine justice‐centered ambitious science teaching (JuST) practices in classrooms. These JuST practices are conceptualized as a synthesis of justice‐centered pedagogies and ambitious science teaching. To accomplish our research aims, we drew on qualitative methods, where we relied on transcribed video recordings of 21 PLC meetings and three transcribed end‐of‐year focus group interviews of two PLCs (i.e., 13 secondary science teachers, mostly white) across a year‐long period. As a result of our analyses, we identified how professional learning arranged through PLCs, culture‐setting units, and collaborative inquiries supported professional JuST identity development by, among other affordances, providing space for the critical and emotional work of learning to discuss race, affording teachers strategies for getting to know their students and the assets they bring to classrooms, and recognition and positioning of teachers as professionals capable of identifying or developing, refining, and contributing to knowledge about JuST science teaching and learning. Challenges identified included, among others, identifying how the culture‐setting units could be effectively integrated into existing curriculum maps and the uneven implementation support from administrators. In the end, what is revealed helps better conceptualize how engaging teachers in PLCs around tasks like curriculum implementation and refinement or collaborative inquires support professional JuST identity development and how such experiences can be more carefully negotiated.

Engaging students as partners (SaP) in a collaborative inquiry to develop a course

Aiming to develop a course with students as partners and to explore the process, two faculty initiated a curriculum development partnership with graduate students to design a new field study course. Applying a collaborative inquiry approach, we engaged in a research collaboration with graduate students online. The data collection was organised and facilitated using MURAL, a digital whiteboard that enabled synchronous and asynchronous visual collaboration with pictures, text, links, emojis, diagrams, and drawings. The study concluded with an exploration of the students’ experiences in the project. The co-created course design and pedagogy informed the development of a new field study course which was subsequently approved through the university curriculum approval process. Students shared that they appreciated reflecting, sharing, and contributing together as a group; they felt important and valued; and that it was meaningful to them to contribute to the learning of future students entering the program.

Diagnostic and Dialogic OD Approaches in a Collaborative Inquiry for Change: How and Why are They Successfully Coapplied?

Change leaders who want to invite members’ spirit of inquiry face a challenge; the conditions under which change practitioners successfully blend the strengths of diagnostic and dialogic approaches are not explicitly incorporated within the established theories. This article aims to describe how changing meaning-making systems (in other words, changing mindsets) can be crucial in facilitating successful coapplication of diagnostic and dialogic approaches. A new conditional combination (shared focus on realizing desired performance and change agents’ dialogic anchoring) for the emergence of the practitioners’ integrative mindset is examined, and its implications for research in blending diagnostic and dialogic OD approaches and related fields are discussed.

Incremental Growth through Professional Learning Communities of Math Teachers Engaged in Action Research Projects

This study investigates the experiences of a professional learning community (PLC) composed of six secondary math teachers enrolled in a graduate math methods course. Through the discussion of educational texts and collaborative inquiry, the teachers identified classroom challenges they aimed to address through individual action research projects. The PLC provided a supportive environment for teachers to share their processes, receive peer feedback, and collectively reflect. This study underscores the value of action research and PLCs in driving educational improvement. By engaging in structured inquiry within a collaborative setting, teachers gained insights into pedagogical issues, developed targeted incremental interventions, and contributed to the broader discourse on math education pedagogy. The collaborative PLC model facilitated reflective practice, challenged assumptions, and empowered teachers as agents of change. Implications for teacher professional development, instructional practices, and future research directions are discussed.

Research-Oriented Collaborative Inquiry Learning (REORCILEA) Model: Improvement of Students' Critical Thinking Ability and Collaborative Skills in Thermochemistry of Materials

This quantitative quasi-experimental study with a posttest-only control group design aimed to analyze differences in critical thinking ability and collaborative skills between students using a research-oriented collaborative inquiry learning model and those using a scientific approach in thermochemistry materials. Conducted with four classes XI MIA students in Pekanbaru, divided into experimental and control groups, the study used essay tests and observation sheets as instruments, with data analyzed via MANOVA. The research findings indicate that: (1) there are differences in critical thinking ability and collaborative skills between students using the research-oriented collaborative inquiry learning model and students using the scientific approach in thermodynamics material; (2) there is a difference in critical thinking ability between students who followed the research-oriented collaborative inquiry learning model and students who followed the scientific approach in thermodynamics material; (3) there is a difference in collaborative skills between students who followed the research-oriented collaborative inquiry learning model and students who followed the scientific approach in thermochemistry material.

Teacher collaborative inquiry into practice in school-based learning communities: The role of activity type

This study contributes to growing scholarly interest in teacher-led, school-based learning communities and the characteristics of teacher dialogue and social interaction that support professional learning in these settings. Based on existing conceptual distinctions proposed in the literature, we term this type of teacher dialogue “collaborative inquiry into practice” (CLIP) and propose a systematic and reliable tool to measure it. We then employ a quantitative, comparative research design to study how different teacher team activities (i.e., video-analysis, peer consultations, and pedagogical planning) shape the extent to which teachers engage in CLIP. Fifty-four transcribed teacher meeting excerpts were analyzed with the CLIP coding scheme, assessing different aspects of inquiry-based reasoning, participation, and content. Quantitative comparisons and illustrative examples show that CLIP was lowest during peer consultations, in part because teachers were often not positioned as agents of change in such conversations. Pedagogical planning activities featured more instances of inquiry into each other's ideas. Contrary to common assumptions, collaborative video analysis activities were not characterized by increased attention to student thinking or inquiry orientation. Our findings provide new insights into teacher-led, collaborative learning in on-the-job settings, as well as practical implications for the design of school-based professional learning communities.

Facilitating collaborative inquiry into practice around artifacts of mathematics teaching

AbstractAlthough there has been increasing attention to the importance of teacher agency in professional development, there has been little attention to what it takes to facilitate collaborative work that both centers teachers’ assets and expertise and leads to productive learning. This paper presents a framework for focused and responsive facilitation of productive discourse around instructional practice in teacher learning communities. Drawing on a situative perspective, we trace the development of six novice teacher leaders as they were mentored to lead online collaborative lesson design groups focused on analyzing artifacts of K-8 mathematics instruction in a large urban district in the US. Our framework articulates how leaders facilitated the discussions in ways that both built on teacher knowledge, experiences, and contributions while also focusing on professional learning goals. Our analysis also shows how rich learning opportunities were co-constructed and sustained by the mentors, teacher leaders, and participants in each group over time. Through narrative descriptions of one group, we show how the teacher participants began to take on some of the facilitation practices themselves as they apprenticed into the practices of the community. This approach to professional learning positions teachers’ experience and knowledge as important assets while supporting them to try out and reflect on new classroom practices.

Collaborative inquiry in action: a case study of lesson study for intercultural education

The evolving nature of intercultural education necessitates a shift from static to reflective pedagogies among teachers. This case study investigates the efficacy of a collaborative lesson study (LS) approach in enhancing Chinese university instructors' proficiency in participatory, non-essentialist intercultural teaching. Six English as a Foreign Language instructors at a Chinese university engaged in three iterative LS cycles over one month, integrating new intercultural communication materials into their classes. Data were collected through lesson documents, observations, discussions, and interviews. The immersive LS process significantly expanded instructors' understanding of key intercultural communication concepts, encouraged the adoption of more student-centered methodologies, and prompted critical reflection on prior cultural assumptions. The collaborative engagement facilitated a deeper theoretical grasp and practical application of non-essentialist principles. Challenges included time constraints due to teaching workloads, discomfort in peer feedback exchange, and a broader lack of coordinated intercultural teacher training. Despite these challenges, this study underscores the potential of LS as a robust model for advancing intercultural teaching capacity through collaborative inquiry. It hints at the promise of LS in bridging the theory–practice divide in intercultural education, paving the way for more nuanced, non-essentialist instruction.

Systems thinking for management practitioners and scholars: Strengthening the tools to analyze “wicked problems”

Global fragility and conflict have challenged business to identify solutions to some of the world’s most “wicked problems.” Yet corporate practitioners struggle to analyze the relationship between the firm and society in conflict-affected and fragile spaces. Systems analysis, emergent in peacebuilding, offers a compelling approach for management practitioners and scholars to better understand the role of business in complex social environments. This participatory, qualitative approach applies collaborative inquiry and causal-loop diagraming to analyze the complex dynamics that create the operational conditions and trace the impact of the firm on those conditions. This article outlines the application of this approach and argues that it fills a gap in the current tools used to understand the private sector’s role and agency in contributing positively to society. What emerges is a pathway to enhance theoretical development and practical understanding of the risks and impacts of corporate operations in the most challenging of contexts.

Editorial: New perspectives on curriculum: Rethinking collaborative enquiry and teachers' professional learning

AbstractIn BERA's 50th anniversary, this special issue of the Curriculum Journal recognises the debt to the work of Lawrence Stenhouse, former BERA President, and founder of the British Curriculum Forum (BCF), and his influence on teachers' work in researching and developing the curriculum. Papers in this issue address what Stenhouse called the central problem of evidence‐informed practice: ‘the gap between our ideas and our aspirations and our attempts to operationalise them’ (Stenhouse, 1975, 2–3). Stenhouse's legacy for curriculum models and thinking, both within the four home countries and internationally, highlights the methodologies and theoretical perspectives that inform teachers as researchers and how we understand and evaluate such frames of reference. Approaches to involving teachers as researchers examined in this collection resonate with BERA's strategic plan to build on its links with practitioners, set in the context of BCF and its work to support teachers' curriculum research.

Leading impactful research: applying platform thinking to drive collaborative inquiry in the innovation field

PurposeThis study investigates the application of collaborative inquiry within innovation management, employing platform thinking to address challenges of generalizability and relevance. The aim is to integrate Collaborative Inquiry methods, characterized by participatory, diffuse, and reflective practices, to transform research into a tool for impactful change in organizations in the field of innovation management.Design/methodology/approachA longitudinal participatory case study approach focuses on the IDeaLs case—a research platform that collaborated with multiple companies over several years. The data gathered and analyzed comes from the research project within the research platforms over the first two editions and from the research platform management and coordination activities.FindingsThe study introduces the Collaborative Research Platform Approach (CRPA), demonstrating its effectiveness in addressing typical constraints of traditional research methodologies through a real-world application within the IDeaLs case. The findings highlight the CRPA's potential in fostering a dynamic, co-creative research environment that bridges theoretical knowledge with practical applications, thus enhancing both scholarly and organizational outcomes while pursuing a future change within the organizations.Research limitations/implicationsThere are two main research implications. First, it proposes platform thinking as a theoretical lens to read a multi-stakeholder phenomenon in the research domain, confirming its nature of value-creation mechanisms, using it outside the business model and strategic space. Second, it offers a methodological contribution by presenting the CRPA framework.Practical implicationsThe CRPA framework offers organizations a structured approach to managing collaborative research projects that align with both academic rigor and practical relevance. Companies engaged in the study reported enhanced ability to implement actionable insights from research, influencing real-time decision-making processes.Social implicationsBy fostering collaborative engagements across multiple stakeholders, the CRPA promotes a research culture that values inclusivity and practical impact, potentially leading to broader societal benefits through improved innovation management practices.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to the innovation management field by proposing the CRPA, which integrates principles of Platform Thinking with Collaborative Inquiry. This novel approach is designed to improve the applicability and scope of innovation research, offering a robust framework that enhances engagement and utility across academic and business domains. It uses platforms as a theoretical lens to read a multi-stakeholder environment in the research domain.

Revisiting the Halal supply chain: A bibliometric visualization and future research direction

In the past twenty years, market dynamics have had a substantial impact on different industrial sectors, ultimately influencing their level of competitiveness. The field of operation management in terms of halal logistics has gained considerable attention and recognition among scholars and researchers in the academic community, as evidenced by the growing body of literature in the field of management. This article presents a bibliometric examination of scholarly literature pertaining to the halal supply chain in the domain of business. In addition, bibliographic material is organized and analyzed through the utilization of software tools such as VOSviewer, R Studio, and Microsoft Excel. A comprehensive analysis was conducted on a dataset comprising 278 scholarly papers that had been indexed by Scopus. The process of identifying and categorizing relevant research on the topic was carried out using certain criteria, including journal publications, articles, authorship, and geographical origin. The results suggest a significant rise in scholarly investigations carried out in this specific domain during the previous two decades. Our study also acknowledges several countries as the most productive domains of halal supply chain studies. It is imperative to recognize, though, that scientific advancement continues in this field, as well as in all other areas of study, and that data undergoes significant changes over time. This article examines potential avenues for future research, incorporating quantitative analysis and collaborative inquiry undertaken by researchers.

The Impact of the Initial Teacher Education Reaccreditation Process on Teacher Educator Identity

ABSTRACT This article reports initial findings from a research project that focused on the impact of the reaccreditation process and its outcomes on teacher educators in four institutions in England where Qualified Teacher Status accreditation was removed, despite leading successful programmes as detailed in Ofsted inspections and National Student Survey data. Whilst the outcomes of the reaccreditation process were mentioned in the mainstream press, the impact of this policy on teacher educators had only been reported anecdotally. This research fills a research gap to document impact on teacher educator identity and provides an evidence base to inform teacher education policy debates. Data were gathered through focus groups using a triad collaborative enquiry approach, based on the lesson study model, where researchers took on different roles: clarifier, observer, and questioner. This method formed part of a constructed focus group and built on a process of semi-structured and unstructured creative tasks. Initial findings identified the shifting context university educators perceived in relation to policy constraints, including a greater top-down, centralisation that negated the opportunity for teacher educators to provide a contextualised, evidence informed approach to teacher preparation. This contributed to the impact of the reaccreditation process on teacher educators’ professional identity, self-efficacy and agency.

Technology-Enhanced Collaborative Inquiry in K–12 Classrooms: A Systematic Review of Empirical Studies

AbstractCollaborative inquiry is an instructional approach that encourages student groups to engage in scientific inquiry processes, thereby enhancing their critical thinking and exploratory skills. The effective classroom implementation of this method requires ensuring student engagement in each inquiry stage, where technological tools and activity strategies play a crucial role in supporting their inquiry processes. However, the technological tools and activity strategies that contribute to designing classroom activities and fostering students’ engagement in collaborative inquiry remain unclear. This systematic review analyzed 58 empirical studies on technology-enhanced collaborative inquiry in K–12 classrooms. We examined the characteristics of these studies, the technological tools and activity strategies employed, and their reported outcomes and effects on student learning. The results indicate that most classroom practices featured diverse technological tools and activity strategies to support students in collaboratively performing stages of inquiry tasks. The findings highlight the need for further research into effectively integrating technological tools with activity strategies to provide adaptive support for specific inquiry processes, such as hypothesis generation and scientific argumentation. Our synthesis of previous outcome measurements revealed the positive impacts of technology-enhanced collaborative inquiry on students’ content knowledge, overall inquiry process, and scientific skills like argumentation. The implications of these findings are discussed for both researchers and practitioners, emphasizing the necessity of integrating appropriate technological tools and activity strategies to effectively facilitate collaborative inquiry in K–12 classrooms.

DAP discourses: hubris, hegemony, or heuristic for teacher education?

ABSTRACT This essay entails a critical review of the origins, discourses and contemporary manifestations of NAEYC’s enduring commitment to ‘developmentally appropriate practice’ (DAP); and proposes a reconceptualisation of DAP as an open question and incentive for place-based collaborative inquiry. Brief discussion of ECE’s early history highlights transnational feminist exchanges, charitable activism, competing interpretations of early childhood programme goals and pedagogies; and a mutually-beneficial relationship between two emerging fields – child development research and ECE as a scientifically-based profession. Decades of child development research are described in relation to evolving iterations of DAP Guidelines (1987). Discourse analysis posits DAP as a weapon against push-down academics, and a hubristic code signifying professional sanction and membership. Challenges to DAP hegemony include research on the cultural embeddedness of developmental standards and examples of collaborative place-based inquiry into ‘appropriate’ ways to care for and educate young children. The essay concludes by proposing DAP as a dynamic heuristic in the reform of ECE teacher education as a profession committed to multiple sources of knowledge and equity-focused social action on behalf of actual and imagined childhoods.

Balancing Act

This paper explores the dualistic nature of experiential learning (EL) definitions in higher education, advocating for a balanced integration of broad and narrow constructs. Through case study and collaborative inquiry, diverse disciplinary perspectives—from engineering to performing arts and urban education—are examined to understand EL's application and impact. The paper highlights the importance of accommodating both overarching frameworks for universal applicability and specific definitions for disciplinary depth. It proposes that broad definitions enhance inclusivity and adaptability, while narrow constructs ensure targeted learning experiences and skill development. The findings suggest that EL is a versatile pedagogical tool. It is adaptable to varied academic landscapes and yet maintains its essence of active, reflective engagement with the world. Finally, the paper argues that both the broad and narrow definitions are necessary to ensure EL remains a transformative educational pedagogy.

“Are you here for performance or are you here for well-being?” Using participatory research to promote thriving in a British Olympic sport organization

To support the growing calls to safeguard athlete health and well-being in the pursuit of sporting success, empirical research into thriving may offer practitioners potential mechanisms to promote both outcomes simultaneously. Yet, given that elite sport environments are increasingly characterized as complex and volatile, applying theoretical knowledge is often not straightforward. In this novel study we aimed to bridge the gap between theory and practice by partnering with a sport psychologist to explore their experiences of promoting thriving within an Olympic sport organization. Using a participatory research approach in a typically inaccessible context, we sought to support the specific needs of the practitioner through a form of collaborative inquiry. Together, over a 9-month period, we navigated the complexities of translating knowledge into practice and present novel insights into the realities of effectively creating systems-level change. Namely, the need for practitioners to deftly negotiate complex interpersonal relationships and organizational cultures, and to democratize responsibility for psychological change to wider stakeholders. Regarding thriving, we demonstrate that the promotion of thriving requires an in-depth understanding of the athletic environment and organizational systems. Further, an array of athlete perspectives is needed when determining what contributes to and constitutes a thriving experience. Through our collaboration with an applied practitioner, this study makes a significant contribution toward bridging the gap between theory and practice. In doing so, we draw attention to the complex and challenging scenarios practitioners face when promoting change at an environmental level within elite sport organizations.