Collaborative Research Methodology Research Articles

Science outside the classroom: exploring opportunities from interdisciplinarity and research–practice partnerships

ABSTRACT This article examines an outdoor science activity based on Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning of Science (ITLS) undertaken with a collaborative research methodology as a Research-Practice Partnership (RPP). The activity was implemented in a national reserve in Chile as part of continuing professional development and co-designed by in-service science teachers and researchers. The study had two research questions: 1) How do in-service teachers, working in a RPP, connect and articulate different science topics through methodological and theoretical interdisciplinary perspectives? 2) Can a RPP be a pedagogical resource to generate positive changes in professional development within the practice of managing outdoor science activities? The analysis was qualitative and based on content analysis of data collected from questionnaires about the teachers’ perceptions and scientific posters designed by the teachers as part of their course. Teachers were able to connect interdisciplinary topics – using theoretical and methodological interdisciplinarity – to solve real problems that arise from the environment within a field trip. In addition, findings reveal benefits of RPP and ITLS, for the management of outdoors activities, supporting the importance and relevance of learning science outside the classroom. However, the boundaries between researchers and science teachers should consider the cultural worlds of participants in the partnerships.

Advisor–advisee feminist relational mentoring: A heartfelt autoethnographic conversation

AbstractAcademia is frequently a hostile place where students, pre‐tenure scholars, women, people of color, disabled, queer, transgender, and nonbinary people face perpetual challenges. “You do not belong here” or “you are not good enough” can feel like a constant refrain. Yet some students find their path and pursue their graduate studies with determination, or even passion, joy, and a sense of satisfaction. A successful mentoring relationship with a faculty member can contribute to that success. This article tells the story of how two very differently positioned women in academia forged a unique mentoring relationship that produced unexpected and positive outcomes. One measure of this relationship's success is the student's transformation from hesitant master's student to confident doctoral student pursuing a self‐designed multidisciplinary doctoral degree. Less tangibly but no less important, the increasingly reciprocal and horizontal nature of this mentoring relationship allowed both parties to take risks in their academic lives and to step into more liberatory modes of knowing and being in the academy. In this article we, a white American tenured faculty advisor and a Saudi‐American Muslim woman PhD advisee, trace some of the key turning points in this advising story through a duo‐autoethnographic (duoethnography: a collaborative research methodology in which two or more researchers juxtapose their life histories in order to provide multiple understandings of a social phenomenon) dialogue. We relay how our mentoring relationship allowed each of us to transcend our scripted academic roles and fostered an enabling environment for doctoral study and risky scholarship. We acknowledge that mentoring is not a one‐size‐fits‐all approach, yet we hope that by highlighting some dimensions of our relationship we might inform others seeking a feminist, relational, horizontal, supportive model for academic mentoring.

Compassion Fatigue and Vicarious Trauma in Everyday Hospital Social Work: A Personal Narrative of Practitioner–Researcher Identity Transition

The story of my evolution as a practice-based collaborative researcher is a story that comes full circle. Through exploring my own experiences of compassion fatigue and vicarious trauma as a hospital-based social worker, I am able to investigate the phenomenon across the profession and provide a critique of the needs of practitioners working in the complex environment of hospitals and health care. Parallel to this is an investigation into the need for practice research in this complex environment and in the profession overall as seen through the lens of a collaborative research partnership with social work hospital colleagues that transformed my approach to research. I have drawn on personal narrative, autoethnography and reflexive processing to investigate my own impact on and from this research. I conclude with an understanding of the power of storytelling in participatory action research and in the potential in collaborative research methodologies for authentic reciprocity and relationship to traverse the practice–research divide.

Classroom-based Assessments in Linguistically Diverse Communities: A Case for Collaborative Research Methodologies

ABSTRACTFor linguistically diverse communities, researchers have long questioned assessment approaches that disregard learners’ multilingualism. Our study offers potential approaches that center contextualized, multilingual knowledges and skills within classroom-based language assessments with one teacher and his English foreign language courses for pre-service English teachers in Oaxaca, Mexico. We combined critical ethnographic and participatory action research (PAR) methodologies to foster collaboration, which shaped the assessment design and implementation. In this article, we detail our methodological approaches and include views about the resulting assessment as reported by the pre-service teachers in post-assessment questionnaires and stimulated recall-interviews. This work points to the promise of adopting approaches that position researchers as individuals who promote and help advance the goals and values of participants. We discuss the implications of our approach not only in the creation of assessment instruments but how this collaboration also impacted teaching approaches and contributed to the laying of the foundation for sustaining and expanding the collaborative work with the teacher. We conclude with recommendations for making use of this contextualized collaborative approach in other settings.

Using collaborative research methodologies in humanitarian supply chains

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to develop an existing collaborative research methodology process (Sabri, 2018), contextualise it for application in humanitarian supply chains and test it empirically. Design/methodology/approach Building on collaborative research methodology and humanitarian supply chain literature, the Sabri’s (2018) collaborative research methodology process is further developed to comprise eight phases of collaborative research contextualised for the humanitarian supply chain domain. The process is applied in a collaborative research case of academia–practitioner knowledge co-creation in a humanitarian supply chain setting, focussing on environmental sustainability improvement. The collaborative case analysis suggests a number of refinements to the elements of the process. This study undertook two cycles of academia–practitioner collaborative research. Findings In testing the process, a noticeable improvement in the collaboration among different humanitarian stakeholders was observed, leading to improved stakeholder management. The implementation improved the sustainability awareness and social inclusion of the affected population. Rurality, remoteness, security issues and resistance of field staff against change were among the main challenges for supply chain researchers to engage in collaborative research in the humanitarian domain. Originality/value The paper addresses the rigour‒relevance‒reflectiveness debate in the humanitarian supply chain domain. A collaborative research methodology process derived from action research is further developed using humanitarian literature, and then it is applied in a humanitarian logistics case focussed on environmental sustainability. The present collaborative research process facilitates engaged scholarship among the humanitarian stakeholders, as the researchers’ roles move from observatory to participatory knowledge broker.

Adaptações curriculares na construção de práticas de letramento para alunos surdos

Estudos apontam que estudantes surdos têm apresentado um quadro de baixo desempenho devido às dificuldades apresentadas em leitura e escrita. Tal situação resulta, em parte, das abordagens utilizadas no ensino de língua portuguesa como primeira língua, sem qualquer adaptação metodológica. Segundo os pressupostos da educação inclusiva, espera-se que o professor desenvolva adaptações curriculares como forma de construir um processo de ensino-aprendizagem significativo. Diante desse contexto, este estudo se propôs em investigar, se e como as adaptações curriculares têm sido implementadas em escolas que possuem alunos surdos matriculados, e como elas colaboram para a construção de práticas de letramento bilíngues. Apoiado na Teoria Sócio-Histórico-Cultural e na política nacional de ensino-aprendizagem, esse estudo se encontra ancorado, também, na metodologia qualitativa, do tipo crítico-colaborativo. Os dados foram gerados mediante observação das aulas de língua portuguesa, em salas que possuem alunos surdos matriculados, além da aplicação de entrevistas e sessões reflexivas. Os resultados indicam a ausência das adaptações curriculares, a dificuldade do professor em desenvolvê-las e sinalizam que a colaboração entre os participantes favorece a sua implementação. As ações colaborativas viabilizaram, ainda, a organização da aprendizagem e a criação de zonas de desenvolvimento proximal, que impulsionaram o desenvolvimento referente às questões de letramento.

AN INTERDISCIPLINARY FRAMEWORK FOR ISLAMIC COGNITIVE THEORIES

AbstractThe Islamic psychology (IP) community in Europe has recently witnessed a heated debate about the credentials required to participate in the theoretical substantiation of IP and Islamically integrated psychotherapy and counseling. This debate has provided convenient circumstances for Muslim psychologists and Islamic scholars alike to rethink their roles within the flourishing movement. Specifically, the discussions hint toward the importance of adopting a collaborative research methodology for IP, in particular for basic research. The methodology of choice will need to define the necessary qualifications and responsibilities of scholars and psychologists in a collaborative research process (personal collaboration) and evince its capability to appropriately marry knowledge and data, diverging research methods, and perspectives, concepts, and theories from Islamic studies and contemporary psychology (content‐related collaboration). Here, we devise and offer a case illustration of an Islamic Psychology Basic Research Framework (coined the SALAAM Framework). This framework uses the Institute for Interdisciplinary Studies (IIS) Model of Interdisciplinary Research, developed by the IIS at the University of Amsterdam. Our first aim is to appropriate the IIS model for the IP literature by applying the model's research process phases and technique for the integration of disparate bodies of knowledge—that is, the identification of common ground—to methodological approaches in the contemporary IP literature. Our second aim is to exemplify the devised SALAAM Framework using the relatively unexplored area of Islamic cognitive theories (ICTs), which remain underdeveloped in contemporary psychological literature, primarily because of a lack of commensurability with the nomenclature of contemporary psychology. We thus provide a primer on the potential scope of ICTs. Toward the end of this article, we discuss the potential of the project of interdisciplinary construction of Islamic psychological theory, and the ability of the SALAAM Framework to establish a research program in IP that centers on cognition. We finally offer our reflections on the distinctiveness of Islamic psychologies in comparison to mainstream and Christian psychology.

Making Space for Community Critical Methodology: Stories from the Australian Context.

Our collective account considers the ways community critical methodologies can inform academic endeavors. Methodology is understood to be the theorizing of methods that produce and legitimate knowledge claims. For us, community critical approaches incorporate poststructural and other forms of critical theory in the questioning of taken for granted assumptions. This forms a valuable foundation for community praxis as it focuses not just on social issues outside, but on an examination within; on the institution of psychology itself. We find "examining within" a vital process for our research, teaching, and community engagement. Above all it is important to ask whose interests are served by the construction and presentation of knowledge in particular ways. We present three pieces of practice which engaged with critical methodologies. The first examines collaborative research methodologies developed with young people in rural Australia who are primary carers for a family member. The second examines tensions involved in trying to employ critical methodologies in multi-stakeholder work between community organizations, communities, and researchers. The third examines opportunities and barriers when employing critical methodologies in learning and teaching with undergraduate students. We reflect upon the intersecting threads of commonality and difference between them and consider the implications for practice.

Perceptions of Needs, Assets, and Priorities Among Black Men Who Have Sex With Men With HIV: Community-Driven Actions and Impacts of a Participatory Photovoice Process.

Black men who have sex with men (MSM) with HIV experience significant health inequities and poorer health outcomes compared with other persons with HIV. The primary aims of this study were to describe the needs, assets, and priorities of Black MSM with HIV who live in the Southern United States and identify actions to improve their health using photovoice. Photovoice, a participatory, collaborative research methodology that combines documentary photography with group discussion, was conducted with six Black MSM with HIV. From the photographs and discussions, primary themes of discrimination and rejection, lack of mental health services, coping strategies to reduce stress, sources of acceptance and support, and future aspirations emerged. After the photographs were taken and discussed, the participants hosted a photo exhibition and community forum for the public. Here, 37 community attendees and influential advocates collaborated with the participants to identify 12 actions to address the men’s identified needs, assets, and priorities. These included making structural changes in the legal and medical systems, encouraging dialogue to eliminate multiple forms of stigma and racism, and advocating for comprehensive care for persons with HIV. As a secondary aim, the impacts of photovoice were assessed. Participants reported enjoying photovoice and found it meaningful. Results suggest that in addition to cultivating rich community-based knowledge, photovoice may result in positive changes for Black MSM with HIV.

Collaborative Visual Methods: Parent Activism, Educational Justice, and Photography in a Los Angeles Elementary School

Scholars and practitioners in the subfields of Environmental and Medical Anthropology have adopted photo-based collaborative research methodologies like photovoice as a means of incorporating participants in community-based research in a hybrid practice that borrows from the collective filmmaking strategies of visual anthropologists like Jean Rouch, the pedagogy of the oppressed of Paolo Freire (2000), and the feminist critiques of the 1990s and 2000s (Harper 2012; Pink 2007; Rouch and Feld 2003). In this article, we demonstrate how a collaborative research methodology using digital photography and group discussions was applied within a parent engagement program at a primary school in Los Angeles. The methods and findings show how photography revealed points of convergence and divergence between two groups of participants: (1) parents and caretakers and (2) teachers and school support staff. We demonstrate how the photovoice-inspired methods helped the two stakeholder groups in a school community identify...

Urban virtues and the innovative city: An experiment in placing innovation in Edmonton, Canada

In the highly competitive landscape of global cities and entrepreneurial urbanism, the development goals of cities are increasingly framed through discourses of ‘innovation’. In this paper we critically examine this relationship through a case study exploring the attempt to build a nanotechnology sector in Edmonton, Alberta. Adopting a collaborative research methodology involving citizen engagement and urban touring, we explore participant representations of Edmonton as an ‘innovative city’. The conversations we had with participants follow some common themes within an emerging literature on innovation geographies, for instance as related to network collaborations and quality of life. However, participants furthermore articulated innovation pathways which were more closely linked to local identities and values within the city, including negative place narratives. We argue that paying attention to these ‘virtues of place’ can assist cities to counteract trends towards the homogenisation of urban innovation strategy, and affix the ‘innovative city’ to more socially robust articulations of the future prosperity and the possibility of place.

Territorialidade e Reexistência indígena na Fronteira Amazônica:

Neste artigo são apresentados os resultados obtidos pelo projeto “Nós somos os outros: Identidade e Território Rikbaktsa”, no âmbito do Curso de Especialização “Gestão Colaborativa de Sistemas Socioecológicos na Amazônia Brasileira”, cujo objetivo foi realizar um exercício de avaliação da resiliência socioecológica do povo indígena Rikbaktsa, da Terra Indígena Escondido (Cotriguaçu, Mato Grosso). A metodologia utilizada consiste em uma adaptação da ferramenta elaborada pelo grupo “Resilience Alliance” e orientou o trabalho exploratório de pesquisa colaborativa sobre os temas: reconfiguração territorial pós-contato; formas de uso e ocupação da TI Escondido; e desenvolvimento de metodologias colaborativas junto a grupos indígenas. Foram identificados atributos importantes para resiliência do “Sistema Rikbaktsa” e fatores que ameaçam os processos de reterritorialização e resistência nos quais os Rikbaktsa estão historicamente engajados. São também apresentadas reflexões e recomendações acerca da aplicação dos conceitos e métodos relacionados à avaliação de resiliência e princípios de gestão colaborativa.

Theorising partnerships for site-based education development in vocational education and workplace learning

Site-based education development now constitutes a common approach to preparing learners for particular occupations, enabling them to secure employment and at the same time achieve broader social, economic and personal outcomes. New forms of partnerships, other than traditional vendor–client relations, are necessary to achieve such multi-faceted goals. This can be achieved by recognising and appropriately integrating pedagogical contributions in different sites to cater for learning needs. Accordingly, professionals from educational institutions need to actively collaborate and engage with a range of key personnel to form partnerships for the purposes of harnessing and facilitating learning opportunities within the constraints of given sites. An action research process enables participating partners to work towards and achieve agreed outcomes. Outcomes addressing areas causing concern are developed and discussed ‘on site’, forming site-based education development. Using a collaborative action research methodology that addresses issues identified by those in particular sites, solutions can be made visible and problems worked through. This enables the partners to achieve agreed outcomes developed during the life of the partnership. Outcomes and possible training areas are developed and discussed by key partners, particularly those in workplaces. In this article, we draw on intersecting sets of understandings around the philosophy of site-based education development, founded mainly on two overarching theories of workplace learning and practice architectures, to theorise partnerships for site-based education development. Some findings and ideas from two exemplar action research projects are presented to exemplify the key concepts.

Interweaving in hybrid methodologies

ABSTRACTThe paper will consider instances of the interweaving of theory and practice within drawing research, in order to suggest potential approaches to the development of hybrid methodologies in fine art practice-led research. The paper is written from the position of two current supervisors and creative research collaborators: Deborah Harty and Phil Sawdon (aka humhyphenhum from 2007), who historically were supervisee/supervisor. The paper will make reference to Harty's experience as a Ph.D. researcher undertaking practice-led research within a fine art context (completed 2010) and supervised by Sawdon. A discussion of Harty's hybrid methodology: action theoria, will provide an instance of the interweaving of theory and practice. Action theoria incorporates the cyclical and iterative process of action research – intention; action; review – with a process of theoria – the dialogue of both practice and theory's relationship to a given subject matter. Following this, the paper will discuss the interweaving of action theoria into humhyphenhum's collaborative research methodology: meaningful play. This interwoven methodology evolved during collaborative practice-led research projects from 2005 to the present. The paper will make reference to several of humhyphenhum's projects as a means to identify the interweaving of theory and practice within collaborative research. As current supervisors (2015), the paper will conclude with a discussion of how reflection on these experiences has informed our position as supervisors. We will consider, for example, how this has impacted on our ability, as individual supervisors, to offer insights into the interweaving of theory and practice, without defaulting to the position of compelling our supervisees to adopt our methodology.

Boundary Crossing

Researchers in the field of academic literacies have shown that, for many students, entering higher education involves a renegotiation of identity, that the education system privileges certain literacy practices over others, and that studying seems to have little in common with the ways of knowing, valuing and communicating which students bring with them from other domains of their lives. This lack of relation raises an important theoretical issue for literacy studies: if literacy practices are socioculturally situated, to what extent are the boundaries between one context and another impermeable? In order to address this question, this paper draws on research in the broader context of post-compulsory education in the UK, investigating the interface between students’ literacy practices in their lives beyond college, and those involved in participation, learning and demonstrating learning on their vocational and academic courses. It examines boundary crossings firstly between the literacy practices of research and of teaching in the collaborative research methodology, and secondly between literacy practices in different domains of students’ lives. It argues that the characteristics of literacy practices with which students identify in their lives beyond college can be harnessed as resources for learning and for transforming the communicative landscape of further and higher education.

Collaborative research methodologies and the construction of a national geospatial clearinghouse to conserve biodiversity in the Federated States of Micronesia

This manuscript details the pursuit of spatial data and spatial analytical capacity building in the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM) in order to support multi-scale marine and terrestrial biodiversity conservation. This includes: 1) Creating the FSM's first national spatial data clearinghouse; 2) Constructing spatial analysis laboratory infrastructure to support conservation; and, 3) Building capacity for spatial data creation and sharing across the FSM and research partners. This is made possible by adopting ‘community based participatory research’ methodologies and adjusting them to fit small island geographies. This allows for the determination of common agendas, synergies among ongoing projects, and intelligent assessments of infrastructure and the sustainability of technological systems and partnerships in the unique Pacific Small Island environment.

문화다양성 교육을 위한 교육과정 및 문화예술 기반 교육방법 탐색

As cultural diversity is among the most concerned theme in contemporary Korean education, this research investigates curriculum and teaching methods to enhance and appreciate cultural diversity education through the study of culture and arts. This research identify the four areas of educational contents that must be incorporated within cultural diversity curriculum in order to be responsive to the educational needs of the increasingly multicultural society that Korea is becoming: meaning and characteristics of culture, component of cultural diversity, expansion of cultural diversity, and acknowledgement and respect for cultural diversity. Guided by the four considerations above, curriculum designed for primary and secondary school levels have been developed in this research. Furthermore, based on the proposed curriculum, pedagogical strategies centered on cultural and artistic accessibility, have been applied and, in so doing, we developed lesson plans. To reflect to the greatest extent possible on-site applicability of our models, collaborative action research methodology that involve both experts and practitioners alike has been implemented. Finally, utilizing the user-centered design model, which evaluates responses from both students and teachers, against the yardstick of the usability test, optimal curriculum and lesson plans are developed. The results of this research could serve as significant benchmarks against which future selection of educational contents and methodology, which are needed in practice, is made when grappling with cultural diversity education.

Re-imagining roles: using collaborative and creative research methodologies to explore girls’ perspectives on gender, citizenship and schooling

Often girls are the objects of the camera’s lens and subjects of the researcher’s gaze. This article describes a qualitative study using a collaborative, creative and critical methodology to explore girls’ perspectives on gender, citizenship and schooling. The seven adolescent girl participants used Photovoice to engage with their roles as girl-citizens. Despite Canada’s international reputation as a leader in gender equality, evidence reveals that challenges still prevent their full participation, particularly in formal politics. This research raises questions about what life is like for girls and women in Canada beyond the rhetoric and global rankings, and adds to the often disconnected bodies of literature on girlhood, citizenship and education.

Rethinking the Creative Economy: Utilizing Participatory Action Research to Develop the Community Economy of Artists and Artisans

Artists and artisans have a crucial role in the sustainability of the creative economy. By utilizing a participatory action research approach seeded by the work of J. K. Gibson-Graham, Jenny Cameron, and Julie Graham's study of community economies in the Pioneer Valley, The Rethinking the Creative Economy Project demonstrates how a collaborative research methodology can reappropriate development from the exploitation of artists and artisans as a panacea for economically challenged communities and as a tool that can help perform a postcapitalist environment. The project seeks to promote the specific assets and strategies of artists and artisans in ways that will benefit the broader community by providing a thriving cultural milieu in which creative expression is valued and embraced and in which the explicit inclusion of a diverse economy fosters both the possibility and the reality of an improved quality of life.

Teaching at the Tension Points: The Ethical Challenges of International Experiential Learning

This 40-minute presentation will discuss the ethical challenges of international experiential learning programs. It will draw on the authors’ experiences developing the Indonesian Institute for Social Sciences and Human Rights, a program that brings U.S. and Indonesian students together to work in collaborative partnerships learning about ethnographic methods and their relationship to social justice work. Located in Jogjakarta, Java, Indonesia, the program asks students to consider the epistemologies and ethics of collaborative research methodologies. Moving beyond traditional study abroad practices that position Indonesian students and scholars as sources of local “data” to be extracted for the academic empowerment of their cosmopolitan visiting counterparts, this program opens a valuable space for students to not only question issues of culture and method, but to reflect upon their participation in global regimes of knowledge production. At the same time, by intentionally highlighting the fault lines that mark cultural, national and disciplinary boundaries, the program reliably generates high levels of personal anxiety and community conflict among students, demanding innovative pedagogical strategies for transforming tension into productive learning and dialogue. In this presentation, we will not arrive at a fixed set of ethics for international experiential learning, rather we will explore ethics as a space of ongoing inquiry and engagement. We anticipate that this presentation will be of interest to faculty, staff and students from a range of disciplines who are designing and engaging in international experiential learning programs.