Cooperative Inquiry Research Articles

Giving of the self and Midwife Burnout – An exploration of the consequences of being ‘with woman’ and how individual midwives can reduce or prevent burnout

BackgroundThe emotional nature of midwifery practice has been described by several researchers and midwives have reported extremely high burnout levels. Burnout is dynamic and effects individual midwives differently, depending on individual coping abilities and demographic and contextual factors. However, midwives themselves can reduce burnout at an individual level. AimThis study aimed to explore the concept of burnout with midwives and to ascertain their perspectives on how burnout can be reduced. This paper presents findings in relation to individual midwives’ responsibilities for the reduction of burnout. MethodsThis was a Participatory Action Research study. A total of 5 co-operative inquiry meetings were held with practising midwives (n = 21) over a six-month period (October 2018 - March 2019), in a large, urban teaching maternity hospital in Ireland. Data was analysed using Thematic Network Analysis. FindingsMidwives explored in detail the emotional nature of midwifery practice and how this contributes upon midwives’ burnout levels. Recommendations were made for individuals to reduce their own burnout levels. These include self-awareness and basic self-care skills. Some specific individual characteristics were suggested as increasing the risk of burnout such as younger, less experienced midwives. Conclusion and recommendationsMidwives require high levels of self-awareness to identify external demands, which make them more susceptible to burnout, and utilise their own positive coping mechanisms. Basic self-care is also necessary for midwife well-being. However, without commitment from healthcare systems to reduce chronic excessive workload, burnout levels will remain high, which impacts negatively on midwives and the women in their care.

Exploring the Black Box of Medical Leadership in a National Rehabilitation Hospital: A Co-Operative Inquiry

The International Journal of Integrated Care (IJIC) is an online, open-access, peer-reviewed scientific journal that publishes original articles in the field of integrated care on a continuous basis.IJIC has an Impact Factor of 2.913 (2021 JCR, received in June 2022)The IJIC 20th Anniversary Issue was published in 2021.

Research on Innovation of College Classroom Instructional Strategy from the Perspective of Deep Learning

Deep learning is an understanding and inquiry learning approach based on the development of higher-order thinking, which is of great importance to improve the quality of classroom teaching in colleges. This paper explains the connotation of deep learning for college students, and analyzes the shortage of current classroom teaching in Chinese colleges from the perspective of deep learning. It also puts forward the targeted measures as follows: establishing the teaching goal of promoting the development of students’ higher-order thinking; refining the structured teaching content focusing on knowledge connection; innovating classroom teaching methods to promote students’ cooperative inquiry; and adopting the multiple evaluation pointing to the development of students’ ability.

The Quality Evaluation of Business English Classroom Teaching Using Improved DA-BP Algorithm

With the international development of China’s economy, there is an increasing demand for complex talents who are proficient in English and familiar with business operation and management of enterprises. However, it is worth exploring how to explore a proven teaching quality monitoring model for business English (BE) majors. The evaluation system of business English classroom teaching quality should not focus on the effect of teachers’ “teaching,” but on students’ “learning” experience and the effect of “learning.” English teaching should take into account the actual situation of students, especially that some students have a poor English foundation and insufficient understanding of English learning. They can improve their English cultural literacy and enhance their intercultural communication skills from learning English. Therefore, when evaluating teaching quality, indicators such as teaching methods and learning strategies should be introduced and emphasis should be placed on motivating students’ learning attitudes, emotions, awareness, and experiences to promote cooperative inquiry learning. In this paper, we propose an improved DA-BP algorithm to measure the teaching quality of BE, which has achieved good evaluation results with an accuracy rate of 93%, enriched the content of business English classroom teaching and cultivated more comprehensive and better composite talents for the society.

College Students’ Ideological and Political In-Depth Teaching Community Based on Core Literacy Model

With the development of the times, building a learning community in ideological and political teaching has become an urgent need for teaching reform. In ideological and political teaching, the common vision of teachers and students is to carry out cooperative exploration and ultimately realize the progress and growth of common teachers and students, and implement the core of political science. Learning community in ideological and political teaching has the characteristics of group symbiosis, common value, cooperation and sharing, and democratic openness. Therefore, building a learning community in ideological and political teaching is conducive to the formation of a new teaching model of cooperative inquiry and the establishment of equality and democracy. The new teacher-student relationship can cultivate students’ higher-order thinking and promote more meaningful learning. It has been proved by practice that it is valuable to construct a learning community in the ideological and political teaching of universities. Teachers and students should change the traditional teaching concept. University political teachers should carefully prepare lessons, set up teaching design, be considerate to students, be close to reality, be close to knowledge itself, enhance the communication and interaction between teachers and students, and students and students, and actively build a learning community in the process of ideological and political teaching. To enable students to get new knowledge, solve challenging problems, and finally achieve progress and growth.

Children learning to sketch: sketching to learn

PurposeThis study aims to understand children’s sketching behavior while they engage in interest-driven design activities. Particularly, the authors examine their information sharing practices and the learning opportunities that may occur when they engage in a sketching activity.Design/methodology/approachThe data collection is based on a participatory design approach, cooperative inquiry. For analysis, the authors used the ethnographic case study approach, which allowed us to consider the particularity and complexity of sketching and its affordances within each distinct design activity.FindingsThe authors found children share information about their expectations, experiences, beliefs and knowledge via their sketches. Additionally, through sketching activities, they were engaged in multiple learning opportunities including how to label sketches, build on ideas, sketch in collaboration and innovate on ideas.Research limitations/implicationsThe findings demonstrate sketching can be used to gather information about the broader contexts of children’s lives which can be leveraged to identify their needs and improve the design of future technologies for children. Additionally, participating in sketching gives children opportunities to develop their sketching skills, a useful multimodal skillset for both design and personal expression.Originality/valueThis empirical research is original in its context of focusing on children sketching experiences in an interest-driven design environment occurring virtually in the informal setting of a library.

Adverse Childhood Experiences, Domestic Violence and Substance Misuse: An Action Research Study on Routine Enquiry and Practice Responses.

The long-term impacts of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are of increasing interest to researchers and practitioners, including the effectiveness of screening for ACEs to improve health and social outcomes. Despite a focus on implementing such practices, there has been little focus on ACEs experiences for women experiencing domestic violence and substance use, or consideration of practice responses around ACEs routine enquiry for domestic violence and related services. The Irish study discussed in this paper used an action research approach to implement ACEs routine enquiry within a domestic violence service for women accessing the service (n = 60), while also utilizing co-operative inquiry groups for practitioners both within the organization (n = 10) and with those working in associated fields of infant mental health, child protection, substance misuse and welfare and community support (n = 7). Of the 60 women who completed the ACEs routine enquiry in the study, over one-half (58 per cent) reported experiencing at least two ACEs in their childhood, including one-third of all respondents reporting experiencing four or more; service users reported significant levels of overlap between direct child maltreatment and adverse home environments. Reported parental substance misuse with the home environment was substantially higher than in general population studies. These findings offered early indications of both ACEs prevalence as well the types of ACEs that most define the experiences of the women presenting to a domestic violence service that supports women with substance misuse and other related issues. This paper discusses the ways in which the co-operative inquiry groups used this information and other processes to enhance practitioner, organizational, and inter-agency understanding and service responses. The practitioners felt that this form of ACEs routine enquiry, while not an end in itself, was a useful tool to engage women in conversations about trauma and intergenerational patterns and a basis for developing trauma-informed interventions. We conclude with discussion about: considerations of the risks of “individualizing” women's traumatic experiences; skills and supports for practitioners; and resource implications.

Exploring vulnerability and risk in an action research writing group: a cooperative inquiry

ABSTRACT This article describes how, the authors, as members of an action research writing group, responded to a comment about feeling vulnerable in risking bringing their work-in-progress to the group and in giving feedback to colleagues by adopting a cooperative inquiry approach to explore vulnerability and risk in the group. In cooperative inquiry group members act as both co-researcher and co-subject in the inquiry and action. The article describes the evolution of the group and how the topic of exploring risk and vulnerability emerged. The group’s exploration is grounded in the theory and practice of cooperative inquiry that gives voice to the group members questioning and reflecting. The article concludes by offering three propositions to enhance the work of writing groups.

Efektifitas Model Group Investigation dalam Meningkatkan Hasil Belajar IPS Di Sekolah Dasar

Learning in the 21st century directs students to formulate problems and suppress cooperation in groups to be able to think critically and communicatively. Students at this time are expected to be able to investigate a topic by learning discovery, learning content and learning to work cooperatively so that learning objectives are achieved. The purpose of this study was to determine the effectiveness of the Model Group Investigation on improving social studies learning outcomes in elementary schools. The problem-solving effort above is that the teacher must use an appropriate learning model so that students increase their learning outcomes. Group Investigation (GI) is a complex cooperative learning model because it combines the principles of cooperative learning with constructivism-based learning. The essence of the Group Investigation (GI) learning model is that when the teacher's learning process involves small groups where students work using cooperative inquiry. The advantage of using the Group Investigation (GI) type cooperative model is that students work together and interact with each other so as to make students more active in the learning process from the beginning to the end of learning. The methodology used in this research is a qualitative research that is library research that uses journals, books and other literatures as objects of study. This research produces information in the form of notes and descriptive data contained in the text under study. This qualitative research uses descriptive analysis. The descriptive analysis method will provide a clear, objective, systematic, analytical and critical description of the effectiveness of the Group Investigation (GI) model in improving social studies learning outcomes in elementary schools. The results of this study conclude that the Group Investigation (GI) model can improve social studies learning outcomes in elementary schools.

The transformative dance of the crisis to resignify social educational work: auto-ethnographical reflections on a cooperative enquiry in Northern Italy during the COVID-19 pandemic

This contribution proposes an autoethnographic reflection on a cooperative enquiry involving social workers, volunteers and family members of people with intellectual disabilities in Northern Italy. The author, a social worker and doctoral student, recognises the complexity of her own positioning and reflects on the educational work that takes place in the social sphere, on the risks connected to a technocratic logic and on critical, and transformative possibilities offered by the crisis. The author proposes a systemic reflexivity that challenges the dominant discourses, connects the micro, meso and macro levels and promotes different ways of knowing. The dynamism of the body, linked to the author's experience in the field of contemporary dance, becomes a symbolic way to decolonise the posture of social workers and open it up to the transformative potential of a sensitive, conscious and incorporated social educational work.

Enablers, markers, and aspects of quality innovative placements across distance: insights from a co-operative inquiry

ABSTRACT Internationally, COVID-19 has forced educational reform and disrupted already strained social work field education systems. This inquiry began pre-pandemic, responding to placement scarcity, which was only exacerbated by the pandemic as agencies migrated to online service delivery and universities responded to sudden placement cancellations. Educators found themselves navigating two interlinked global trends: 1) workplace learning that was changing radically; and 2) the immediate need to identify and develop placement opportunities. This article presents themes from a co-operative inquiry that interrogated four innovative international placement scenarios from Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand, highlighting enablers, markers, and aspects of quality learning. The four exemplars evidence the pedagogical challenges and opportunities presented by placement innovation and online learning. These placements reveal how tensions regarding placement scarcity, rapid placement innovation, and the concurrent need to mitigate risk while preserving placement quality were managed. The authors propose that creativity and innovation guided by well-articulated educational principles, learning outcomes, and pedagogical practices, promote the construction of quality placements that transcend potential risks. The challenge moving forward is upholding contemporary approaches to placement teaching and learning that ensure social work students’ acquisition of professional knowledge, values and skills that are necessary for practice.

Internationalisation through research collaboration

ABSTRACT Universities engage in international collaboration for a number of reasons. In the global North, which is characterised by wealth and power, universities increasingly use international collaboration for competitiveness and marketisation. In contrast, the global South engages in collaboration to strengthen research and build knowledge capacity. Prior studies argue that trust, mutual benefits, and achieving shared understandings and ways of working are important for sustainable collaboration. However, the studies generally examine what makes a “good” collaboration well after collaboration has been initiated. The contribution of this study is therefore to exemplify the relationship-building process between academics from an Ethiopian and Swedish university. The study is based in “co-operative inquiry” and uses data collected in April 2019 from questions composed by each set of academics, which were deliberated during their initial meeting. Their experiences of enablement and constraint in research collaboration and their motivations for pursuing a new collaboration are in focus.

Experiences of social work students undertaking a remote research-based placement during a global pandemic

ABSTRACT Field education globally, has been highly disrupted by restrictions associated with COVID-19. This disruption has forced many students to engage with online learning. The current article presents a student-led co-operative inquiry exploring the experience of four social work students undertaking a remote research-based placement in regional Australia during a global pandemic. In this inquiry students’ critically self-reflected on the strengths and challenges of remote research-based placements. Despite some initial reservations, the students’ experience was positive overall. This article reports on four key themes that emerged from this inquiry: the translation of social work communication and relationship-building skills to online environments, the development of professional identity in a remote research-based placement, access to supervision in a remote context, and reflection on the experience of completing a research placement guided by the social work value of respect for persons. We conclude that undertaking a remote research placement helped forge students’ appreciation for the role of research in social work, enhanced their communication and research skills, and strengthened students’ sense of professional identity. These findings confirm remote research-based placements can offer relevant and effective placement opportunities that can inform social work field-education heutagogy as we move beyond the restrictions associated with the pandemic.

An illustration of cooperative inquiry design: Finding our way to precious knowledge, together.

Although transpersonal psychology and practices are inherently holistic, vitally informed by an ontology of interconnectedness, and fundamentally open to practices that challenge hegemonic norms in research practices, the use of participatory methods that implement these ideals, remains scarce. The purpose of this paper is to reveal the details of the transpersonal research I co-conducted, which used Cooperative Inquiry to analyze the transpersonal phenomenon of psychospiritual transformation, for researchers and practitioners who seek an example to guide their investigations. My intent is to stimulate enthusiasm for this method by providing an overview of cooperative inquiry followed by a detailed account of the decisions and activities involved in the research design, data collection and analysis procedures, and validity measures complemented by a brief account of the results.

An interview with John Heron: Exploring the interface between cooperative inquiry and transpersonal studies.

In this interview, John Heron—the founder of cooperative inquiry (CI; Heron, 1996, 1998)—discusses this experiential, participatory approach to research and learning with participatory research special issue guest editor Olga Sohmer. After presenting a summary of cooperative inquiry, Heron and Sohmer discuss CI in the context of transpersonal studies, including past and prospective future applications. Questioning the emphasis on “trans” in transpersonal, Heron unfolds the three dimensions of human spirituality that CI engages and offers a vision for transpersonal studies in light of CI ideals. Additional themes that are explored include cultivating authentic relationships in CI, the role of the nonhuman natural world in CI, practices based on CI principles that can be used in daily life, applying extended epistemology and radical assessment in education, self-generating culture, and the role of CI in human evolution.

An embodied spiritual inquiry into the nature of human boundaries: Outcomes of a participatory approach to transpersonal education and research.

Embodied spiritual inquiry (ESI) is a radical approach to integral and transpersonal education and research offered as a graduate course at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). Inspired by elements of participatory research and cooperative inquiry, ESI applies interactive embodied meditations to access multiple ways of knowing (e.g., somatic, vital, emotional, mental, contemplative) and mindfully inquire into collaboratively decided questions. This article presents the learning outcomes of an inquiry into the nature of human boundaries within and between co-inquirers, providing an example of how ESI is implemented in the classroom and can be used to study transpersonal subject matter. In particular, the study found that boundaries were experienced in terms of their dynamic effects rather than as static qualities, with a relationship between dissociation and overly firm boundaries, as well as a relationship between integration/merging and more varied combinations of firm and permeable boundaries. Other notable inquiry outcomes include the identification of (a) experiential qualities of the states of dissociation, merging, and integration; (b) a recursive relationship between fear and trust in the modulation of optimal interpersonal boundaries; and (c) the phenomenon of shared emergent experience between practitioners, which suggests the existence of an intersubjective transpersonal field.

The Application Strategies of Autonomous Cooperative Inquiry Learning in Chinese Teaching in Primary Schools

The Application Strategies of Autonomous Cooperative Inquiry Learning in Chinese Teaching in Primary Schools

Editor’s Introduction

Editor’s Introduction

Reducing midwife burnout at organisational level — Midwives need time, space and a positive work-place culture

BackgroundMaternity care organisations have a responsibility to ensure the health and welfare of their staff. Rates of burnout are high in midwifery compared to other professionals. Therefore, exploring how it can be reduced is imperative. AimTo explore with midwives the contributors to burnout and how best to reduce burnout in a maternity hospital in Ireland. MethodsA Participatory Action Research study involving Co-operative Inquiry meetings (n = 5) with practising midwives (n = 21) between October 2018 and March 2019, in a large, urban teaching maternity hospital in Ireland. The transcribed data were analysed using Thematic Network Analysis. FindingsSeveral recommendations were made for maternity organisations, to reduce or prevent burnout. These include improving workplace culture, increasing support and acknowledgement, offering time and space for debriefing and reflection and regular rotation of staff. Consistent staff shortages are, however, a barrier to adhering to these recommendations. ConclusionThis study is the first of its kind to offer an in-depth exploration with midwives into the main contributors of burnout and what can be done at an organisational level to reduce burnout among midwives. The findings of this study highlighted the importance of working relationships. Additionally, owing to the nature of midwifery practice, time and space need to be created for midwives to debrief and reflect. However, there is an urgent need for healthcare systems to combat staffing shortages in order for these strategies to be successful.

Improving the first-year student experience: a critical reflection on co-operative inquiry as the ‘last loop’ in an action research project

ABSTRACT The first-year student experience is attracting attention within Australian higher education, where heightened concerns exist in relation to the successful transition of students to university life. This paper presents a critical reflection of the process involved in an action research project in a collaboration between academics and first-year students, coinciding with the students’ arrival to the university. On a small satellite campus, nine academics and 10 first year students from nursing, paramedicine, and health sciences partnered to explore students’ transition to university and to develop actions to support this process. Establishing partnerships with students, we elicited and listened to their stories, made sense of what we were learning together through dialogue and inquiry, participated in egalitarian decision-making regarding the direction of the project, and collaborated in meaningful action. The aim of this paper is to explore how the first-year student experience was impacted by engagement with the project and through the construct of co-operative inquiry, where all participants were co-researchers in iterative practices of action and reflection. Findings are captured in the ‘last loop’ of analysis, where learning and collaboration expanded within these cycles of action and reflection. ‘Four ways of knowing’: experiential; presentational; propositional and practical knowing are used as an analytical framework for conceptualising the findings. Of key interest is how this project became a vehicle for creating new understandings, shifting the nature of power relations among and between academics and students, resisting efficiency and outcome-oriented pressures of the university, and fostering a sense of inclusion for participants.