Engagement In Research Activities Research Articles

Using Imagination as Teaching Tool to Increase In-service Teachers Engagement in Action Research to Improve Aspects of Teaching Practice

Using Imagination as Teaching Tool to Increase In-service Teachers Engagement in Action Research to Improve Aspects of Teaching Practice

Cooperatives: A Development Strategy? An Analysis of Argan Oil Cooperatives in Southwest Morocco

Cooperatives, as both a strategy and an organizational form, often enable underprivileged individuals to collectively compete in a market through joint-ownership agreements and democratic decision-making. While cooperatives are promoted as social enterprises for their labour-centric emphasis, we also know that many fail due to a variety of factors including a lack of accountability, low wages, and difficulty competing in high-end markets. This paper assesses the model employed by argan oil cooperatives in southwest Morocco. Female-based cooperatives have been supported by donor organizations and development practitioners to promote environmental conservation of argan forests, foster social equity in the patriarchal society, and improve the local economy.The study reveals that through donor funding and the development of associations to commercialize cooperative products, the cooperative model in Morocco has been largely successful. The rapid growth the cooperative movement has been able to achieve in the argan oil sector has stimulated social, economic, and environmental development. However, the findings suggest that these successes have resulted from cooperatives failing to meet basic tenets of cooperative organizations. This outcome can be attributed to the initial set of stakeholder priorities and local contexts. Due to the mixed results, one of the questions raised in this paper is whether the cooperative model should be viewed as a success or failure.Although defending the argan oil cooperative model as a successful development strategy, the author proposes a new model that incorporates Internet-based strategies to further the cooperative movement. Established as an action research engagement, The Argan Tree is an argan oil cooperative that espouses value chain transparency and accountability through e-commerce. This innovative model has the potential to overcome setbacks that plague many cooperative models including: inequitable profit distribution to members, a lack of member awareness and participation in decisionmaking processes, and excessive profit margins captured by retailers. A pilot study conducted in 2010 suggests that Internet-based strategies can shift the development paradigm of cooperatives.

Examining the long‐term impact of collaborative action research on teacher identity and practice: the perceptions of K–12 teachers

This study focused on teacher perceptions of the long‐term impacts of engaging in collaborative action research on professional identity and practice. This qualitative, phenomenological study focused on understanding the lived experiences of 10 teachers before, during, and after engaging in action research. Each teacher was interviewed before engaging in action research, after one year of engaging in action research, and two to four years after completing an action research project. Outcomes revealed that several aspects of teacher identity and classroom practice were changed. In addition, the impact of teacher engagement in action research on the broader educational context is discussed.

The Administrator as Action Researcher: A Case Study of Five Principals and Their Engagement in Systematic, Intentional Study of Their Own Practice

The purpose of this case study was to understand engagement in action research as a form of professional development for practicing principals and the subsequent knowledge constructed as a result. The research team followed five principals through 1 year of professional development, which focused on supporting each principal in the design and implementation of an action research project on one's own leadership practice. Data sources included artifacts, field notes, video- and audiotaped transcriptions of meetings, and interview transcripts. Two assertions with supporting evidence are reported First, the high-stakes testing environment and era of accountability dramatically shaped the topics of principals’ inquiries and the ways that they understood the inquiry process. Second, collaboration with other principals, regardless of felt time constraints, played a critical role in the ways that principals made sense of the action research process as well as their own practice as administrators, and it precipitated deeper thinking about school and administrative practice. This study revealed that action research provides administrators with opportunities to engage in meaningful professional development that affects their own practices, the practices of other principals, and those within their school communities, thus making the act of reflection systematic and intentional.

A First-Timer's Impressions of Engaging in Action Research: A Case in Ethiopian Preservice Teacher Education

In this study, I examined the impressions of 10 preservice education degree teachers at Haramaya University, Ethiopia, toward their engagement in action research as part of their practicum courses. Because action research is a recent component in education of teachers in Ethiopia, I explored the insights gained by preservice teachers from their experiences of undertaking action research during this assignment. To this end, as a research advisor, I involved the student teachers in a series of individual and group meetings in the course of the project to get their reflections regarding the usefulness and challenging aspects of their engagement in individual action research. I also asked the student teachers to write progress reports and reflections in the course of undertaking their individual action research projects. Further, I kept reflection notes on my experiences of facilitating action research as a teacher educator without prior experiences of such kind. Accordingly, although there were some challenges, many student teachers found their experiences positive. The student teachers remarked that their involvement in action research helped them understand the complexities involved in teaching and how to respond to it vigilantly through an inquiry approach. The study has implications on the role of training teacher candidates in action research and the measures that need to be taken to promote it in preservice teacher education where the approach is not yet well established, as in the Ethiopian context.

The growing importance of research at academic colleges of education in Israel

Since 1979 colleges of education in Israel have been re‐conceptualized as academic institutions. The reform includes professional advancement of teacher educators through the creation of four academic ranks. One of the criteria for moving up the hierarchy from one position to the next is engagement in research activity. What benefits can be derived from the growing involvement in research and how can it impact on the individual and the institution? Responses to a questionnaire administered in one college of education indicate that there is agreement among teacher educators that research work can contribute to their need for professional growth and self‐actualization and can contribute to their teaching. However, they agree that research work does not contribute to the development of leadership skills and, although teacher educators are partially ranked for promotion through their research activity, there does not seem to be any increased involvement in the decision‐making processes at the college.

Building in Dialogue Between Consumers and Staff in Acute Mental Health Services

This paper describes some aspects of the methodology, material, and findings from a lengthy participatory action research engagement by a consumer organization in Australia, which was undertaken in collaboration with staff at a major public psychiatric hospital and then went on to involve “players” throughout the local and national mental health services system. A small first phase established a dialogic methodology for the exchange of experiences and thinking between staff and consumers. The purpose of the second phase of the research was to explore how consumers' voices might be heard, and how staff–consumer communication about that feedback, might be “built in” to ongoing organizational structure and culture. Systems thinking about defensive routines, silences, and voice-as-discourse is reported as offering a possible way of cracking the puzzle of the closed-loop cycle of claim/ blame-defense-and-counter-claim/blame-defense that has been characteristic to date.