Ideas Of Action Research Research Articles

More Is Required of Us: Complicating an Ontology of Experience at the Heart of Community-Based Research

More Is Required of Us: Complicating an Ontology of Experience at the Heart of Community-Based Research

Diálogo Democrático Y Desarrollo: Un Obituario Intelectual De Björn Gustavsen

Björn Gustavsen, with an original professional background as a lawyer and judge in his native Norway, had a formative role in organisational development processes in Norway, Sweden, Scandinavia and the European Union over four decades. Following in the tradition of Norwegian working life research by Trist and Thorsrud, he provided the conceptual framework and practical case studies which have driven major national and international programmes. He learned from different experience of organisational change in, for example, the USA and Japan, but he identified a distinctive way forward for the European Union, where he acted as a senior adviser. In contrast to conventional Taylorist top-down management and reliance on expert consultants, his approach was bottom up and concept driven, with a focus on empowering workers. With a commitment to long-term sustainable processes, he emphasised the importance of capacity building and succession planning, highlighting development organisations. His approach to partnership and coalition building enabled collaboration across sectors, in the cause of creating collaborative advantage. He had a distinctive fluent academic writing style, but spentmost of his time engaged in the design and practice of development, and editing the work of younger colleagues. He saw the role of academic journals and edited books in the development process, so encouraged new publications, but without seeking to dominate. He took ideas of Action Research and case studies, and applied them to national enterprise development programmes, working with the labour market parties. This resulted in a distinctive research and development culture.

Democratic Dialogue and Development: An Intellectual Obituary of Björn Gustavsen

Björn Gustavsen, with an original professional background as a lawyer and judge in his native Norway, had a formative role in organisational development processes in Norway, Sweden, Scandinavia and the European Union over four decades. Following in the tradition of Norwegian working life research by Trist and Thorsrud, he provided the conceptual framework and practical case studies which have driven major national and international programmes. He learned from different experience of organisational change in, for example, the USA and Japan, but he identified a distinctive way forward for the European Union, where he acted as a senior adviser. In contrast to conventional Taylorist top-down management and reliance on expert consultants, his approach was bottom up and concept driven, with a focus on empowering workers. With a commitment to long-term sustainable processes, he emphasised the importance of capacity building and succession planning, highlighting development organisations. His approach to partnership and coalition building enabled collaboration across sectors, in the cause of creating collaborative advantage. He had a distinctive fluent academic writing style, but spent most of his time engaged in the design and practice of development, and editing the work of younger colleagues. He saw the role of academic journals and edited books in the development process, so encouraged new publications, but without seeking to dominate. He took ideas of Action Research and case studies, and applied them to national enterprise development programmes, working with the labour market parties. This resulted in a distinctive research and development culture.

Researching the impact of teacher professional development programmes based on action research, constructivism, and systems theory

This paper deals with the topic of professional development programmes’ impact. Concepts and ideas of action research, constructivism, and systems theory are used as a theoretical framework and are combined to describe and analyse an exemplary professional development programme in Austria. Empirical findings from both quantitative and qualitative studies regarding the programme’s impact are provided and discussed. Moreover, implications for future programmes’ planning and implementation are provided.

Action Research for community business development

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to introduce the idea of Action Research as a way of making academic research more relevant for social economic change.Design/methodology/approach– This paper seeks a middle path by presenting a method for Action Research that is both scientific and that results in practical social-economic impact on a local society. The method is divided into 11 systematic steps.Findings– The author has found that the method results in job creation and place-based economic development.Originality/value– Usually social activists and academic professionals do not mix. This approach combines both theory and practice, which is unusual in university circles.

O ENSINO DE ATIVIDADES CIRCENSES PARA ALUNOS DE 5ª. SÉRIE

The aim of this study was to analyze the possibilities and difficulties when teaching circus activities in Physical Education classes. The study was guided by ideas of action research. The techniques were: participant observation, questionnaires completed by students and a semi-structured interview with the Physical Education teacher of the class. It was possible to develop the circus content in classes, since the area, the materials for the class, the involvement of the Physical Education teacher in the construction and planning of such content, responsiveness to the content by students, have contributed to the encouragement of the process.

The cyclical process of action research

Action Research is normally described as both a cyclical process and a participatory (democratic/egalitarian) undertaking. This article does not seek to contest the idiosyncrasies and pragmatics of the cyclical process involved in action research. Rather, it seeks to enrich it by developing further the idea of action research as a process that engages with problems and learning in the act of creating change. To do this we draw primarily on aspects of the work of the French philosopher, Gilles Deleuze. Deleuze has argued that all learning is essentially a direct apprentice-type engagement with the problematic nature of the material or project under consideration. We argue that an explication of what Deleuze means by this can augment our understanding of the contingencies involved in both the participatory and cyclical dimensions of action research. To give explanatory substance to Deleuze's potential contribution to action research, we use illustrative moments based on a hypothetical scenario of the development of a large piece of waste-ground into a community gardening project. We seek to connect aspects of Deleuzian philosophy to the cyclical process of action research to show the dynamic relationship between action researchers and an action research project. Our argument is that in doing this, an understanding of the variables involved in the cyclical process of action research may be enhanced.

Personal and intellectual influences leading to Lewin’s paradigm of action research

The idea of action research and social change was the last conceptual topic to engage Kurt Lewin’s attention and energy prior to his untimely death in February 1947. In this article we commemorate the 60th anniversary of his 1946 paper ‘Action research and minority problems’. In the present article, eight principles of action research which were extracted from Lewin’s writings are presented and discussed. We attempt to show that the action research paradigm derived from four aspects of Lewin’s personal and intellectual background: his personal history as a Jew and an immigrant to America; his field theory and its meta-theoretical principles; a deep commitment to the idea of democracy; and his theory of social change.

Don't wait till the cows come home: action research and initial teacher education in three different countries

This article outlines the experiences of educators in three teacher education institutes in the USA, Australia and the UK as they experiment with carrying out programmes based on ideas of action research. The emphasis is on experiences with programmes of initial education for secondary school teachers. A descriptive case study aimed to find out what critical issues teacher educators on the three courses experienced as they attempted to work with programmes based on ideas of action research and what we can learn from that. The data were gathered by means of semi‐structured interviews.1 In this study action research is conceived as an interactive method by which teachers and student teachers can develop knowledge. The paper first presents the theoretical framework, followed by the research design and presentation of the findings and finally the conclusion and discussion. The educators in all three institutes reported that students mastered simple, non‐systematic forms of reflection before they were able to carry out fully‐fledged action research in a systematic way and that they learned to master action research by doing it. Courses extending over several years with ideas of action research running through them as a constant theme provided the most fertile ground for this. The programmes seemed to have the best chance of success when there was commitment, continuity and communication in the education team. It was also important that it was not only the institutes or only the schools that had a say over the education of teachers: a shared say created better conditions for programmes based on action research.

Towards Internationalisation in Teacher Education: An attempt to use English as the working language in a sociology course

This paper describes an action research enquiry conducted at the State College of Education, Vienna. The author's main concern was the implementation of a Sociology course using English as the language of instruction. The paper describes the context in which the project took place, the main ideas of action research, the stages in planning, the adjustments which had to be made and the methods of evaluation. The results show many benefits for the students, the institution and the author. However, the costs of implementation also have to be taken into account. A critical reflection is given which makes it clear that institutional support is absolutely necessary for long-term success.

An eco-social approach to tackling social exclusion in European cities: A new comparative research project in progress

In this article we would like to introduce a three-year Research Project called 'New Local Policies against Social Exclusion in European Cities', financed by the Targeted Socio-Economic Research Program (TSER) of the European Union. We will briefly highlight the entire research project that aims to make a contribution to European debate about social exclusion within social work (see also Washington and Paylor 1998), as well as social work's theoretical knowledge and field projects. The specific emphasis is on analysing the significance of the eco-social environment and citizen participation in disadvantaged residential areas, but related work aims to develop new kinds of action models and research methods. The project started in January 1998 in Finland, Germany, and Great Britain, and it will be completed by the end of 2000. Our research is a unique kind of cross-national comparative case-context research, based on classic ideas of action research and comparative research. Overall, the project aims through a European exchange to develop innovative models of local policies, particularly within community-based social work.

The lack of action research:1 the case for Hong Kong

Action research facilitates professional development (Stenhouse, 1975). Facilitating teachers to learn from their own experience and improve their practice by action research is an important means to teacher empowerment and autonomy (Ebbutt & Elliott, 1985; McKernan, 1991). The idea of action research, however, has never been well-received in Hong Kong (Kwan, 1993), nor is the idea explicitly supported as a sound practice for practitioners in the local context by officials and administrators until very recently (Board of Education, 1997). The article tries to construct a comprehensive explanation for the lack of action research in Hong Kong, identifying and explaining the contributing factors. These negative elements are interrelated and operate ecologically in the education system. The authors conceive four levels of barrier, namely, policy, system, professional and individual, with nine major types of possible restrictions. These possible restrictions include, for example, the legacy of colonial administration (Morris & Marsh, 1992), oriental cultural factors (Cheng, 1990; Bond, 1991) and epistemological restrictions (Kincheloe, 1991). It is argued that if the lack of action research is properly understood, relevant and genuine support can be given to practitioners to carry out action research and school-based reforms.