Action Researchers Research Articles

The Legibility of Asian American Activism Studies

ABSTRACTThis essay examines “Asian American Activism studies” and asks: What changes through the legibility of Asian American activism studies? What does Asian American activism research uniquely offer? We offer a historiographical analysis examining topical themes as well as theoretical and methodological interventions across time. We provide an overview of the articles in this special issue. We discuss future directions, attending to the ways that research on activism remains surprisingly sparse in certain major areas within Asian American studies as well as to the ways that particular trends within the field are anticipated to shape activism studies.

Maximizing research impacts on cancer prevention: An integrated knowledge translation approach used by the Canadian Population Attributable Risk of Cancer (ComPARe) study

With a strong focus on end user, or knowledge user, engagement throughout the study, an integrated knowledge translation approach (iKT) is expected to enhance the quality, relevance and reach of research findings. From its initiation, the Canadian Population Attributable Risk of Cancer (ComPARe) study combined the expertise of the knowledge producers (cancer prevention researchers) and select knowledge users in an iKT approach. We describe in detail our iKT approach, including governance, outputs and early reflections. In our model, knowledge users were integrated as members of the research team or members of a KT Advisory Committee. The integrated knowledge users took a lead role on the KT activities for ComPARe, including developing the KT Blueprint, a four phase systematic approach to guide the planning and implementation of KT activities. This approach included planning, knowledge product development, dissemination and evaluation, with advisory committee engagement built in throughout. Our early reflections identified enablers and challenges of an iKT approach for this study. Enablers included co-investigators' commitment and attitude towards iKT, support for iKT from the funding agency, an established partnership early on, understanding of and experience in each other's area of expertise, dedicated funding, clearly delineated roles, advisory committee buy-in and existing tools. Challenges included anticipating all costs, continuity of involvement, competing priorities, relationship management and geographic distance. A future evaluation will determine the effectiveness and impact of the iKT approach and KT Blueprint. In the interim, the approach we describe here can be modeled by others interested in collaborative, action-oriented research.

Action Researchers to the Rescue

Action Researchers to the Rescue

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Activism, Bioethics and Academic Research

This article sketches a taxonomy of the activities in which bioethics academics engage, including activities that may make their own research more impactful, from little or no engagement outside academia to activism or extreme activism. This taxonomy, the first of its kind, may be useful in determining what obligations bioethics academics have in relation to activism and activities that fall short of activism.

Organizing for Urban Education in the New Public Square: Using Social Media to Advance Critical Literacy and Activism

In this paper, we draw upon data from a multi-year, ethnographic case study of a community-based organization in Detroit, Michigan to consider how the organization has used social media to influence reform discourse, educate local communities, and forward community-driven educational reform goals within an austere, neoliberal political climate. Our analysis is informed by critical race theory and critical literacy scholarship, and it offers implications for enacting citizenship and democratic educational change. It also reveals insights about the ways in which technologies and ever-changing modes of communication can influence communities’ critical literacy and civic action. We aim to boost the limited attention paid to the use of social media in urban educational activism, leadership, and policy research.

Dreaming across continents: A collaborative inquiry into dream sharing as a resource for action researchers

This is a collaborative inquiry into how dream sharing might inform our work as action researchers. Our main inquiry’s purpose was to explore participants’ experiences of an action research conference through sharing dream material in a social dreaming matrix, set up to create collective rather than individual meanings from dreams. A further purpose, which developed as we reported on the social dreaming matrix, was to examine our own dream insights as an ongoing parallel process whereby we shared our own dreams to facilitate and inform our reporting. We did this through documentary exchange and monthly telephone interchanges. Our theorizing about the interplay between conscious and unconscious mental processes draws on the psychoanalytically based ideas of Bion, Jung, Bollas, and Gordon Lawrence who developed the ideas and practice of social dreaming. We found our dream sharing helped overcome difficulties in writing the paper through a deeper and different level of knowing. Four themes emerged, they were the challenges and risks of doing action research particularly on dreaming, new insights and challenges that our dream sharing raised, the search for guides in our life and work, and the irruption of our research in other aspects of our lives.

Participatory action research experiences for undergraduates: forging critical connections through community engagement

ABSTRACT Embedded within ongoing university-community partnerships, participatory action research experiences for undergraduates – or PAR-based UREs – are multi-disciplinary, action-oriented research opportunities that engage undergraduates in collaborative research to address community-defined challenges. PAR-based UREs integrate participatory action research (PAR), a practice of social scientists, with undergraduate research experiences (UREs), a widespread and well-funded tradition in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields. PAR-based UREs offer a promising avenue towards fostering constructive university-community relations, while positioning undergraduate students to be competent researchers and critical change agents in collaboration with communities. This theoretical discussion introduces the concept and practice of PAR-based UREs by: (1) reviewing ‘traditional’ PAR and URE arrangements as separate entities; (2) offering a theoretical rationale for their integration; and (3) describing the formation, organization, and outcomes of a PAR-based URE pilot program, which underscores the need for a coordinated approach towards benefiting – and reconnecting – students, communities, universities, and the public.

Challenging knowledge production, twice: Feminist participatory action research and migrant women activism

IntroductionUnder the scope of the Global Alliance Against the Trafficking of Women's (GAATW) project Safe and Fair Migration from a Feminist Perspective, Anti-Racism Movement (ARM) in Lebanon is conducting a feminist participatory action research (FPAR) project with Mesewat, a group of Ethiopian activist migrant workers, the majority of whom are women migrant domestic workers (MDWs).Mesewat’s work varies in its scope: they do casework, particularly around medical, financial, and shelter needs; they lobby the Ethiopian state and consulate to address the violations they are experiencing; they c

Action Research and Systematic, Intentional Change in Teaching Practice

Action research shifts the paradigm of contemporary educational reform by emphasizing inquiry and placing teachers at the center of research-into-practice. By situating teachers as learners, action research offers a systematic and intentional approach to changing teaching. When working as part of a community of practice, action researchers engage in sustained professional learning activities. They explore issues of everyday practice and work to bring about change. This review highlights action research studies from across four subject areas—English language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies—and is premised on the notion that changing teaching practice is connected to understanding how teachers learn. Specifically, it focuses on understanding changes in teacher pedagogical content knowledge, disciplinary inquiry, and critical pedagogy through action research. Findings suggest that we must go beyond current conceptualizations of teacher learning as process-product, cognitive, and situative to view teaching as inquiry. Successful efforts to change practice through action research have demonstrated the value of engaging teachers as active participants in education research. At the same time, the field must overcome barriers including the marginalization of action research, logistical issues associated with conducting action research, and the dissemination of findings.

Promoting climate change transformation with young people in Brazil: participatory action research through a looping approach

Amid research into the mounting social and environmental threats presented by climate change, young people’s everyday experiences and knowledges are often overlooked, despite being the generation that will be most affected by climate change. We present a ‘looping’ methodology, developed through collaborative work between two distinct but complementary research projects wherein young people in the Paraíba do Sul watershed, São Paulo state, Brazil shared their perspectives on (respectively) climate-related disasters and the food–water–energy nexus. The approach brings together the theoretical framings of citizen science and nexus thinking under the aegis of participatory action research, to identify points of mutual learning in relation to the knowledge, action and critique co-produced with young people. This ‘looping methodology’ enables meta-analytic insights into how participatory action research, looped with other forms of action-oriented research, can enable young people and other protagonists to articulate and act upon the complex, multi-scalar processes that characterise what it means to live in uncertain social, political and environmental times.

Systemic Action Research as a Strategy to Face the Institutionalization of Participatory Approaches: a Case Study in the Basque Country

Institutionalization is one of the challenges met by action research (AR) processes aiming at structural changes in society, but what institutionalizing AR means and how it occurs is understudied. This paper is based on the experience of a long-term AR process in Gipuzkoa (one of the three provinces in the Basque Country, Spain), in which a regional government, eleven county development agencies, and a team of action researchers have been working together since 2009 to construct a new governance for territorial development. From its start, the Territorial Development Laboratory (TDLab) project has been inspired by AR approaches emphasizing participation. After a signed formal agreement in 2017 institutionalized the spaces and procedures built through AR as the new governance, tensions started to emerge, which suggests that the project’s participatory approach must also evolve and adapt to the institutionalization stage. To do so, systemic action research (SAR) provides a good framework to revisit the case and complement participatory features with systemic ones. Based on the discussion of the case from the SAR perspective, the paper proposes some systemic features that can help adapt participatory AR projects into structural features of governance.

The deportability continuum as activist research

This essay explores the aftermath of deportation and the concept of a deportability continuum from the perspective of a transnational, activist researcher. Retracing the process of becoming an activist and researcher via the successful though measured impact of a book of first-person testimonios and photography titled Los Otros Dreamers, this article argues for the significance of the “deportability continuum” as a concept in need of dissemination and debate beyond academe. This analysis of the deportability continuum in a US–Mexico context also renders more clear and concrete the transnational connections between the threat of deportation and the aftermath of deportation. Via the work of community organizing, the connections that implicate the disciplinary investments of Latinxs Studies with Latin American Studies come alive in the ongoing articulations of Poch@ House, a new community and cultural space in Mexico City.

The future of sex and gender in psychology: Five challenges to the gender binary.

The view that humans comprise only two types of beings, women and men, a framework that is sometimes referred to as the "gender binary," played a profound role in shaping the history of psychological science. In recent years, serious challenges to the gender binary have arisen from both academic research and social activism. This review describes 5 sets of empirical findings, spanning multiple disciplines, that fundamentally undermine the gender binary. These sources of evidence include neuroscience findings that refute sexual dimorphism of the human brain; behavioral neuroendocrinology findings that challenge the notion of genetically fixed, nonoverlapping, sexually dimorphic hormonal systems; psychological findings that highlight the similarities between men and women; psychological research on transgender and nonbinary individuals' identities and experiences; and developmental research suggesting that the tendency to view gender/sex as a meaningful, binary category is culturally determined and malleable. Costs associated with reliance on the gender binary and recommendations for future research, as well as clinical practice, are outlined. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Middle School Students’ Analysis of Political Memes to Support Critical Media Literacy

AbstractPolitical memes are argumentative visual texts commonly encountered on social media. Through the strategic combination of imagery and captions, a political meme presents information as fact about a topic, an individual, or a specific group. The power of political memes can be attributed to their viral nature and their effects on public discourse and perceptions. To critically read a political meme, students must be equipped with critical media literacy skills. This article describes how action researchers engaged 56 middle school students in the rhetorical analysis of political memes with the goal of supporting critical media literacy skills through practical application. The two‐week study took place in the Southeastern United States at a rural school. Students determined that the political memes created false binaries, appealed to group identities, drew on macro and micro sociopolitical contexts, and used strategic visual arrangements to form an argument. Critical media literacy is imperative given the prevalent and viral nature of media and its effects on people and public policy.

Action Research in Teaching English for Students of Non-Linguistic Specialties in Higher Schools

This article presents the theoretical and practical part of using the action research in teaching English for students of non-linguistic specialties in higher schools. Action research is a new process of research in Kazakhstan education that presents conducting of research by action researchers who share their findings with others in teaching. Our daily life connects with action research in order to investigate, make analysis and evaluate our work. The term action research has become particularly popular in education, especially in teaching foreign languages. Different approaches can be applied to improve the process of learning in it. Action Research is a great opportunity for creative teachers to develop different skills of students. The main purpose of this paper is to study basic concepts of action research, develop a model of action research process in teaching English, and determine the effectiveness and advantages of action research in teaching English for students of non-language specialties.

Project SMARTER As an Intervention towards Intensifying Action Research Competencies of Basic Education Teachers

In the era of educational reforms, action research becomes highly relevant especially in basic education as this gives the teachers and the school leaders the opportunity to revisit and improve their educational practice. These explanatory sequential mixed methods study sought to investigate the effectiveness of Project SMARTER in intensifying the action research competencies of basic education teachers. Forty basic education teacher-participants (n=40) were subjected to Project SMARTER's ten-day training intervention. Participants were pretested prior to the intervention to determine their entry knowledge on action research and were administered posttest to determine the knowledge gained through the intervention. Quantitative results revealed that participants performed significantly better from introductory to intermediate level of action research knowledge before and after the Project SMARTER intervention. To further validate the results, a qualitative phase where eight basic education teachers (n=8) were interviewed regarding their views and experiences as participants of the Project SMARTER. The phenomenological inquiry yielded three essential themes: ready to act: becoming action researchers, armed to teach: becoming teachers of research and trained to train: becoming research trainers. These essential themes signified how the project had impacted the participants as teacher-researchers, research teachers and trainers. Implications and recommendations are provided for higher education institutions, concerned government institutions as well as project implementers to consider to make project initiatives like Project SMARTER successful and sustainable.

Designing and implementing a positive body image program: Unchartered territory with a diverse team of participants

This article highlights the use and importance of action research in creating a new positive body image program. The purpose of the larger action research project was to design, test, and implement a positive body image program by working with a core group of diverse stakeholders from an exercise facility. Stakeholders included older adults (aged 55+), people with physical disabilities, and those with cardiovascular disease or risk factors, populations rarely included in the body image literature, particularly in program design. The resulting program was built to teach members of the facility about body image (e.g. its definition, causes, and influences), positive body image, and how to manage their own body image experiences and be critical of the Western beauty ideal. The project is outlined with emphasis on the development of the program along with the researcher’s reflexive notes and participant feedback. We also highlight the strengths and challenges of using action research in the development of a positive body image program with suggestions to improve this process for future action researchers. This research highlights the importance of using action research in order to engage participants who are not typically involved in the knowledge production process of body image program development.

(¿Por qué?) ¿es necesario intervenir y cambiar las cosas?

One of the basic and for many, defining tenets of action research is contained in the “slogan” ascribed to Kurt Lewin: “In order to understand it, you have to change it”. The slogan clearly resembles what Francis Bacon claimed for experimental science, however, and also Karl Marx’ well known stance in his Feuerbach-theses. In this text I discuss this “change imperative” and relate it to its “pre-history” before action research. Most action researchers are not willing to subscribe to terms like “social engineering” but still call what they do for “interventions”. The text argues that what most people spontaneously think of as “change” may not be necessary for calling what is done for action research. Yet, the alternative is not to withdraw to a disengaged, spectator position. The change imperative raises important questions about what kind of change action research initiates, and what kind of knowledge results from different forms of change. The text challenges the “slogan” as to what kind of change is appropriate and legitimate in working with changes in individuals, culture, communities, and organisations, and suggests ways forward through developing forms of practitioner research and native or indigenous research. To illustrate, insights from Aristotle and Hegel are invoked. Action researchers are challenged to discuss and clarify answers to questions about what kind of change is produced, and what kind of knowledge is generated.

Between panic and hope: Indigenous peoples, gold, violence(s) and FPIC in Colombia, through the lens of time

This article considers the relationship between gold mining, violence(s) and Indigenous peoples through the lens of legal pluralities with a focus on the dimension of time. Drawing on the specific case of the Embera Chamí of the Resguardo Indígena [Indigenous Reserve] of Cañamomo Lomaprieta in Colombia, I ask: What can an analysis through the lens of time unearth around the type of violence(s) that extractives engender for Indigenous peoples and their ancestral lands? I ground my analysis with concepts emerging from the literature around extractives and legal pluralities, such as Stuart Kirsch’s (2014) “politics of time’; Boaventura Santos’ (2002) “instant” and “glacial time”; and the “lethal” and “ancestral time” that emerge from my own work with Indigenous and Afro-Descendant peoples in Colombia. I develop a typology of actors and legalities vying to regulate the Resguardo’s gold, further developing my concept of “raw law” through the dimension of time. And I show what happens when the Resguardo’s authorities appropriate free, prior and informed consent as a tool towards self-government within this context of inter-i-legality. I take up Lemaitre and Sandvik’s (2015) call to theorize differently contexts of violence, reflecting also critically on ethical implications for activism and collaborative research.