Practitioner Research Research Articles

Reaping the Harvest of Joy: Practitioner Enquiry into Intercultural Group Singing

Singers from community choirs in the UK and Norway participated in research to evaluate their experiences of singing in a collaborative choral event in the UK in June 2023. They shared personal stories of their participation and interpreted the significance of their experiences through the app-based data collection method Sensemaker®. We found strong evidence of fast social bonding through a shared emotional experience, which was amplified by the aesthetic qualities of the singing, the material qualities of the venue and the ethical qualities of leadership to model and express the values and attitudes underpinning the reported positive effects. As an intercultural activity, we found that both bonding and bridging social capital were produced through the activity, highlighting the potential of group singing as a potent form of civic imagination and for developing intercultural empathy. The study also highlights the value of practitioner enquiry as a research methodology for developing an understanding of the complex ways in which participation in cultural activities can lead to positive outcomes for participants.

Making waves: The benefits and challenges of responsibly implementing wastewater-based surveillance for rural communities

The sampling and analysis of sewage for pathogens and other biomarkers offers a powerful tool for monitoring and understanding community health trends and potentially predicting disease outbreaks. Since the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of wastewater-based testing for public health surveillance has increased markedly. However, these efforts have focused on urban and peri‑urban areas. In most rural regions of the world, healthcare service access is more limited than in urban areas, and rural public health agencies typically have less disease outcome surveillance data than their urban counterparts. The potential public health benefits of wastewater-based surveillance for rural communities are therefore substantial – though so too are the methodological and ethical challenges. For many rural communities, population dynamics and insufficient, aging, and inadequately maintained wastewater collection and treatment infrastructure present obstacles to the reliable and responsible implementation of wastewater-based surveillance. Practitioner observations and research findings indicate that for many rural systems, typical implementation approaches for wastewater-based surveillance will not yield sufficiently reliable or actionable results. We discuss key challenges and potential strategies to address them. However, to support and expand the implementation of responsible, reliable, and ethical wastewater-based surveillance for rural communities, best practice guidelines and standards are needed.

Research, teaching and time: teacher practices and possibilities

Issues around the relationship between teachers and research have long been a topic of debate in the literature (Bartels, 2003; Borg, 2009, 2010; Erlam, 2008; Hall, 2023; Korthagen, 2007; Levin, 2013; Lightbown, 1985; Marsden & Kasprowicz, 2017; McIntyre 2005; McKinley 2019; Medgyes, 2017; Nassaji, 2012). There is a relationship between research and educational practice but it is complex and nuanced. Teachers engage with research through teaching, using research, often indirectly, to inform their professional practice. This paper argues that an explanatory framework (Maton, 2014) that can account for this complexity is required to understand the relationship between research and teaching; knowledge from sites of knowledge production such as university research centres is recontextualised by state education departments and educational publishers before being incorporated into classroom discourse (Bernstein, 2000; Maton, 2014). The paper then argues that a teachers' professional life cycle (Huberman, 1989) must be considered to ensure any more direct engagement with research is likely to be of benefit. Finally, the paper argues that teachers as practitioner researchers presents a possible way of more closely linking research and educational practice.

Puzzles in exploratory practice: The role of why questions

This article delves into the concept of ‘puzzles’ in exploratory practice (EP), an innovative branch of inclusive practitioner research. EP encourages teachers and learners to define their own agendas (i.e. puzzles) to explore their practice. It has been argued that puzzles are most effective when framed as why questions (e.g. Why do we cheat?) rather than other types of questions. This is because why questions are believed to assist practitioners in gaining a deeper understanding of their practice. However, I have observed that learners often generate other forms of questions, such as what or how. Additionally, exploring a why question did not always lead to a deeper understanding. To address this issue, I conducted an investigation with my own 66 second-year undergraduate students in Japan to determine whether the puzzle had to be a why question in EP. The students created and investigated their puzzles using a preferred format of what, how, and why questions and shared their thoughts with their classmates through poster presentations. This was followed by questionnaires and focus group discussions where I asked for their thoughts on the differences between the three puzzles. The results revealed a general affinity between EP and why questions, but the qualitative analysis of EP posters suggested that, rather than the puzzle format itself, ensuring process-oriented puzzling in EP could be key to developing practitioners’ local understandings. This article highlights the significance of curiosity-driven ongoing engagement in practitioner research and discusses ways to cultivate this ‘I/we wonder’ mindset among practitioners.

A relational understanding of the needs of siblings of children who have been sexually abused

AbstractThis participatory research project highlighted the views and experiences of young people who are the brothers and sisters of children and young people who have experienced child sexual abuse. By working with young people who had experienced sexual abuse and their siblings, this practitioner research sought to give these young people a voice. The research involved a group process with young people who have experienced sexual abuse and have siblings, and one‐to‐one online consultations with the brothers and sisters of young people who have experienced abuse. All the young people spoke of their sibling and family relationships as unique and requiring unique responses to these relationships by services and health‐care professionals. Siblings’ needs in the aftermath of a child sexual abuse discovery are often overlooked. This research describes how just as children who have experienced sexual abuse may feel anger, fear, guilt, shame, anxiety, and confusion, so do their siblings. Brothers and sisters of young people who have experienced sexual abuse describe significant relational trauma with intense emotional experiences of isolation, confusion, sadness, and anger. There is a real need to support young people and families to find words and develop capacities to talk about child sexual abuse ‐‐ a need to find supportive ways to speak about what has occurred and understand its impact on all. The study clearly demonstrated the significant level of need and impact on brothers and sisters of young people who have experienced sexual abuse.

Conceptualizing Flow for Content Marketing Effectiveness

The paper explores and consolidates the concept and experience of flow regarding its implications for content marketing in the digital marketplace. Technology-supported content marketing in the e-market has become increasingly important for customer satisfaction. The flow experience has also been shown to be an important aspect of online consumer behavior and linked to beneficial market outcomes. At the same time, the conceptualizations of flow have been evolving and no clear established framework for it exists. Through a qualitative review of current academic and practitioner research on the usage of content marketing for engaging consumers the paper consolidates findings. It creates a framework to advance the conceptualization of flow for content marketing and an understanding of how brand content usage and promotions in the digital sphere can determine the characteristic of flow and work with it to positively impact beneficial market outcomes.

Inquiry project or inquiry stance? A continuum of teacher candidate perceptions of knowledge construction during practitioner inquiry-based clinical practice

ABSTRACT Previous scholarship has signaled the potential of practitioner inquiry for fostering an inquiry stance among teacher candidates during preservice teacher education. Little is known, however, about the relationships teacher candidates assume vis-à-vis knowledge construction – a core dimension of inquiry stance – as they inquire. The study reported in this article investigated the perceptions of the relationship between inquiry and knowledge construction exhibited by teacher candidates engaged in practitioner inquiry during yearlong internships in a clinically based teacher education program. Semi-structured interviews served as the study’s primary data source and were analyzed through theory-led thematic analysis. The analysis yielded a six-point continuum of perceptions ranging from viewing inquiry as a required project to viewing inquiry as a way to assert ownership over generating worthwhile knowledge of teaching. The findings suggest that having a deeper understanding of how teacher candidates experience their own knowledge generation as they inquire could assist teacher educators in cultivating their inquiry stances.

“The Scream”: Using the Visual Critical Pedagogy of Subversive Indigenous Art in the Elementary Classroom to Discomfort the Comforted and Activate the Empathic, Ethical, and Relational Dimensions of Reconciliation

This paper uncovers my journey as K-12 practitioner in British Columbia towards exploring the use of “subversive art” as a “visual critical pedagogy” (Gil-Glazier,2015; Naidus,2005; Peters, 2016; Zorilla & Tisdell, 2016) to advance my students and myself towards reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples in Canada. I use the powerfully unsettling painting done by Cree artist, Kent Monkman, titled “The Scream”, as a springboard for this inquiry. “The Scream” provides an Indigenous counternarrative to the colonial versions of residential school histories and has the potential to progress practitioners and students towards actionable reconciliation by activating their empathic and ethical consciousness. I attempt in this essay to weave together a cluster of concepts, as I explore: (a) the nature and evolution of truth in BC’s elementary school curriculum (Andersen, 2017); (b) the historical establishment of the curriculum in a positivist modality (Gadamer, 2013; Greene, 1975; Marker 2004); (c) Greene’s (1995) argument that aesthetic education can help students and practitioners to engage meaningfully with difficult knowledge; (d) Greene’s (1977, 1995) philosophy of wide-awakeness, through which students and practitioners can activate the power of difficult knowledge; (e) Gadamer’s (2013) “fusion of horizons” as a means by which wide-awakeness can function in this context; (f) “subversive art” as a form of “visual critical pedagogy” (Gil-Glazer, 2015); (g) and the critical pedagogy of Paulo Freire. I braid these concepts together using the scholarship of Indigenous scholar, Michael Marker (1951-2021) to provide the pedagogical rationale for my determination to establish the visual critical pedagogy of “subversive art” in my classroom.
 
 Key Words
 Subversive art, Visual critical pedagogy, Reconciliation, K-12 education, Practitioner inquiry

Introduction to the Special Issue: Intuition and Practitioner Research

Introduction to the Special Issue: Intuition and Practitioner Research

Practitioner Researcher Intuition in Stimulated Recall Studies

Practitioner Researcher Intuition in Stimulated Recall Studies

Intuition and Reflexivity: The Ethics of Decision-Making in Classroom Practitioner Research

Intuition and Reflexivity: The Ethics of Decision-Making in Classroom Practitioner Research

Digital technologies of transportation-related communication: Review and the state-of-the-art

Information and communication technologies (ICTs) play a significant role in transportation systems as they provide the connection between transportation system users, system planners, operators, and managers. Over the last few years, with advancements in ICTs, there has been a rapid change in travel behaviour. However, little is known about how ICTs and other emerging digital technologies are being utilised in transportation-related communication for public, private, and active transportation. To bridge this gap, this study aims to explore academic and grey literature focused on the use of digital technologies in transportation-related communication. The methodological approach employs a systematic literature review, with the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis) protocol, to identify digital technologies that are found promising among scholars and practitioners for research, testing and deployment. The study analysed 158 publications and identified some common themes of how these digital technologies can be implemented to improve access to transportation communication. The study finds that: (a) The main literature focus is how information is gathered and shared with transportation users; (b) Advances in mobile applications afford real-time route updates, easy navigation of complex routes, and personalised journey planning; (c) Some notable knowledge gaps exist in how these technologies are implemented—including, willingness to use and digital literacy to understand them; (d) Many digital technologies are at the trial or development phases, which have potential to improve how transportation information can be made readily accessible to all users.

The Role of Practitioner Research in Exploring Learner Autonomy for In-service Teachers: A Retrospective Case Study

This study is a classroom-based case study on emotion regulation (ER) in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom. In order to clarify the influence of peer interaction on ER, this study aimed to: (a) identify the types of emotions that the students experience in the EFL classroom, (b) determine the situations in English classes that elicit these emotions, (c) explore ER strategies employed by the students, and (d) examine the influence of peer interaction on ER. The participants in this study were 26 non-English major first-year Japanese university students who attended my English class in the spring semester of 2022. The students answered two open-ended questionnaires and the results were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The students experienced a variety of negative and positive emotions and regulated their emotions using different ER strategies in various specific situations in the English classroom. The students also perceived the positive effects of peer interaction on emotion regulation (ER), such as a decrease in negative emotions and an increase in positive emotions. This study highlights the potential benefits of peer interaction in ER and the findings contribute to ongoing discussions on the role of interaction and the importance of ER for learners in EFL classroom. 本研究は、外国語としての英語の授業内における感情調節（ER）に関する事例研究である。本研究目的は次の4つである。（a）学生が英語の授業において経験する感情の種類を明らかにすること、（b）英語の授業のどのような状況で、そのような感情が引き起こされるかを明らかにすること、（c）学生が用いる感情調整戦略を探ること、（d）感情調整に及ぼす仲間の相互作用（ピア・インタラクション）の影響を検討することである。本研究の参加者は、2022年春学期に筆者の英語の授業に出席した、英語専攻でない日本人の大学1年生26名である。学生たちは2つの自由記述式アンケートに回答し、その結果を量的・質的に分析した。その結果、学生たちは様々なネガティブな感情とポジティブな感情を経験し、授業内の様々な具体的な状況において異なるER戦略を用いて感情を調節していた。また、学生たちは、否定的感情の減少や肯定的感情の増加といった、ピア・インタラクションが感情調節に及ぼす肯定的な効果を認識していた。本研究は、感情調整におけるピア・インタラクションの潜在的利点を明らかにすることによって、外国語教室におけるインタラクションの役割と学習者にとっての感情調整についての研究に貢献するものである。

Perceptions of Academic Librarians Toward Open Source Library System (OSLS): Case Study of Pakistan

ABSTRACT Advanced technology has brought tremendous changes in our daily lives; academic libraries are changing agents of modern technologies and experimenting with innovations for library operations. Open Source Library System (OSLS) is a computer software with free source code and a license that permits users to use, change, redistribute and improve according to their needs. The study uses a quantitative survey approach with 45 questions and a Likert-type scale. A random sample approach was used to collect data from the academic librarians in Pakistan. A survey was designed in Google Forms and shared with n = 300 librarians via personal e-mails, Facebook Messenger, and WhatsApp to reach a diverse community of librarians in Pakistan. N = 282 questionnaires returned with 94.33%. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS 26. The result shows that the adoption rate of OSLS is still in its infancy and is slowing for many reasons, like lack of technical equipment, inadequate funds, lack of IT skills, digital resilience of Librarians and interest of stakeholders. The present study will pave the way for practitioner librarians, research scholars, stakeholders and policymakers in Pakistan and beyond.

Building a Sustainable Innovation Ecosystem in Universities for Ideation and Entrepreneurial Competence: The University of Lagos Experience

What is new? Universities in the global south particularly in sub-Saharan African countries have not impacted greatly on their host communities as research efforts in these universities are not linked to innovation addressing societal challenges. What was the approach? The University of Lagos (UNILAG), recognizing that a robust innovation ecosystem is central to building capacity in the innovation space for unleashing the creative potentials of both faculty and students beyond traditional teaching and research, activated three units to drive innovation-related activities in the university. This article presents critical discussions on the University of Lagos’s experience in driving innovation through novel institutional frameworks facilitated by the Research Management Office, the Innovation & Technology Management Office, and the Entrepreneurship & Skills Development Centre. The article also presents challenges encountered in the process and strategies employed to successfully navigate through the challenges, lessons learned, successes recorded in patents and intellectual property management, as well as future directions for greater impact. What is the academic impact? The paper makes recommendations for sustainability and for the implementation of efficient strategies in newly established units seeking to strategically drive innovation-related activities. What is the wider impact? Practical implications of the UNILAG’s experience for Research and management practitioners in developing countries are articulated.

Modelling as expert-guidance during teacher practitioner research

ABSTRACT Studies on teacher practitioner research suggest that experts can provide valuable guidance by modelling the research process within the school context. As it is unknown when and how modelling can promote teachers’ research, the present study evaluated several modelling practices in four teacher teams (N = 38). Two facilitators modelled research skills before, during and after teachers’ research tasks; a research disposition was modelled by questioning research decisions. Results showed that modelling was valuable for practitioner research: teachers appreciated the guidance and felt their research skills and research disposition had improved. Modelling of research skills during the task was deemed easier to comprehend than modelling before and after the tasks. Modelling of a research disposition can bring about tensions that – mainly in the initial stages of the research – cause frustrations in teachers. Based on these findings, directions for improving modelling are discussed.

Teachers as Researchers: Exploratory Practice in Tunisian EFL Classrooms

This Special Issue is dedicated to teachers’ exploratory practice research (Allwright, 2005; Allwright & Hanks, 2009). It showcases nine studies conducted by Tunisian EFL teachers in their own classrooms.
 In the publishing world of TESOL and applied linguistics, despite a proliferation of journals and edited volumes in recent decades, there remains hardly any space for practitioner research. Book publishers and journal editors, driven in part by concerns about profit margins, tend to reject this type of research (unabashedly) citing, as pretexts, the lack of geographical reach or lack of name recognition among contributors. Against this backdrop, this Special Issue counters the commercial mindset and helps fill a longstanding void in TESOL and applied linguistics literature. It illustrates how exploratory practice research can be done and illuminates the potential of practitioner research and the largely untapped ingenuity of practitioners.
 As an introduction to this Special Issue, we will, briefly, discuss the research-practice divide phenomenon and describe the genre of exploratory practice (EP). After, we present a synopsis of nine EP studies. We conclude by emphasizing the unique role of EP in advancing foreign language instruction and suggesting ways to substantiate it.

Systematic Literature Review: On Green Innovation

Green innovations (GI) help reduce the negative impact on the environment. Because of their dynamic activities and resulting in more economic performance, customers are willing to pay the premium price for environmental health products. Hence, GI is an important tool for businesses to increase their market share and sustainability. The objective of this article is to identify research gaps in green Innovation and to discuss future implications. This study used the systematic literature review (SLR) methodology and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Following the predetermined inclusion criteria, 60 articles from the Google Scholar and lens.org databases, were included for review as the findings research gaps were identified namely theoretical gaps, thematic area gaps (empirical gaps) contextual gaps, and methodological gaps. Further, it provides some theoretical and future research implications. This study contributes to the body of knowledge on green innovation by addressing significant knowledge gaps. This knowledge contributes to future researchers designing and carrying out a study to fill these identified research gaps and practitioners who need to benefit from an understanding of the different aspects of GI.

Enhanced abnormal data detection hybrid strategy based on heuristic and stochastic approaches for efficient patients rehabilitation

Over the last few years, substantial research has been conducted towards developing efficient abnormal detection techniques while considering efficiency, accuracy, high-dimensional data, distributed environments, and others. Researchers increasingly deal with “abnormalities” in clinical patient data to derive relevant clinical knowledge for making informed decisions. However, data collection for clinically relevant research is often guided by patient conditions and administrative or clinical requirements rather than a regular schedule. Therefore, clinical data is frequently obtained in an unreliable form, characterized by data outliers and inconsistencies, incomplete information, and an unstructured format that varies based on patient types and data structures. In this research study, an enhanced hybrid AD strategy is developed based on heuristic and stochastic methods to cope with abnormalities in the clinical data of patients. The proposed hybrid strategy employs optimal k-means clustering as a heuristic method to cluster the clinical data based on the patient’s routine exercise characteristics to cope with abnormalities efficiently. Next, an interquartile range-based stochastic approach is employed as a statistical method to detect and eliminate abnormal data points by providing only reliable and effectual data to medical practitioners. The main objective of this research article is to facilitate healthcare and research practitioners by dealing with a high dimensional massive amount of inconsistent and incomplete clinical data of patients to detect and discard anomalous data points for providing only efficacious information. Furthermore, the AutoML paradigm is employed to develop an optimal regression model for analyzing the impact of the proposed hybrid strategy for abnormal pattern detection. In addition, different statistical error estimation measures are used to evaluate the empirical effectiveness of the proposed hybrid strategy using AutoML. The experiment results show a noteworthy improvement in terms of the R2 score for predicting healthcare indicators compared to the existing state-of-the-art regression models. Our optimal regression model performed efficiently regarding the R2 score and MAPE; it achieved an R2 score of 0.9855 and 0.9850 for predicting the Borg RPE and TUG, respectively. Similarly, our model achieved a low prediction error in terms of MAPE for predicting both health functional indicators; it achieved a MAPE of 6.57% and 5.19% for Borg RPE and TUG prediction. Our contribution signifies that the performance of the AutoML improves and outperforms traditional regression models while applying our proposed hybrid abnormal detection model to the patient’s rehabilitation data for accurately dealing with anomalous data.

Włączenie menedżerów i innych praktyków w badania naukowe (za i przeciw)

The aim of the article is to identify positive and negative consequences of inclusion of managers and other practitioners in scientific research in management and quality science. The article presents the results of qualitative research in the form of semi-structured interviews conducted with forty scientists. The results show that positive consequences of inclusion of managers and other practitioners in scientific research include the possibility of confirming the researcher’s findings, obtaining a broader view of the research problem, being provided with ideas for conducting scientific research, formulating research questions, making scientific language more accessible for people outside academia, the utilitarian and practical application of research, better creating research tools, accessing resources, collecting research data, involvement in interpretation and, subsequently, writing research reports, and commercializing research results. On the other hand, the negative consequences are the perceived lack of benefits from including managers and other practitioners in scientific research in the research process, the lack of opportunity to involve society in all scientific problems, organizational reluctance due to lack of benefits, pressure from organizations concerning the final form of results, difficulty in understanding the specifics of research by managers and other practitioners in scientific research, cost and time consumption, researcher subjectivity, and the risk of violating methodological rigor and intellectual property rights.