scholarly journals THE ROLE OF CRITICAL FRIENDS IN ACTION RESEARCH: A FRAMEWORK FOR DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION

2021 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 1-33
Author(s):  
Mohd Syafiq Aiman Mat Noor ◽  
Azyan Shafee
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Review Paper ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Pedagogical Practices ◽  
Specific Context ◽  
Critical Friends ◽  
Design And Implementation ◽  
Planning Action ◽  
Research Studies

The primary purpose of action research carried out by teachers is to improve their own educational and pedagogical practices in a specific context. However, teachers need to develop a more critical stance on their practice to interrogate and validate their action research systematically. Literature suggests that action research can be strengthened through the involvement of critical friends who can ask provocative questions, provide data to be examined through another lens, and offer a critique of a person’s work as a friend. This narrative review paper seeks to emphasize the role of critical friends and propose a critical friend framework that can be integrated into action research studies. It extensively reviews the role of critical friends in action research with illustrations from previous studies. It offers a critical friend’s protocol according to the action research process of self-reflective cycles, namely reconnaissance, planning, action and observation, and reflection. It is therefore suggested that teachers should consider the incorporation of critical friends into their action research studies.

Exploring the complexities of validity claims in action research

2007 ◽  
Vol 30 (5) ◽  
pp. 381-390 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter McInnes ◽  
Paul Hibbert ◽  
Nic Beech
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Language Games ◽  
Research Setting ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Validity Claims ◽  
Practical Implications

PurposeThe paper aims to explore the problematics of validity that are inherent to the conduct of an action research project because of the disparate language games of both practitioners and academics.Design/methodology/approachAn exploration is offered of the tensions between different understandings of a research setting at different stages of the research process.FindingsIn each phase of the research there are a number of tensions between different epistemological assumptions about the “reality” of the research setting. Validity is not, therefore, about capturing a singular objective picture of the organisation, but rather it is produced through the negotiation of a temporary intersection of language games.Research limitations/implicationsThe paper provides a framework for understanding the role of the researcher in the research process and the issues underlying validity claims made from different epistemological positions.Practical implicationsThe paper provides insights in to the mechanisms through which practitioners and academics come to understand each other and the limitations of this knowledge.Originality/valueThe article raises awareness of the different normative assumptions at play within a variety of action research contexts.

scholarly journals O (nie)udanej próbie odnalezienia się w roli praktykującego badacza. Refleksje z pola praktyki

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Izabela Kamińska-Jatczak
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Daily Practice ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Dual Role ◽  
Practice Environment ◽  
Work Area ◽  
Epistemological Position ◽  
Research Stream ◽  
Research Action

This is a self-reflexive text that relates to the considerations on the difficulties/paradoxes that I faced when I started the process of self-analysis in the action research stream. The aim of the action research was studying myself as family assistant in the daily practice environment. It was a biographical period in my research life in which I found myself in the dual role of the practitioner, and also a practicing researcher. The article presents the difficulties in the research process, which made it impossible for me to realize myself as researcher practitioner. I built my considerations on the basis of a conception of a man capable of action (homme capable) coined by Paul Ricoeur. It relates to the work area on the identity, which proved to be crucial in the process of self-analysis. The text discusses the epistemological position of a participating researcher. In my view, the epistemological position of the researcher is dependent on the adopted research-action concept. The concept of research “in” the action or investigation “by” action designs different epistemological planes of researcher’s participation in the studied reality.

Artfulness as a dimension of professional practice in organizations and action research: Acknowledging sensory-aware and embodied attunement in professional organizations

2021 ◽  
pp. 147675032110333
Author(s):  
Julie Borup Jensen
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Professional Practice ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Professional Organizations ◽  
Public Knowledge ◽  
Sensory Awareness ◽  
Public Sector Organizations ◽  
Participatory Processes ◽  
Empirical Material

This article addresses the importance of action research to provide approaches to emphasizing and acknowledging artful aspects of professional practice in public sector organizations. The article introduces the philosophical works of Knud Ejler Løgstrup and Kari Martinsen as perspectives on artful aspects of professional practices and knowing. In order to concentrate on artful aspects of the research process, empirical material from two arts-involving workshops with teachers are presented as the concrete methodological expression of the participatory ideas of action research. The article addresses embodied dimensions of practice, the role of sensory awareness in professional knowing in organizations, which are some of the main preconditions for contributing to creative, social change, and scholarly weight. Thus, the article contributes with ways to regard action research as artful, participatory processes and practices that enable creation of organizational and public knowledge on the artful aspects of professional practice.

scholarly journals The role of diagnostics as a means of engaged scholarship and enhancing SME research

2020 ◽  
pp. 146575032096961
Author(s):  
Mark Gilman ◽  
Jacob Salder
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Academic Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Diagnostic Tools ◽  
Engaged Scholarship ◽  
Design And Implementation ◽  
Research Challenges ◽  
Methodological Approaches ◽  
Additional Approach

This paper explores the methodological challenges facing SME researchers through overdependence on quantitative methods. It proposes how a diagnostic-based form of engaged scholarship can enhance the portfolio of research tools and address existing deficits in current research methods by building on tools developed as part of a multi-determinant research process for exploring SME growth. The paper argues existing methods of SME research are insufficient to address their heterogeneous and context-dependent nature. New tools are therefore required to mitigate embedded shortcomings in terms of depth and breadth of understanding alongside impact for practice and for SMEs as active stakeholders in the research process. The design and implementation of diagnostic tools has the scope to address these deficits. The benefit of this paper is to outline an additional approach to SME research which addresses embedded issues in existing methods. It proposes a tool that addresses certain academic research challenges, but also integrates research more substantially with policy and SME requirements. In thus doing it makes a novel contribution to debates on how SME research is undertaken, to the development of methodological tools appropriate for dealing with the challenges of contemporary research, and to methodological approaches integrating research within wider networks and communities.

scholarly journals Encouraging Reflection and Critical Friendship in Preservice Teacher Education

2017 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 87-112
Author(s):  
Branko Bognar ◽  
Irena Krumes
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Reflective Thinking ◽  
Professional Competence ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
University Teachers ◽  
Critical Friends ◽  
Research Cycle ◽  
Reflective Practitioners ◽  
Education Courses

Reflectivity is an important professional competence of contemporary teachers. In order to explore how to encourage students’ reflection, we conducted a two-year action research project impelling them to become mutual critical friends. For critical friendship communication and other project activities, we utilised Moodle – an online learning management system. On the basis of the analysed data that were gathered at the end of each action research cycle, we determined that the students felt comfortable in the role of critical friends and that critical friends’ reflections were particularly pleasant for them. They experienced the comments of their critical friends as friendly, encouraging, useful, specific, interesting, detailed, positive, professional and clear. The majority of students (91%) think that the critical friendship discussion should be continued within the course Correlated-integrated systems in Croatian language teaching, and 85% of them suggest introducing this approach in other teachers’ education courses. We determined that the technical mode of reflective thinking prevails in the students’ correspondence. The practical or contextual level could rarely be observed while critical reflection was completely absent in 11 of 14 discussions. Reflective thinking of students (future teachers) should be fostered from the beginning of their studies within various courses, particularly in the pedagogical and methodological ones. To encourage their students to be critically reflective, university teachers should embrace reflective thinking by becoming critically-reflective practitioners and conducting action research in their teaching practices.

scholarly journals Accountability and social control: how the process works

2021 ◽  
Vol 15 ◽  
pp. e166382
Author(s):  
Andréa de Oliveira Gonçalves ◽  
João de Abreu Faria Bilhim ◽  
Ricardo Borges de Rezende ◽  
Rodrigo de Souza Gonçalves
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Local Government ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Group Interview ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Action Research Approach ◽  
Health Council ◽  
Municipal Health

Adopting an action research approach, this study presents the findings of an analysis of accountability and social control processes in place between the local government (Municipal Health Office) and the Anápolis-Brazil Municipal Health Council. The different stages of the action research process entailed: observation of plenary meetings, analysis of the composition of the council, a group interview with council members and the training of council members. The main results were the tabling and approval of a resolution defining a template for accountability reports and the drafting of a handbook with guidelines on how to read and analyze accountability reports. Members of the health council were seen to change their views concerning the process of analyzing the reports, the new emphasis being on their quality and on connecting them with the planning information. In the light of Habermas’s perspective, the authors question the role of training and the intention implicit in the guidelines: are they an opportunity for empowerment/liberation or, on the contrary, an instrument of domination and alienation?

Participatory action research with and for undocumented college students: Ethical challenges and methodological opportunities

2021 ◽  
pp. 146879412098568
Author(s):  
Cinthya Salazar
Keyword(s):  
College Students ◽  
Action Research ◽  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
Undocumented Students ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Ethical Challenges ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
The Past ◽  
Undocumented College Students

Scholarship on undocumented college students has been growing for the past 10 years; yet, the engagement of students without documentation in the research process is typically limited to the role of participants. A participatory action research (PAR) methodology provides critical scholars with the opportunity to involve undocumented college students as co-researchers and producers of knowledge. At the same time, the risks associated with the immigration status of undocumented students can significantly challenge how scholars design and conduct ethically responsible PAR studies. In this article, the author examines the ethical challenges and methodological opportunities of conducting a PAR study with and for undocumented college students. In particular, the author discusses the ethical tensions she considered in relation to the principles of respect, beneficence, and justice when conducting a qualitative PAR study with students without documentation as co-researchers.

Living on the Edge

2010 ◽  
pp. 102-109
Author(s):  
Nils-Petter Augustsson ◽  
Jonny Holmström
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Research And Development ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Technical Solution ◽  
Key Stakeholders ◽  
Rule Sets ◽  
Implementation Context ◽  
Insight Into

This chapter describes the efforts in ensuring research relevance by means of an industrial PhD project. The project is aiming at strengthening the relevance of research and development by educating scientists with an insight into the practical aspects of research and development and by developing networks in which knowledge can be effectively disseminated between industry and university. The project is taking its stand with an empirical and industrial centre with a technical solution called Dynamo, which is delivered by the company Logica. Dynamo, an intelligent portal that seamlessly connects systems, user information, roles and rule sets, and its context will provide a rich and useful empirical source from which to launch the action research process. The project contains two distinct stakeholders–industry and academy–jointly guiding the project and making sure that both worlds get a result that is in line with and contributes to their business. To this end two key stakeholders that have taken on the role as gatekeepers of rigor and relevance respectively. Taking position in the middle of the action is the PhD student who, by living the life of both researcher and consultant, will take on the role of balancing rigor and relevance. The chosen research approach together with the complex implementation context makes it crucial to take on an open minded selection.

The production-based PhD: an action research model for supervisors

2014 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 370-383 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gail Phillips
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Research Area ◽  
Pedagogical Practice ◽  
Research Model ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Related Research ◽  
Supervision Process ◽  
Journalism Research

Purpose – This paper aims to demonstrate how action research methodologies can help to define and clarify the pedagogical role of the supervisor in production-based research (PBR). A major challenge in supervising practice-related research is trying to disentangle and articulate the theory embedded within practical projects. In journalism, which is still a relatively new discipline in academe, supervisors and students are often operating in under-theorised areas with no pre-existing theoretical roadmap. Action research has shown itself to be a useful methodology for structuring and explaining practice-related research, which in journalism would encompass PBR in the field. This paper shows how the action research paradigm is equally useful in describing and clarifying the supervisor’s role in these sorts of projects. Design/methodology/approach – The paper looks first at practice-related research and the main challenges for candidates and supervisors in trying to align PBR with academic paradigms. Using examples from the author’s experience in supervising journalism research, it then illustrates how the main supervision tasks of project management, research mentoring and the writing-up process fit into the action research model. Findings – In reflecting on the dynamics between candidates and supervisors in PBR, this paper shows how supervision of production-based PhDs is a dynamic research process in itself, presenting opportunities for pedagogical reflection. Originality/value – The paper helps to clarify the role of the supervisor in this specialist research area which is still trying to establish itself within academe. It provides one way for supervisors to conceptualise their experiences and so contribute to a corpus of knowledge on which others can draw and build. By showing how the action research methodology applies to the supervision process in production-based research (PBR), this paper articulates a way for supervisors to understand and manage their role in this still-evolving research area. Building on previous scholarship and applying this knowledge to journalism production, the paper shows how action research may provide a way of addressing many of the issues and dilemmas others have encountered and identified in their pedagogical practice.

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