scholarly journals Supporting Early Study Abroad Students in Ontario: Case Study of a Collaborative Action Research Initiative, with Conditions Changing Underfoot

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-26
Author(s):  
Sandra R. Schecter ◽  
Nancy Bell
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Study Abroad ◽  
School Engagement ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Collaborative Action Research ◽  
Cultural Integration ◽  
Self Advocacy ◽  
Research Initiative ◽  
Early Study Abroad ◽  
Study Abroad Students

This article elucidates findings of an action research initiative that focused on the school engagement and social and cultural adaptation of a cohort of early study abroad students, aged 15–19, attending an urban secondary school in Ontario. The study was part of a federally sponsored partnership that supported the collaboration of postsecondary researchers with professionals working within a publicly funded organization. Despite challenges and disruptions to the schooling context, the team proactively pursued a strategy of developing students’ resilience and self-advocacy skills while promoting their adaptation and acculturation to Ontario schooling and society. An agenda that fostered opportunities for face-to-face activities inside and outside class helped build social connections among international students and between students and staff that proved key to their academic engagement, cultural integration, and sense of well-being.

scholarly journals Guest editorial

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. vii-viii
Author(s):  
Eva Infante Mora ◽  
Davydd J. Greenwood ◽  
Melina Ivanchikova
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Active Learning ◽  
Study Abroad ◽  
Intercultural Competence ◽  
Behavioural Change ◽  
Collaborative Action Research ◽  
Continuous Group ◽  
Reform Process ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
Action Research Project

This special issue is devoted to a study of an action research-based reform of a US university study abroad programme to make it a genuine intercultural immersion experience. The four-year collaborative reform process combined participatory organisational redesign, the development of a comprehensive active learning approach and the teaching of intercultural competence through ethnographic immersion and community engagement in Seville, Spain. The case is an example of the development of intercultural competencies through guided behavioural change, of action research to reform higher education programmes and of active learning combined with formative and summative evaluation. The reader will learn about the experiences of the staff, faculty and mentors in the Consortium for Advanced Studies Abroad (CASA)-Sevilla study abroad programme and those of the sponsoring US universities as they together achieved a fundamental reform of a decades-old study abroad immersion programme. This special issue has many authors because this was a collaborative action-research project with continuous group work and brainstorming. The authors’ names are placed in the sections where the authorship is clear, but, as befits a collaboration, many of the ideas are the result of the combined thinking of all the authors. Authorship of the various sections has been allocated mainly to clarify for readers the most relevant author to contact to learn more about particular dimensions of the process. The guest editors took on the editorial duties on behalf of this larger group.

scholarly journals A Collaborative Action Research about Making Self-Advocacy Videos with People with Intellectual Disabilities

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (6) ◽  
pp. 16-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ann-Louise Davidson
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Intellectual Disabilities ◽  
Capability Approach ◽  
Community Integration ◽  
Collaborative Action Research ◽  
Mobile Technologies ◽  
Self Advocacy ◽  
Collaborative Action ◽  
Basic Life Skills ◽  
The Capability Approach

This article presents the results of a collaborative action research conducted with people living with intellectual disabilities (ID) who were going through a community integration process. To be successfully integrated into a community, they need to develop basic life skills as much as they need to learn to use mobile technologies for authentic interactions (Davidson, 2012) and to be self-advocates online (Davidson, 2009a). This study used the Capability Approach pioneered by Sen (1992) and Nussbaum (2000), which focusses on what people can do rather than on their deficiencies. I recruited a group of eight people with ID who wished to set goals, engage in developing new capabilities, share their goals and act as models for others with ID who want to learn to live on their own. In this article, I examine the process of developing self-advocacy videos with mobile technologies using the Capability Approach and I analyze the inventory of capabilities collected through this study. I provide recommendations for intervention through mobile technologies with the long term-goal of helping people with ID to become contributing citizens. I discuss the innovative action research methodology I used to help people with ID become self-advocates and take control of the messages they give through producing their own digital resources.

Collaborative Action Research In Academic Administration

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 227-252
Author(s):  
Bradley C. Thompson
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Action Research ◽  
Collaborative Action Research ◽  
Team Members ◽  
Academic Administration ◽  
Leadership Culture ◽  
Collaborative Action ◽  
Working Together ◽  
Upper Level ◽  
Action Process

This research involved a study exploring the changes in an academic institution expressed through decision-making in a shifting leadership culture. Prior to the study, the school was heavily entrenched in authoritarian and centralized decision-making, but as upper-level administrators were exposed to the concept of collaborative action research, they began making decisions through a reflection and action process. Changing assumptions and attitudes were observed and recorded through interviews at the end of the research period. The research team engaged in sixteen weekly cycles of reflection and action based on an agenda they mutually agreed to and through an analysis of post-research interviews, weekly planning meetings, discussions, and reflection and action cycles. Findings revealed experiences centering around the issues of:  The nature of collaboration- it created discomfort, it created a sense of teamwork, it created difficulty.  The change of environment in the process- team members began to respect each other more, and the process became more enjoyable.  The freedom and change in the process- freedom to voice opinions and to actively listen, the use of experience to lead elsewhere in the school.  How issues of power are better understood by working together- the former process was less collaborative, politics will always be part of the process. As a result of this study, members have started using this decision-making methodology in other areas of administration.

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