scholarly journals Improving School Work in Challenging Context: Practitioners’ Views following a Participatory Action Research Project from Eritrea

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 72-90 ◽  
Author(s):  
Khalid Mohammed Idris ◽  
Yonas Mesfun Asfaha
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
School Leadership ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
School Work ◽  
Professional Perspectives ◽  
Knowledge Of Learners

This article is based on 18-month participatory action research (PAR) project conducted with teachers and school leadership personnel with strong backing of the regional education office in one of the remote and most culturally diverse regions in Eritrea. It argues for a comprehensive understanding of managing a learning process in challenging circumstances of schooling. Qualitative analysis was used to interpret 14 semi-structured interview transcripts of project participants from two study schools. A framework for understanding teaching as the intersection of knowledge of learners, processes of teaching and learning and subject matter is used. The analysis based on the interview data, longer term engagements with participants and review of relevant documents enabled authors to synthesize views of participants into five main professional perspectives:  need to overcome transitory nature of teachers, knowledge of learners, proactive guidance, professional commitment, collaborative practices. Those issues arguably constitute quality education in the study schools and beyond.  

The challenges of participation in doing community-based participatory action research: Lessons from the Kwithu Project

2016 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathalis G Wamba
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
English Language ◽  
English Language Teaching ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Random Group ◽  
Running Water

The Kwithu project started when a volunteer who joined Kwithu, a community-based organization in Mzuzu, Malawi (Africa), to teach English gave a diagnostic test to a random group of forty 7th and 8th graders (20 boys and 20 girls) and discovered that most of them could hardly read or write in English. The test results prompted Maureen, the Kwithu director and co-founder, the teacher and myself to meet with the headteachers of the three schools mostly attended by Kwithu children. The headteachers appreciated our concerns about the English proficiency of the children, but they advised us to focus on more urgent matters if we truly wanted to help, e.g., lack of teaching and learning materials, lack of running water in schools, hunger, teacher qualifications, etc. This advice shifted our initial inquiry goal—from English language teaching—to a community-based participatory action research project designed to address the school conditions in Luwinga. In this paper, I describe the community-based participatory action research inquiry and I reflect on the process of participation.

scholarly journals Shifting Gears: Lessons Learnt From Critical, Collaborative, Self-Reflection on Community-Based Research

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Lulza Olim de Sousa ◽  
Emerentia Antoinette Hay ◽  
Schalk Petrus Raath ◽  
Aubrey Albertino Fransman ◽  
Barend Wilhelm Richter
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Action Research ◽  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Community Based Research ◽  
Self Reflection

This article reflects the learning of five researchers in higher education in South Africa who took part in a participatory action research project to educate teachers how to integrate climate change issues into their teaching and learning. It was the first time any of the researchers had used participatory action research. We are all from natural science backgrounds and now involved in education for sustainable development. We had been trained in more traditional, objective, and researcher-driven methodologies grounded in a positivist paradigm. The purpose of this article is to share our learning about the changes we had to make in our thinking and practices to align with a participatory paradigm. We used reflective diaries to record our journey through the action research cycles. A thematic analysis of our diaries was supplemented by recorded discussions between the researchers. The analysis revealed that, while it was challenging to begin thinking in a different paradigm, we came to appreciate the value of the action research process that enabled teachers to integrate climate change issues into their teaching in a participatory way. We also concluded that we require more development to be able to conduct participatory research in a manner true to its values and principles. The conclusions we came to through our collaborative reflections may be of value to other researchers from similar scientific backgrounds who wish to learn what shifts in paradigm, methods, and processes are needed to be able to conduct community-based research in a participatory way.

scholarly journals THE ROLE OF ENGINEERING TEACHING AND LEARNING FELLOWS IN THE TRANSFORMATION PROCESS OF ECE COURSES

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Deena Salem ◽  
Brian Frank
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Transformation Process ◽  
Computer Engineering ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Work In Progress

Abstract –This paper presents work in progress of a participatory action research project of transforming some Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) courses with the help of Engineering Teaching and Learning Fellows (ETLF). The objective of this paper is to highlight the effectiveness of incorporating an ETLF, with expertise in both the engineering and education fields, in the process, and their accountability throughout the three phases: pre-transformation, transformation and post-transformation.  

Actieonderzoek in leefstijlonderzoek is geen sinecure

KWALON ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Famke van Lieshout ◽  
Gaby Jacobs ◽  
Shaun Cardiff
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
Healthy Lifestyle ◽  
Multiple Perspectives ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Clinical Practice Setting ◽  
Learning Together

Action research in lifestyle research is no sinecure. Response to Kromme et al.: ‘Changing together is learning together’, a participatory action research project This is a reply to the contribution entitled: ‘Learning together is changing together: A participatory action research project on the role of the internist in promoting a healthy lifestyle’. Here the authors highlight the complexity of facilitating participatory action research (PAR) in a clinical practice setting and reflect on the first three stages of their research through eight principles that could guide PAR, as described by Van Lieshout et al. (2017). As we developed these principles, we explain the principles of participation, reflexivity, contextuality and transformation in greater detail in relation to the context of this study. The authors made suggestions to change the five-phased model of PAR to get a better grip on the process. The authors rightly highlighted some limitations in the labeling of some phases. However, it is the reflexivity on the multiple perspectives that facilitators encounter and the relationships they engage with during the process, as well as acknowledging the iterative process of PAR, which needs to be embraced and experienced during the entire process of study.

scholarly journals Aligning Action Research and Restorative Justice: Highlighting Epistemological Tensions

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-29
Author(s):  
Brunilda Pali
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
Restorative Justice ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Social Conflicts ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Local Participation ◽  
Culture Of Silence ◽  
A Site

The epistemology of participatory action research sets a high agenda for pursuing and engendering change oriented towards social justice. This article is based on a participatory action research project, anchored both in the principles of restorative justice and action research. The project aimed at mobilizing local participation, knowledge and resources and creating restorative dialogue and encounters in handling social conflicts in intercultural settings in four different countries. Restorative justice and action research are highly compatible in terms of some of their core principles, but the project revealed important tensions that this article will reflect upon. Zooming into a town in Hungary – one of the four action research sites – the article addresses these tensions by focusing on two central themes. The first theme, encountering the silence and micropolitics, relates to the challenges created in the site, due to our encounter with its micropolitics and the existing ‘culture of silence’ about social conflicts. How should researchers enter a site, how far should they stir the depths of conflicts and disturb the silence and status quo in order to unearth injustices, multiply narratives, and stage different perspectives? The second theme, rethinking conflict participation, relates to the tension created between a more naïve idea of participation and a more antagonistic one. In restorative justice, it is often assumed that if everybody were included and participated in restorative processes, staging their different perspectives, then consensus could be reached. But considering the possibility that different views cannot be reconciled, and power relations cannot be suspended, we need to rethink the meaning of conflict participation in restorative praxis. 

scholarly journals Supporting institution-to-community transitions for people with psychiatric disabilities: Findings and implications from a participatory action research project

2014 ◽  
Vol 34 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Gossett Zakrajsek ◽  
Mansha Mirza ◽  
Nathan Kai-Cheong Chan ◽  
Tom Wilson ◽  
Mark Karner ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Action Research ◽  
Nursing Homes ◽  
Participatory Action Research ◽  
Virtual Communities ◽  
Psychiatric Disabilities ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Participatory Action ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Community Based ◽  
Research Project

<p><span>Despite preference for community-based living, large numbers of people with psychiatric disabilities live in nursing homes throughout the US. Community-based services for this population are limited by public policy and service system barriers. This paper summarizes these barriers and presents the second phase of a participatory action research project jointly developed by university-based researchers and two Centers for Independent Living. A qualitative case study methodology was used to understand the experiences of three individuals with psychiatric disabilities reintegrating into the community from nursing homes. Findings revealed themes of social isolation, participation in virtual communities, variability of impairment experiences and unmet needs for community supports. In addition to thematic findings, action products were generated for the benefit of community partners. These products included national best practice resources and a needs assessment survey tool. Study findings and products point to specific systems change and policy recommendations to better support community reintegration for this population. These recommendations are discussed in light of U.S. healthcare reform and broader disability advocacy efforts.</span></p>

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