Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder: Reframing The Possible Employment Outcomes Of Leaving Certificate Applied (Lca) Students From Disadvantaged Communities, Vicki O'Reilly

Journal of Franco-Irish Studies

Researching disadvantage can potentially make a difference to the lives of those who are involved. Can we research disadvantage without adding to an already negative narrative or appearing to be condescending? Application of Active Research as a methodology can bring an inclusive and participatory approach to studying disadvantage. Comprehension of the impact of theories such as social reproduction and possible selves, their interaction and how one could be used to counteract the other, will allow an opportunity for conversation around positive solutions. Through understanding the language used to describe disadvantage we can bring an openness to challenge how we look …

Understanding The Significance Of Building A School In Belize Through Action Research, Stephen Todd Speer

Theses & Dissertations

Research Focus. In Central America, the country of Belize shares its border with Guatemala and Mexico. These countries, with El Salvador and Honduras, are known as the most dangerous areas in our world outside active war zones (Dudlry, 2012; Edwards & Gill, 2002; UNODC, 2019). Crime is the largest contributor to instability in the region and creates a dangerous environment that must be reduced. Reduction of crime can correlate to an increase in available educational opportunities (Edwards, 2002; OSAC, 2019). The U.S. government conducts foreign humanitarian programs that increase educational opportunities in hope of reducing crime and stabilizing the region …

Action Research In Hospitality And Tourism Research, Denise O'Leary, David Coghlan

Books/Book Chapters

In the context of tourism and hospitality studies, the potential of action research for generating robust actionable knowledge has not been yet realized. This chapter provides an account of the theory and practice of action research, demonstrates how it may be designed and implemented, and how it may generate actionable knowledge. It provides illustrative examples and shows how this research approach aligns effectively with some of the themes that currently engage the attention of researchers in the fields of tourism and hospitality such as process improvement, sustainability, and community-based tourism development. Thus, it makes a case for more widespread use …

Empowerment By Design: Classroom Innovation And Inquiry Through Design Thinking And Action Research, Cory Rayala

University of the Pacific Theses and Dissertations

Increasingly standardized and assessment-driven educational systems are failing to meet the needs of many students, replacing their love of learning with a fear of failure. Importantly, the fear of failure is a common mindset of not only students but also teachers, administrators, and policymakers. This qualitative, action research study is situated in a design thinking/growth mindset conceptual theory that posits that the design thinking process can serve as a meaningful growth mindset opportunity for teachers and students. The prototyping mindset inherent in design thinking may mitigate the fear of failure by focusing on rapid iteration rather than striving for perfection. …

Confronting And Dismantling Whiteness In Higher Education: A Grassroots Approach, Winnie Needham

Dissertations

The purpose of this qualitative research study was to investigate how an Educational Studies department in a small, Midwestern liberal arts college might confront and dismantle whiteness in curricular, pedagogical, and policy choices. Utilizing a critical participatory action research design, five higher education faculty engaged in a critical conversation inquiry group (Schieble et al., 2020) to develop their critical literacy (Rogers and Mosley, 2014). This study was designed to answer the following questions: How do faculty within an Educational Studies department think about their racial identities and the relevance of racial identity to the program, the institution, and higher education? …

Redesigning A Course Using Action Research To Renovate An Undergraduate Curriculum In Architecture, Jennifer L. Barker, Mitsunori Misawa

The Qualitative Report

Architectural education is a time-intensive endeavor, typically resulting in a high number of student dropouts. In an effort to address better matriculation, faculty in an architecture and interior design program instituted course redesigns for an introductory lecture course within the undergraduate curriculum over the course of two academic years. This resulted in significant changes to the course structure and the course content, as well as to adjacent courses within the first-year curriculum. Through the implementation of the course redesigns, researchers realized that the process of redesign resembles the process of action research. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate …

The Impact Of Longitudinal Action Research On Doctoral Student Retention And Degree Completion, James Olive

The Qualitative Report

The impact of a longitudinal action research (LAR) project on the retention and success of students enrolled in a leadership studies doctoral program was the focus of this study. The purpose was to understand how the experiences obtained through an action research project, conducted over 12-15 months, affected students’ development while they completed the first two years of their doctoral coursework. Ten doctoral students, who were at various stages in their educational journey, were interviewed and asked to reflect upon their experiences while completing their LAR project. Findings indicated that the LAR project provided an opportunity to apply theoretical concepts …

How Should I Teach Sex Education In Middle School? An Action Research Study On An Ict-Based Intervention, Diana K. Rojas Briñez, Álvaro H. Galvis Panqueva, Irma A. Flores Hinojos

The Qualitative Report

In this article, we, Diana, Álvaro and Irma, present findings from an action research project aiming to promote self-care behaviors around sexual and reproductive health (SBSRH) in adolescents at a public school in Colombia through the use of ICT-based learning environments. I, Diana, the teacher-researcher carried out an action research study first reflecting on teaching practices for teaching healthy sexual behaviors, then assessing them in light of theoretical recommendations, and finally by creating a blended-learning project called “Self-Care in Action”. Irma was the action-research advisor and Álvaro the ICT-research and development advisor. Two groups of 7th graders participated in the …

Leadership Development In Physical Therapy: Moving Toward A Community Of Transformative Practitioners, Kerry Cronin Mallini

Theses and Dissertations--Educational Leadership Studies

Physical therapy as an emerging profession is committed to establishing its identity and solidifying its role as a leader in health care. With expertise in human movement, wellness, and disease prevention, physical therapists possess invaluable knowledge and skill to influence public health and enhance patient recovery without increasing cost. Physical therapists have the opportunity to transform the delivery of public health services to meet current and future needs. A major challenge, however, is a dearth of leadership development in preparation programs. Because most physical therapists have not received formal education or explicit training in leadership, a problem of practice exists. …

Connecting Theory, Knowledge, And Practice: A Review Of Action Research For Nurses, Gary Yu Hin Lam

The Qualitative Report

Nurses are faced with everyday demands to improve practices, yet using research to develop and apply theory, knowledge, and practices is a task fraught with challenges to the nursing profession. McDonnell and McNiff (2016) offer a practical guide for novice nursing practitioners and researchers to understand and conduct action research.

Utilizing Action Research To Improve Counseling Education Course Work For Culturally Diverse Students, Sabina De Vries, Deirdre Mcdonald, Mary Mayorga

Counseling and Guidance Faculty Publications

This article informs counselor educators and psychologists on how to utilize action research to evaluate diverse students, course work, and to improve classroom instruction. A paucity exists in research investigating educational needs of diverse counseling students. The present action research study examined educational experiences of diverse counseling students enrolled in a research course. The sample consisted of 70% Hispanic/Latino students, and a little less than half were older adults; 80% of the participants were female. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected and analyzed. Findings, limitations, and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Using A Non-Judgmental Stance To Promote Trustworthiness In Action Research, Serge Gabarre, Cécile Gabarre, Rosseni Din

The Qualitative Report

This article describes the use of action research to increase trustworthiness through a non-judgmental approach. Two foreign language lecturers implemented an action research to improve their teaching with the use of Facebook and mobile devices. In order to remain open to all possible interpretation of the events and to incite their students to provide them with honest feedback, they openly adopted a non-judgmental stance. As a result, students freely revealed how they used funds which were given to them to access mobile Internet. Findings showed that not all students used the money as was anticipated by the lecturers, and that …

Applying Constant Comparative Method With Multiple Investigators And Inter-Coder Reliability, Joel D. Olson, Chad Mcallister, Lynn D. Grinnell, Kimberly Gehrke Walters, Frank Appunn

The Qualitative Report

Building on practice, action research, and theory, the purpose of this paper is to present a 10-step method for applying the Constant Comparative Method (CCM) of grounded theory when multiple researchers perform data analysis and meaning making. CCM is a core qualitative analysis approach for grounded theory research. Literature suggests approaches for increasing the credibility of CCM using multiple researchers and inter-coder reliability (ICR), but documentation of methods for collaboration on CCM data analysis is sparse. The context for developing the10-step CCM approach was a qualitative study conducted to understand the impact of webcams on a virtual team. To develop …

A Closer Look At Using Stringer’S Action Research Model In Improving Students’ Learning, Mohammad Ali Nasrollahi

Mohammad Ali Nasrollahi(Ph.D)

Action research is a systematic approach to investigation that enables people to find effective solutions to problems they confront in their everyday lives. A significant feature is that action research lays claim to the professional development in education. Action research as any systematic inquiry conducted by teachers, administrators, and counselors with a vested interest in the teaching and learning process, for the purpose of gathering data about how their particular schools operate, how they teach, and how their students learn. Education is perhaps the most prolific source of action research resources. Action research can be done by teachers in their …

Converting Research Findings Intoaction-Able Pattern-Languages, Greg Paine

The Qualitative Report

This paper describes an approach to developing and formatting research findings with the aim of making those findings easily understood within the wider “lay” community to encourage take-up and action. It is of value to researchers seeking to extend their findings beyond the immediate research participants and the academic literature. There are similarities with action research, but with an intended wider potential audience. The approach formats research findings as “instructive advices” able to be used by others beyond the research, drawing on similar work first developed in the field of architecture—wherein they are referred to as “patterns.” This is the …

In Response To The English Divide : Our Ten-Year Service-Learning Journey, Yi Chun, Sherri Wei, Hui Ching, Beatrice Hsu, Yi Ting, Cara Huang, Yu Ting, Amber Gong, Ting An, Ann Yeh

Asia-Pacific Regional Conference on Service-Learning 亞太地區服務研習會議

Whether a small-scale intensive Service-Learning project makes an impact or not? This is a question we have been asking ourselves over the past ten years. In 2005, this S-L project was initiated to respond to a call from an elementary school located in central Taiwan. Since then, students and faculty of the English Department have been collaborating closely with teachers in the local community. The driving force behind this ten-year long journey is our urge to bridge this English Divide, a socially-rooted issue in education and also the ugly reality we hate to confront. In this AR research study, we …

Digital Storytelling With Refugee Youth: A Tool For Promoting Literacy And Youth Empowerment And A Catalyst For Social Action, Christina Chen

Master's Capstone Projects

For my master’s project in the International Education concentration, College of Education, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, I chose to conduct an action research project where I worked with refugee youth aged twelve to fourteen in Springfield, Massachusetts, to facilitate them in creating digital narratives about their lives and experiences coming to the United States. From November 2014 through March 2015, I recruited seven students to participate in a 22-hour workshop I facilitated over twelve weeks. During the workshop, they learned about digital storytelling, wrote their stories, and created multimedia videos of these narratives. They shared their digital stories with each …

Naming And Un-Naming A Research Study "Participatory", Sarai Koo, Jessica Nina Lester

The Qualitative Report

In this article, we explore our own discomfort with naming our research studies participatory action research – at least during the initial stages of our work – and highlight several practices that we believe serve to create greater researcher reflexivity. Drawing upon two different research studies, we share three “lessons from practice” generated from an analysis of our fieldnotes and a series of interactive interviews. The lessons illustrate how we have come to name and un-name our research “participatory.” We offer suggestions for other researchers committed to engaging in participatory action research.

Using I Poems To Hear The Voices And Understand The Actions Of Edd Students Conducting Action Research, Ron Zambo, Debby Zambo

The Qualitative Report

There is a movement to redefine and refocus the Educational Doctorate to improve its effectiveness in producing scholarly practitioners, that is, individuals who have the ability to blend their practical wisdom and professional knowledge to identify, frame , and solve the problems of practice they face. The EdD at Arizona State University has chosen action research as its signature pedagogy to help students develop the habits of the mind, hands and heart they need to be effective leaders. This paper describes the program and provides six I Poems developed from dissertation proposals. I Poems helped us come closer to each …

Self-Regulation Of A Chiropractic Association Through Participatory Action Research, Lorraine A. Sheppard, Anna Maria S. Jorgensen, Michael J. Crowe

The Qualitative Report

Participatory action research (PAR) can be used in the health professions to redefine their roles. This study investigated a small health professional group, the members of The Chiropractic Association Singapore (TCAS), by using a PAR method; researchers and participants gained insights into the self-regulation of a health profession. A qualitative process using a theory-building approach and an action component was a practical way of developing self-regulation in a small professional group. This approach bridged the gap between practice and research with TCAS members fully engaged in the process of being critically reflective of their future roles in the local health …

Leading Professional Learning Communities Toward Efficacy, Laura S. Witherington

Administrative Issues Journal

As Professional Learning Communities (PLCs), defined by DuFour et al (2008), continue to sweep into schools across the nation, school administrators need the tools to assess the productivity of the teachers’ collaborative teams. PLCs provide the structure for teachers to analyze student achievement data and design common formative assessments. The PLC Efficacy Rubric discussed in this presentation was developed for use in the College Ready in Mathematics and Physics Partnership grant funded by the National Science Foundation to provide school administrators the tools to evaluate teachers’ collaborative work and guide them to increased success. This presentation introduces the five indicators …

Rebels Without Applause: Time, Politics And Irony In Action Research, R J. Badham, Karin Garrety, M. Zanko

Karin Garrety

Purpose of this paper: This paper seeks to raise for discussion and reflection some of the key dynamics of action research projects-in-practice. It focuses in particular on how action researchers broker academic and client interests, and how this brokering shifts over time. Design/methodology/approach: The paper is based on participant observation, drawing on the reflective and processual accounts of action researchers involved in a collaborative academic-industry-government project. Findings: The paper argues that the scope of action research projects to effectively address the needs of both audiences is compromised by managerialism in universities and organizations. However, the emergent and chaotic nature of …

Action Research In Language Learning, Mohammad Ali Nasrollahi, Pramela Krish N.Krishnasamy, Noorizah Mohd Noor

Mohammad Ali Nasrollahi(Ph.D)

Over the last two decades, action research has become increasingly popular in foreign and second language teaching classes . Action research can be a very valuable way to extend teachers teaching skills and gain more understanding of themselves as teachers, their classrooms and their students. This paper focuses to provide a rationale on the use of action research in foreign and second language education. Then, the nature, scope and the framework of action research will be described. Finally, the current action research models that have become increasingly popular in foreign and second language teaching classes will be discussed.

Participatory And Action-Oriented Dissertations: The Challenges And Importance Of Community-Engaged Graduate Research, Emily Van Der Meulen

The Qualitative Report

Graduate students commonly experience isolation and estrangement when conducting their final research projects, which can contribute to difficulties in completion. A creative and socially beneficial way to offset academic isolation is for graduate students to engage in participatory and action-oriented research projects with local communities. Facilitating a research study with a local partner can be a richly rewarding experience. This article argues that students who enjoy working in collaborative environments and want their final research projects to lead to beneficial social change can find fulfillment in action research (AR) methodologies. Critiqued by some for its lack of tangible and practical …

Promise And Possibility For Aspiring Principals: An Emerging Leadership Identity Through Learning To Do Action Research, Stella C. Batagiannis

The Qualitative Report

This case study explored the promise and possibility of doing action research both for aspiring principals engaged in such research and for professors using it as pedagogy for teaching educational leadership. The study of a class of graduate students aspiring to be principals had a constructivist theoretical framework. The research design consisted of three tiers: tier one: a reflective self-study by the professor evaluating the pedagogy of developing action research team projects; tier two: an analysis of the self-evaluations of the aspiring principals on the pedagogy of developing action research team projects and its effect on their learning; and tier …

Insights Into Attempts At Using Action Research In A Collaborative Work In A Policy Review Exercise In Botswana, Anthony Tsatsing Koosimile

The Qualitative Report

In this paper I embrace the thinking that writing on one's experiences in the use of qualitative educational research strategies and principles could potentially contribute to furthering knowledge in the field. In adopting an action research framework to guide collaborative work in a policy review exercise in Botswana, I found that collaborative work is itself a challenge. Similarly, given the political nature of policy formulation, significant effort and attention is required to facilitate broader reflection and debate on the adoption and use of qualitative research strategies in policy matters in Botswana. Generally my experience suggests that the strictures of underlying …

Landscapes Of Compassion: A Guatemalan Experience, Travis W. Shultz

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

ABSTRACT

LANDSCAPES OF COMPASSION: A GUATEMALAN EXPERIENCE

MAY 2011

TRAVIS WILLIAM SHULTZ

A.S., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST

B.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST

M.A., UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST

Directed by: Professor Peter Kumble, PhD

If landscape architecture can intertwine with the practice of social justice, how should academic training provide an atmosphere where this correlation is developed? In a professional degree program, such as landscape architecture, there are a plethora of skills among students that can be utilized no only in their future careers, but during their academic experience. By learning the tools while implementing them, there is a profound educational …

Developing An Online Horseless Horse Learning Lesson: An Action Research Study, Jessica M. Bauman

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Scholarship

In today’s society it is becoming ever so important to find creative and influential outlets to keep young people occupied in positive ways. High quality youth programs are shown to make a positive difference in the lives of many young people; therefore, it is important to continue the use of established youth programs as well as develop new programs. Equine science programs have proven to be a popular and beneficial outlet for many youth due to the ability to learn a variety of life skills, improve character, and increase positive youth development in those youth who participate.

Traditional equine programs …

Action Research In Practice: Issues And Challenges In A Financial Services Case Study, Peter Marshall, Phyl Wilson, Kristy De Salas, Judy Mckay

The Qualitative Report

In this paper we give a direct and personal account of the issues and challenges that occurred in an action research study. The research team consisted of five researchers from two Australian universities. The action research case was carried out in a small financial services company and concerned the development of an information systems strategy. However, the focus of the paper is not on information systems, but on the general methodological issues and problems of action research. The authors hope that readers will benefit from the direct and transparent account of the practical methodological problems encountered in the study.

A Review Of Action Research In Teaching And Learning: A Practical Guide To Conducting Pedagogical Research In Universities, Johanna Tunon

The Qualitative Report

Action Research in Teaching and Learning: A Practical Guide to Conducting Pedagogical Research in Universities by Lynn S. Norton provides a useful resource for those in higher education interested in using action research. Action research takes place when educational practitioners reflect on their approach to education and test pedagogical theories with research that is then presented for consideration within the institution and in the wider academic arena. After making a case for the use of action research as an important part of the scholarship of teaching and learning that should take place in higher education, the author discusses the steps …