Over the last two decades, institutions for higher education such as universities and colleges have rapidly expanded and as a result have experienced profound changes in processes of research and organization. However, the rapid expansion and change has fuelled concerns about issues such as educators' technology professional development. Despite the educational value of emerging technologies in schools, the introduction has not yet enjoyed much success. Effective use of information and communication technologies requires a substantial change in pedagogical practice. Traditional training and learning approaches cannot cope with the rising demand on educators to make use of innovative technologies in their teaching. As a result, educational institutions as well as the public are more and more aware of the need for adequate technology professional development. The focus of this paper is to look at action research as a qualitative research methodology for studying technology professional development in HE in order to improve teaching and learning with ICTs at the tertiary level. The data discussed in this paper have been drawn from a cross institutional setting at Fontys University of Applied Sciences, The Netherlands. The data were collected and analysed according to a qualitative approach.
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The extent to which action research has a democratising influence - and the ethical pitfalls involved in the practice of action research. The conduct of action research within the organisational context and the practice community receives attention.
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In our research we focus on shared processes of interpretation, knowledge development and innovation in education, developing non-hierarchical research relationships between researchers. Our work is informed by a critical stance towards the current practice in Dutch education where teachers are struggling with student diversity and students with disabilities are excluded from mainstream schools. For the project we present in this book we combined critical discourse analysis, participatory action research and an emergent research design. We worked with teachers and students, supporting and stimulating them to develop a more just and inclusive practice in their schools, where all students get a fair deal. Starting point were the narratives of the teachers involved. Their stories, their struggle and their views were important. Interpretation became a process of shared meaning making at all stages of the research process, systematically integrating insiders’ and outsiders’ perspectives. Thus, the teachers and their students developed contextually-relevant and innovative solutions to the challenges they encountered in their practice, for example regarding power relations in the classroom and managing diversity, making use of the strengths of individual students and those of the group. The researchers involved brought in their knowledge and experience regarding practice-oriented research and introduced a theoretical framework for analysing and understanding current practices. In: Smeyers P., Bridges D., Burbules N., Griffiths M. (eds) International Handbook of Interpretation in Educational Research. Springer International Handbooks of Education. Springer, Dordrecht
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This thesis describes an Action Research (AR) project aimed at the implementation of Evidence Based Practice in a mental health nursing setting in the Netherlands. The main research question addressed in this thesis is: In what way is Action Research with an empowering appropriate to implement Evidence Based Practice in a mental health nursing setting in the Netherlands and what is the effect of this implementation on the care experienced by the client, the nursing interventions and the context in this setting compared to a comparative setting? To answer this main research question, the following questions derived from it were addressed: What is Evidence Based Practice? What is known about implementing evidence-based practice in nursing through Action Research? Which factors have to be dealt with in a mental health nursing setting, so the implementation of EBP with AR with an empowering intent will be more successful? Which factors have to be dealt with in a mental health nursing setting, so the implementation of EBP with AR with an empowering intent will be successful? How is EBP implemented through AR with an empowering intent and what are the outcomes for the use of evidence, the context and the facilitation in the setting? What is the effect of the implementation of EBP in mental health nursing using AR with an empowering intent on the care experienced by the client, the nursing interventions and the context compared to a comparison setting? The first two questions were answered by a search of the literature while the remaining questions were answered during the AR study conducted in two mental health organisations in the Netherlands.
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Participation has been of ongoing interest in the field of action research and the New Health Promotion movement, but it is not without tensions and problems. This article presents the challenge of containing the conflicting demands of personal empowerment, practical advancement and theory building in a community-based participatory action research project Aspiring to Healthy Living in The Netherlands. A Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodology was chosen because of its contribution to empowerment of the community of older people, which was one of the project goals. Besides that, the project aimed at the development of an intervention program for encouraging healthy living amongst older people in The Netherlands and contributing to the knowledge base on healthy living, by analyzing narratives from the participants. However, when time pressure rose, the empowerment goal started to collide with academic and practical aims, and the dialogue within the project team became obstructed leading to a return to the traditional routine of applied research and the accompanying power relationships, with implications for the learning in and about the project.
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Action research assumes the active engagement of the stakeholders, such as the community, in the research, and a multiple level process of reflection in order to evaluate and monitor the actions taken. This makes action research a suitable methodology to increase critical understanding of the participants. In this paper we describe the challenge of teaching action research within the context of an undergraduate community health psychology module. The module was designed using principles from transformative learning, critical pedagogy and action learning. The module took place over one semester; and 15 (13 females, 2 males) students took part in it. We discuss the background to the module development and the alignment of the learning objectives with the teaching and assessment methods, and reflect upon the students' experiences in the module and the learning outcomes. We conclude by addressing the major challenges involved in teaching action research to increase critical understanding: the ability to deep learning of undergraduate psychology students; our role and expectations as tutors on the course; and the current higher education system in which action science yet has to find a place.
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Deze casestudie geeft inzicht in verschillende soorten kennis die kenmerkend zijn voor applied design research. Er wordt onderscheid gemaakt tussen kennis over de huidige situatie, over wenselijke alternatieven en over effectieve oplossingen om daar te komen. Ofwel, kennis hoe het is, kennis over hoe het kan zijn en kennis over hoe het zal zijn als we effectieve oplossingen toepassen. Elk van deze soorten kennis heeft andere kwaliteitscriteria.
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This paper presents an approach to organizational research that aims to produce research results that are both relevant and rigorous. The research approach combines the designing of a management tool with the testing of the tool using an action research methodology. The lack of relevance in organizational research is a much debated issue in literature. A design approach has been proposed to help bridge the gap between research and practice. However, in organizational research, there is little empirical evidence how design-based research works in practice and it is unclear how this type of research is best structured. The purpose of the paper is to illustrate what a comprehensive methodology for design-based research can look like and how an action research methodology can be used to test the design in practice.
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Engagement is seen as an important characteristic of action research. The term is often used to refer to the participation and involvement of the research participants. Within this article we take another angle and explore the concept of engagement in relation to the main action researcher. Using an auto-ethnographic approach, we illustrate that the involvement and 'closeness' of the researcher, although necessary within action research, can also have a darker side as people have the tendency to get trapped in their own beliefs and prejudices. If not mindful enough of their own involvement and way of being within the context, the researcher can lose him or her self in the situation and is no longer able to encourage or facilitate the participation of others. We give suggestions for realising productive engagement as a (participatory) researcher using concepts such as mindfulness and mindsight.
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This chapter provides insights into the complex and adaptive nature of systems and illustrates key characteristics of such systems. These contribute to an understanding of the challenges in health promotion and imply a need for more context-specific research to evaluate the health promotion interventions. CARA can address this need as it can be used to evaluate and support change in complex adaptive systems. To support and inspire other health promotion researchers who want to adopt CARA as their research approach, we have discussed our experiences and provided some guiding principles. Overall, complexity thinking can help to understand the challenges in health promotion, whereby CARA provides a possible strategy for health promotion researchers when dealing with the challenges of evaluating health promotion interventions in complex adaptive systems.
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