Action Research within Communities of Practice: Is it Right and How to do it RightDebby Zambo, Arizona State University and Bryan Maughan, University of Idaho

Session Overview

Reflect on action research’s purpose, design, and fit within your context and CPED

Map out the challenges action research brings to students and the organizations that serve them

Consider action research’s place within the research community at large - learning from other professions

Discuss validity

Brainstorm ways to fit action research into programs and responsibilities of tenure

Action Research’s Purpose

To provide scholarly research that will impact organizational change.

To promote action rather than theory development. This is the central enterprise and what differentiates action research from traditional research (Herr & Anderson, 2005).

To help a practitioner become a researcher who can properly identify a real-time problem of practice, or situation of stress and systematically address that problem or situation and provide evidence and real-time strategies for change—actionable knowledge (Argyris, 1993).

To create generative and decision knowledge: knowledge that helps to configure outcomes in complex systems or structures.

Think about action research’s purpose and look at the various definitions and images of action research and consider whether it is right for your students and for you as a faculty member working to develop scholarly practitioners (see handout for definition).

What elements of action research might develop scholarly practitioners and how do these align with CPED’s principles, design features, and notions of CoPs?

Various Models of Action Research•Self•CPED scholarly practitioner •CoP

What challenges does action research bring to students and the organizations, situation, programs they want to improve and serve?

Students face:•Misunderstanding the problem and perceptions of how others view the problem•Hierarchical structures•Defensive routines•False assumptions about intentions to introduce change

• Organizational politics - Finding a committee that understands AR

“Agent of change” Researcher to Consultant

“There is no such thing as immaculate perception.

“What we see…

Depends on what

we thought before we looked” (Kosslyn and Sussman,1995

p. 1038).

The Dynamics of Change

What they do/What’s happening? (Behaviors)

What I see (perceptions)

What they see (perceptions)

Positive and…not so positive people reactions

Researcher Organization/Situation/People

What I do…(Behaviors, how I act/react)

?

COPYRIGHT © 2007, Sentire Mentoring

So how can we help our students

Lead Change…?

Lead out and effect positive change?

Work and build cooperative teaming?

Enlist others to work in responsive ways toward organizational/system/situational/program improvements?

Prepare for and discourage potential workplace challenges? Address potential problems and risks during the design

phase?

Action Research’s Place Within the Research Community- an Expanded View of Research

Think about the article you read in preparation for this presentation. In public health research spans a continuum from low level to high levels of practical application.

Basic research

Applied research

Clinical research

Evaluative research

Descriptive research

Community research

Systems research

What can we learn about good research from other

professions?Goals of Research:

move knowledge/theory from research and use it to inform and improve policies and practice (theory applied to practice)

critically examine practice examine implicit practices from a moral/ethical

stance

How do these apply to action research, scholarly practitioners, and CPED?

Aim for new ideas of ValidityDialogic validity – goodness is monitored through peer review.

Outcome validity – extent to which actions lead to resolution of the problem.

Catalytic validity – degree to which the research process reorients, focuses, and energizes participants toward knowing reality transformation. Process validity – extent to which problems are framedand solved in a manner that permits learning of the entire system.

Sustainability, impact, dissemination how do these relate to DIP?

Democratic validity – extent to which research is done in collaboration with all parties.

What challenges does action research bring to faculty in

doctoral programs?

• How do we do it in 3 years?

• How do faculty coordinate a students’ interests with their own publishing needs and requirements?