Professional Development through Action Research: Case Examples in South African Higher Education

This paper identifies the quality characteristics of a professional development (PD) program on action research (AR) and presents the results of a second-order evaluation of such a program. Three case examples in South African higher education demonstrate how AR methodology has been applied to design, conduct and evaluate the PD program and to identify new ways of learning and improving professional practice in higher education. From data analysis, we distinguish six factors significant in contributing to the quality of the PD program in all three universities: facilitator expertise, adaptive planning, responsive evaluation, critical events, application, and self-efficacy. On the basis of the evaluation results, we present five models: (1) the AR workshop cycles; (2) characteristics of a quality PD program; (3) a PD program on and through AR; (4) three levels of reflection on AR; and (5) meta-action research.

Research and Reflection: Potential Impact on the Professional Development of Undergraduate Occupational Therapy Students

In occupational therapy education in South Africa, community service (CS) focuses learning opportunities during fieldwork placements. CS therefore enabled the researcher to utilise successive small scale research projects to guide learning of students during fieldwork while simultaneously developing the occupational therapy service at a residential care facility. This community setting provided a powerful environment through which research, in combination with opportunities for reflection, contributed to nurturing skills needed by these future health professionals. A technical action research (AR) approach incorporated AR cycles and opportunities for structured reflection. Therefore situations were created for the students to embrace experiential learning. Experiential learning in the form of anticipatory reflection, reflection-in-action, reflection on reflection and retrospective reflection impacted on the quality of the students’ work. Besides encouraging unique leaning opportunities for students when engaging in research during their fieldwork placement, engagement in AR cycles simultaneously improved service delivery to residents in the facility. Key benefits of this investigation were that fieldwork education utilising AR cycles within a CS situation promoted students to identify voids in their theoretical background as well as practice skills; to apply reflective practice that could contribute to their personal and professional development; and to utilize learning opportunities optimally. Despite positive gains showed by this study, the role of power relations between the researcher as fieldwork educator and the students prohibited the AR cycles from being more emancipatory in nature and should be addressed in follow-up studies.     

When Social Workers Meet Special Education Teachers: Action Research to Implement Curricular Changes in Taiwanese Special Education Systems

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) offering supported employment services in Taiwan recently have identified a missing link between their programs and the vocational programs students with disabilities received in secondary special education system. Sponsored by a national initiative aimed to enhance public education through crossover trials and social inclusion under the umbrella of ??HighScope Taiwan??, academics and mainly senior social workers devoted to supported employment for persons with intellectual disabilities started a two-way outreach program through action engagement in 2007. Action research became the common focus of the joint task forces across social work, public education systems, and academia. The article provides field-based reflections of the action research project and suggests ways in which practice of action research may increase social impact in the professional development of individuals.     

Insights into Operationalizing Communities of Practice from SSM-Based Inquiry Processes

Two systemic inquiries, based on soft systems methodology (SSM), into the potential for using community of practice (CoP) theory by an Australian-government created research and development corporation to change its knowledge management (KM) strategy, are reported. Key staff were engaged in the inquiry into how to build a third-order KM strategy based on CoPs; an exploration of key published work on CoPs yielded four SSM activity models—‘being a community practice system’; ‘doing the work of imagination sub-system’; ‘doing the work of alignment sub-system’ and ‘doing the work of engagement sub-system’. These models can be used as heuristics to aid the purposeful design of CoPs in other settings. SSM, enacted as a systemic inquiry, can be understood as a form of systemic action research, which was well equipped to deal with CoP theory and, when enacted participatively, can generate important systemic insights. The inquiry began the process of fostering an appreciation of third order KM but, on the evidence available, did not lead to on-going commitment to a CoPs-based KM strategy. Future research should acknowledge how the framing of research situations influences the research process, the importance of the design of practice change settings and the limited evidence for purposeful interventions leading to successful CoPs.     

The Concerns-Based Adoption Model: Teachers’ Participation in Action Research

This article views a particular example of action research through the theoretical lens provided by the Concerns Based Adoption Model of professional development. A small group of teachers in Lesotho, used action research to investigate their understanding and practice in the midst of externally initiated change. Data was collected from teachers’ discussions during the 2 years of the project. Teachers interacted during planning sessions; lesson observations and reflection meetings. Results indicated that these teachers’ development and change through action research corresponded with the seven levels of the Concerns-Based Adoption Model (CBAM) which are awareness, information, personal concerns, management, consequences, collaboration and refocusing. The demonstrated resonance between CBAM and action research is significant, given the differing orientations of the two models. There is a need however to conduct further studies with larger samples and possibly from diverse areas to further explore the relationship between the Concerns-Based Adoption Model and action research.     

Facilitation as Midwifery: Facilitation and Praxis in Group Learning

This paper is an inquiry into practice for the purpose of reflection and theory proposal. We discuss the way in which we, as facilitators of action research/learning groups in diverse contexts, confront the challenge of assisting people to work and learn together in authentically collaborative ways. We each describe our very different respective practice examples (Eileen's based on productive and defensive routines; Judith's on sociodramatic exploration) and then collectively discern some substantial similarities in the way that we work. We have likened these similarities to the midwifery process, i.e., "colaboring" or facilitating the birth of whole and healthy group process in which honest and bilateral interactions of action and reflection occur. Finally, we present a meta-reflective account of the way that we have confronted the challenges of working together to write this article. We present this account as a model of a series of five deepening levels of challenge in collaborative learning. These levels reflect the challenge associated with a growth in awareness of both our own process of working together, and that of every other group with which we work.     

Sustainability,Systems Thinking and Professional Practice

This article explores the impact of the new sustainability agenda on the occupational and professional needs of those who have taken educational and training programmes in the environmental field either at undergraduate or postgraduate level or through relevant professional institutions’ continuing professional development programmes. It also describes a one-day workshop for the professionals on sustainable development, based on systems thinking and practice. The workshop provides a model for developing greater understanding and effective action in professional practice, by using dialogue and interprofessional learning to explore approaches to sustainability in a variety of business and professional contexts. It introduces the principles underpinning the concept of sustainability and provides tools to support the integration of sustainable development into professional practice and organisational change.     

Using Critical Social Heuristics and Project-Based Learning to Enhance Data Warehousing Education

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate how project-based learning can be used from a critical systems perspective in data warehousing education. Data warehousing is a discipline in information technology focusing on providing data-driven decision support systems for strategic decision making. In this study we used action research from a critical (emancipative) perspective to reflect on our current instructional design of the data warehousing module before redesigning it to better serve the needs of the involved and affected. We used critical systems heuristics and project-based learning as frameworks of understanding to guide our intervention. Project-based learning is a learning/teaching approach aimed at organising the learning experience in terms of a project. We used written interpretive interviews in the diagnosis and evaluation of success phases of our action research cycle. Our reflection is according to the action research model of Checkland reflecting on our success in the area of application (data warehousing instruction) as well as our methodology (action research from a critical social theory perspective) and our framework of ideas (project-based learning and critical social heuristics).     

Toward a Holistic View of Staff Development of Regional Tutorial Staff at the Open University

This paper presents a personal account of the theory and practice of staff development of Open University (OU) tutorial staff, based on nearly 30 years' experience, during which I have consciously reflected on my work, continually building on what has seemed important. It results from an extensive process of reflection in which I have tried to capture an understanding of what I do, with the aid of systems models. Some of the basic assumptions and systems models I present have more or less stood the test of time for a number of years; others are the result of my latest reflections. I show how I have used systems concepts and methods to form a coherent, holistic framework for developing tutorial staff in the East Anglian Region of the OU. Two aspects of this work are emphasized: first, the role that staff development can play in improving tutors' basic skills and understanding of their role; second, how the quality of their work is managed through using feedback and the notions of single- and double-loop learning. An important feature of this work has been the setting-up of communities of practice which enable learning by individual tutors to be shared with their peers and transformed into organizational learning for general use. Starting with some basic assumptions about staff development, a number of systemic models are presented which fit into a coherent framework, linking theory to practice and embodying Rene Dubos' (1972) well-known dictum to "Think globally, act locally."     

Action Research on Land Management in the Western Amazon, Peru – A Research Process, Its Outcomes and the Researcher’s Role

The article explores the action research process throughout a land management research project, with the ambition to reflect upon action research as a working approach. It is shown how this process is experienced from a researcher’s point of view and it critically analyses its methodology and process, outcome and the role of the action researcher.The learning environment known to farmers and framed by local institutions and practical experimentation, embedded in the local worldview, constituted a necessary starting point for achieving motivation and practical outcomes. Tight feedback loops between practice and reflection enabled joint learning and innovation and rapid implementation of measures suggested by the farmers. The approach could be particularly useful for local NGOs and local universities.     

Oral Assessment: Preparing Learners for Discourse in Communities of Practice

Grounded in social constructivism within an action research framework, this paper locates oral assessment within situated learning and focuses on the construction and assessment of knowledge within communities of practice. This study found that by simulating situations for undergraduate learners to familiarize them with the discourse practices before they are expected to interact on a more professional level within communities of practice, oral assessment enables exposure to the cultural models and the sociocultural groups that can socialize them into these. It is recommended that these experiences be guided by their educators and more capable peers so that learning can be scaffolded.     

Action Research on Operations Research for Street Children

This paper discusses an application of the CRASP model of Action Research (AR) on Operations Research (OR). The CRASP model portrays AR as a style of staff development that would lead to professionalism. It also advocates social responsibility, committed and informed action, and a critical approach. All of these concerns are inherent to the process of reflection and development characteristic of OR. As an OR practitioner I participate in this process of reflection and development and applied the CRASP model of AR in performing one application novel to OR, namely, OR for street children. Reflecting on this application of AR on OR for street children, some similarities between AR and OR surface, as well as some difficulties in applying AR on OR, thereby enriching both AR and OR. It is hoped that through collaborative reflection with other AR and OR practitioners, this paper will further our professional development.     

Critical Systemic Praxis for Social and Environmental Justice: A Case Study of Management,Governance, and Policy

Internationally, globalization has been paradoxically translated into colonization, economic rationalist development, nationalism, and closure born of a fear of the implications of globalization and global markets for the least powerful countries, regions, and interest groups. Social problems in terms of the economic rationalist approach are increasingly individualized and citizenship models emphasize the responsibility of individuals and families. Many current human service and social policy models in Australia (as elsewhere) are nonsystemic (psychological, medical, education, crime prevention, and economic). The paper reflects on an experience of undertaking a study of the life chances of citizens in a remote region of Australia. This is a paper about doing systemic thinking and practice in Alice Springs (Mpwartwe, or caterpillar dreaming) as a social policy researcher attempting to use and advocating a participatory action research approach to social policy development based on a multisite, multimethod research design of perceived, expressed, and normative needs.     

Community Work Research through Co-Operative Inquiry in Timor-Leste,Australia and Peru: Insights into Process

Co-operative inquiry is an under-explored method in community-based research. Its democratic approach involves a group of “co-researchers” collaboratively inquiring into a mutually-agreed research topic through systematic cycles of reflection and action. This article shares the process, outcomes, and methodological reflections of three co-operative inquiries that were conducted as part of an international study regarding love in community work. Groups of up to 10 community workers in rural villages in Timor-Leste, Australia, and Peru engaged in co-operative inquiry to collaboratively develop new knowledge to inform practice. The article analyses data regarding co-inquirer experiences of the methodology, and identifies the strengths and challenges of the co-operative inquiry method to support the collective generation of new knowledge. The article concludes that co-operative inquiry involves shared power, participation, action, and contextual reflexivity, and is a useful method for community workers to collaboratively develop innovative approaches to community work practice through cycles of reflection and action.     

Systemic Thinking and Practice Toward Facilitating Inclusive Education: Reflections on a Case of Co-Generated Knowledge and Action in South Africa

This article offers our reflections around a case of facilitating systemic thinking and practice in which the first author of the article (Tlale) interacted with research participants/participant researchers with the intention of strengthening systemic thought and action toward fostering inclusive education in the setting (a rural school in the Eastern Cape in South Africa). We reflect upon the process and also how our engagement was perceived by participants, as expressed in feedback received from them. We point to how Tlale introduced the idea of systemic thinking (to teachers, school management team, school governing body, and a district officer for the district) as tied to the possibility of acting to generate transformation toward a more inclusive educational context for the benefit of the learners at the school in question, thus acting as a systemic mediator on their behalf.     

Student Engineers as Agents of Change: Combining Social Inclusion in the Professional Development of Electrical and Computer Engineering Students

Community-based action research helps students link subject matter to everyday life and developing sense of responsibility to their community. While combining research and a development into teaching engineering software which has been vastly conducted in engineering disciplines such as Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) and Computer Science (CS), including inclusive participatory research is yet to be fully developed. We participated in the NGO by providing information technology (IT) and/or assistive technology (AT). This paper examines the practice of action research in service-learning projects that aim to introduce more socially responsible studies in the context of engineering education. It begins by exploring different forms of action research that may benefit engineering disciplines with a focus on action engagement to improve students’ involvement in marginalized communities. The article provides field-based reflections of the action research project and suggests ways in which practice of action research may increase socially responsive value in the professional development of student engineers.     

Systemic Evaluation Methodology: The Emergence of Social Learning From Environmental ICT Prototypes

This paper investigates why and how systems approaches can help in evaluating the design of new Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) as social learning platforms. It focuses on the prototypes created by the research project Virtualis, whose objective is to promote social learning on environmental concepts and practices amongst a variety of stakeholders. The paper presents the principles of systems thinking and practice that did help in formulating such evaluation processes. It illustrates how both a peer systemic evaluation process (within the research team) and a participatory evaluation process (involving potential future users of the ICTs) were carried out.     

Student, Curricular and Public Agency Needs: A Focus on Competency Achievement

This paper presents a framework that addresses a public child welfare agency??s need for a highly trained child welfare workforce with specialized competencies, situating these competencies within the human services educational profession??s accreditation standards, while simultaneously meeting the learning needs of professionals returning to school for additional graduate training. The framework integrates three disparate literatures. The first that frames employees returning to a university setting for additional education and training as a human resources benefit. The second body of literature that addresses the annual review of employee performance via employment assessment systems. And the final body that examines parallel organizational processes related to the development of a product, in our case, a professional with a graduate degree. The framework, developed using a soft system methodology approach, and evaluated by means of an electronic portfolio, integrates these three bodies of literature and allows for the real time curricular and agency assessment of competency achievement. While using a professional graduate training program as an exemplar, implications for broader systemic practice are discussed.     

Enhancing Collaborative Learning in a Blended Learning Environment: Applying a Process Planning Model

The research reported here was undertaken in a blended learning environment where contact tuition is “blended” with computer-supported (online) learning. The context is a developing country (South Africa). After completion of two full cycles of an action inquiry the planning for the third cycle was undertaken according to an existing process planning model which was originally developed for the design and planning of team-based action learning and action research (ALAR) projects. The illustration of the application of the model focuses on the aspect of student collaboration in a blended learning environment and shows how the original process planning model was adapted and applied during the re-planning phase of the project. The final deliverable is a set of action plans for future collaborative learning that could strengthen student-centred learning experiences in a context which still bears the scars of an unfortunate segregated past.