ALARj Action Learning and Action Research Journal
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Reflecting on the arts in social action: possibilities for creative engagement in action learning
No full textUsing my own experience in integrating the arts and Action Learning, I discuss creative expression as a principal strategy in fostering social change and in advancing social betterment. In this paper, I offer several examples of the use of the arts in Action Learning involving homelessness, AIDS, and serious mental illness. The paper incorporates specific tactics for employing the arts in Action Learning including: fostering group cohesion, affirming countervailing values, amplifying voice, building support among participants, prototyping creative settings and projects, and linking creative prototypes to the development of social enterprise
Conferences: building a reflective learning community through creative interventions
No full textThrough a reflective practitioner -led perspective, this paper looks at five conferences in which creative learning processes were incorporated and used as participative experiential learning community building processes. The paper explores how creative interventions were designed and used to connect conference participants and to encourage mutual inquiry, reflection and other ways of knowing.
Can action research give reproducible results? Results from a study of an agile project management framework for an SME IT environment
No full textProject management methods have reached maturity in large organisations, and these methods have been successfully deployed for many decades, especially in connection with IT projects. As the research field of project management has matured over the years, there has been an evolution from a primarily process-driven style of project management, to methods customised specifically to IT, which are predominantly found in large organisations and government bodies. This evolution has also been witnessed in the field of software development, where the introduction and refinement of methods and frameworks for the improved delivery of complex software projects has been well documented. However, despite these advances, small software teams have often found these project methods too bureaucratic and unwieldy to be used for any long term benefit. This has therefore led to the style of software development methods known collectively as ‘agile’ development. This paper presents the research findings of a study undertaken using an action research methodology. The research investigated the effects of putting into practice a framework of agile development concepts combined with traditional project management techniques, for the management of IT projects in an SME (Small and Medium-sized Enterprise) environment. An agile project management framework was developed to improve the implementation of IT projects, using core concepts adapted from the PMBOK (Project Management Book of Knowledge), in addition to concepts derived from action research and agile software development. This framework was then critically tested and refined over a period of eighteen months. The resulting agile project management framework was shown to assist project participants working in a fast-paced environment, where there is a need to respond quickly to changing requirements. This paper also provides a basis for further academic research into the future potential for combining agile methods with other established techniques for a business environment
Implementing the AR approach in the context of Swedish municipal care:
No full textThe purpose of this paper is to describe the implementation of action research (AR) in the context of Swedish municipal care from a facilitator’s’ perspective. Four empirical studies using the AR approach were performed during 2007–2012 in six municipalities. Establishing support for AR was time-consuming when it concerns starting up processes that were created and were changeable over time. Further, the processes were focused on the sustainable development of practice, based on practitioners’ and care consumers’ knowledge, that is a precondition of organizational change. An important precondition was that the participants were motivated and participated actively in all phases of the AR cycle. Another important precondition was that the participants got along with each other and trusted each other. The participants’ engagement and the collaboration that was established between the participants and the facilitator were likely a result of this. Moreover, even positive interaction with participants representing a “top–down” perspective was important for the implementation of proposed changes to the practice. In conclusion, AR enhanced sustainable action based on participant’s everyday knowledge relating to areas they want to change and improve in the context of municipal care practice
Adapting the Learning History approach for use in inter-organisational contexts: Learnings from a problem gambling project
No full textLearning History is a collaborative, group-learning process that takes advantage of the diverse perspectives of participants within their organisations. However, the evidence presented in this paper suggests that the process of developing and helping participants engage with the Learning History approach can be adapted when working with multiple organisations that hold diverse views and have different (even opposing) interests. A Learning History project examining problem gambling is analysed and changes to the approach, aimed at increasing the chances of community-level project success, are identified. It is suggested that developing a number of Learning Histories that describe the experiences of the various stakeholder organisations, before attempting to develop a unifying story, will increase the chances of success. This adaption is likely to increase the capacity of adversarial stakeholders to engage with one another. It may also increase the likelihood that stakeholders can identify actions that will result in significant change
Undertaking practice-led research through a Queensland-wide women's history project
No full textThis paper focuses on a practice-led research project, where the author as artist/researcher participates in a Queensland-wide women’s history project to celebrate Queensland’s Suffrage Centenary in 2005. The author participated in the Women’s Historical Shoebox Collection, where Queensland women were invited to decorate and fill a shoebox with personal and symbolic items that speak about their lives and the lives of their women forebears. This paper explores the practice-led research process that enabled the artist/researcher to design and assemble her contribution. Fredericks describes the iterative process of developing the shoebox and the themes that developed through her artistic practice. She also describes the content of her shoebox and explains the symbolism underpinning the items. The Women’s Historical Shoebox Collection is now owned by the State Library of Queensland and the Jessie Street National Women’s Library
The generative and catalytic powers of creative, expressive arts in action research
No full textBeing conscious of how we know what we know, and equally conscious that when we come to such an insight that our ways of knowing are not necessarily the same as everyone else’s, are increasingly essential aspects of methodological literacy. This competency is particularly so in Action Research arenas (Wicks, Reason and Bradbury, 2008) that can explore the natures of knowledge as well as the information that comprises the knowledge being produced in action. Such multi-dimensional inquiry is a characteristic of trans-disciplinary as well as cross-cultural inquiry in the Action Research field (Wright, 2011). This paper proposes that creative, expressive arts are affective (generative and catalytic) approaches in enabling this developing literacy to underpin knowledge construction practices in Action Research arenas. I also discuss the relevance of this form of praxis to the quality of future life on earth as framed by Tim Morton’s work on “hyperobjects”(2013).
