ALARj Action Learning and Action Research Journal
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Examining Economic Integration and Free Trade within Cyprus using Structured Dialogic Design
No full textThis paper reports the results of three Co-Laboratories organized by the Civil Society Dialogue Project that aimed at bringing together Turkish-speaking and Greek-speaking Cypriot citizens to share experiences and work together towards creating a citizens’ platform, as well as devising an action plan for a reunited Cyprus. Twenty-one business and economist stakeholder representatives with diverse perspectives and experience participated in successive bi-communal Co-Laboratories focused on the issue of economic integration in Cyprus, which was identified by Cypriot peace pioneers as one of the main causes of the perceived widening of the gap between the two divided communities in Cyprus. They invested 325 hours person-hours. The purpose was to support the dialogue of a motivated group of economists and business experts representing both communities. The Co-Laboratories provided space for exchanging ideas as well as exploring future options and goals, besides diagnosing current problems in economic integration and the free movement of goods and services in Cyprus. More specifically, the economic integration Co-Laboratories aimed at envisioning the ideal, desired situation, defining the current problematic economic situation on the island, and exploring influences between alternative actions that could improve the current situation. The Co-Laboratories were organized using the Structured Dialogic Design process within the context of a rich web-based communication environment.
Negotiating the right path: Working together to effect change in healthcare service provision to Aboriginal peoples
No full textPurpose of the paper: The purpose of this paper is to outline the centrality of a Nyoongar worldview to an engagement framework designed with the Nyoongar community to enable the community to work meaningfully with service providers in the mental health and drug and alcohol sectors to bring about systems change. This paper follows on from a previous paper by the author (Wright 2011) in which the principles and methods of both Indigenous research and participatory action research are explored in relation to each other as a way of mitigating the delegitimising effects of colonisation.Design/Method/Approach: This paper presents a discussion about the ontological elements expressed through various cultural lenses, as a way to unpack the need to decolonise the dominant westernised worldviews that perpetuate ways of being, knowing and doing and preserve the ‘status quo’. Through CBPR methods coupled with an Indigenous research methodology, we share findings from our collaborations with Nyoongar Elders and service providers participating in the Looking Forward Aboriginal Mental Health Project.Findings: The recognition and acknowledgment of a Nyoongar worldview is the first step to working together, and provides the centre point for the development of a culturally safe model for engagement. Privileging a Nyoongar worldview disrupts the dominant western paradigm so that service providers and the Nyoongar community can meaningfully work together to change the way services are provided to Nyoongar people experiencing mental health and drug and alcohol concerns, and indeed offer a way forward in working with other Aboriginal communities.Significance/Value: This paper presents a new paradigm on ways to engage and consult with Aboriginal peoples based on a decolonising approach where relationships form the basis for working together. The findings of the Looking Forward Project demonstrate that incorporating a Nyoongar worldview shifts the balance of power when research projects include the community in the scoping and design of the research itself. This work paves the way for culturally specific aspects of co-production both in terms of service delivery and governance and in terms of research approaches.Type: Research paperRef:Wright 2011, Research as Intervention: Engaging silenced voices, Action Learning, Action Research Journal, Vol 17(2), 25-46
Systemic pedagogy: A design for Action Researcher collective self-development
No full textHow do Action Researchers, who often work alone, develop their practice? The Conference Intensive (CI) was designed to enable participants to inquire into their own practice, and observe and learn with a team of Action Researchers negotiating practice preferences within a real-world scenario. Developed by CultureShift delivered in partnership with the Action Learning Action Research Association, the Conference Intensive creates conditions for Action Researcher self-development that are secure and ambiguous, enabling practitioners to grow in their awareness and capacity to act and provoke change in the systems in which they work. This paper maps the conceptual terrain of the Intensive, and describes six practices of a praxis of Systemic Pedagogy which we see as intrinsic to Action Research praxis.
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Developing Pictorial Conceptual Metaphors as a means of understanding and changing the Australian Health System for Indigenous People
No full textThis paper describes the development of Pictorial Conceptual Metaphors, a pictorial outcome of systemic action research that captures and explains complex systems from the perspectives of the participants involved. The Pictorial Conceptual Metaphors presented in this paper developed from the authors’ work on a literature review for the Indigenous Health and Wellbeing Node of NIRAKN. In this paper, the authors provide an overview of the theories that influenced their development of Pictorial Conceptual Metaphors, including systems theory, soft systems thinking, visual metaphor theory, and the ecosciences approach of pictorial conceptual models. They work from a systemic action research perspective, and argue that Pictorial Conceptual Metaphors provide a powerful way of ‘seeing the system’, understanding a system within its historical context, and developing a catalyst for systemic change. They propose that Pictorial Conceptual Metaphors can be used to enhance understandings and encourage conversations about the change needed in complex systems such as Australia’s health system, in a way that is culturally respectful and appropriate for Indigenous Australians
Strategies for evidencing the Frascatian notion of systematic creative work contributing to the body of knowledge: An example in ‘academic’ cabaret
No full textCreativity maintains an uncomfortable alliance within research. On the one hand, definitions of research suggest that the process generates ‘new’ knowledge, while on the other hand, publication of research is imbued with traditions that sometimes discourage difference and creativity. Creative works and specifically performative creative works, following publication of the Frascoti criteria (2002), are understood to be research. The inclusion of the word ‘systematic’ in the definition of what makes performative work research may present a hurdle to some creative researchers. While they may acknowledge that their creative work contributes to knowledge, they may also struggle with processes needed to demonstrate systematic development. Action inquiry and practice-led inquiry are both examples of post-positivist research. Action inquiry is recognised, among other features, by its iterative cycles (Zuber-Skerritt, 1993). Practice-led inquiry is recognised by cycles of action and reflection instigated by practice (Gray, 1996). Both investigative processes invite documentation strategies that may prove useful in demonstrating systematic development of the inquiry issue. Each of these documentation strategies are relevant for evidencing the research involved in developing creative works. This paper focuses on cabaret as a particular example of creative research. It illuminates the systematic development of the notion of an academic cabaret using a reflective practice tool of provenance. Secondly, it demonstrates how utilising cycles in an action inquiry model can also provide evidence of systematic development of an idea. Together these strategies provide evidence of the research involved in developing, writing and presenting academic cabarets
Communal-Photosynthesis Metaphor: Autobiographical Action-Research Journeys and Heuristic-Action-Learning Frameworks of Living Educational Theories
No full textThis article provides a creative analysis of reflective thought processes grounded in the systemic thinking of an autobiographical account of action-research journeys from the context of action-learning experiences that led to the discovery of the communal-photosynthesis (CP) metaphor. Reflection on the action-learning and action-research (ALAR) experiences, as well as the means by which subsequent heuristic action-learning discoveries unravelled the usefulness of the CP metaphor to account for service-learning experiences, are explored. The CP metaphor usefulness is henceforth explored as a creative-reflective framework for the facilitation of collaborative inquiry in developing a living educational theory of the ALAR model. This article is thus a “creative-reflective methodology” of a participatory action research (PAR) framework for sense making that can account for people’s collective ALAR experiences. The usefulness of source domains of cyclical metaphors corresponding to the action-intention domains of PAR cycles is provided as a collaborative ALAR framework to foster knowledge production of living educational theories of practice