Browsing by Subject "Action Research"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Questioning the tensions: action research within a teacher collaboration.
    (2009-09) Lloyd, Rachel Anne Malchow
    Professions are defined in part by the presence of communities of practice which share knowledge and monitor standards (Shulman, 1998). However, beginning with Lortie's (1975) seminal description of the American teacher, teachers have been found to be autonomous and isolated. Despite sustained critique of these norms of isolation, subsequent research has suggested that little has changed in actual school structure or practices over the last thirty years (Little, 1990; Darling-Hammond, 2005). The purpose of this study was to understand and improve a collaboration of six English teachers which defied these traditional norms of isolation in the teaching profession. Set in the large suburban high school where I taught for ten years, this collaborative team was comprised of three veteran and three early career English 12 teachers including myself. As such, this project was most closely aligned with the epistemology of action research, but employed multiple interpretivist tools such as narrative inquiry, discourse analysis, and activity theory to examine the product and processes through which our team accomplished its work. The research explored multiple aspects of our collaborative practices: the curriculum created, the language of team meetings, the norms of time and labor, and the evidence of teacher learning apparent in our work. It also attends to the importance of affective relationships within collaboration. This research found that like many teacher collaborations, multiple tensions existed and complicated our work. The most salient tensions included: the relationships between the veteran and early career teachers; the relationships between dual purposes of curriculum development and mentoring; and the relationships between individual autonomy and community practices. However, despite such challenges, the study evidences the benefits of collaboration for teacher learning, particularly when in concert with inquiry into our own practices. As such, this research offers an alternative view of teachers' professional development as embedded, enduring, and empowering; and of teachers' professional practice as striving for the ideals of a democratic learning community.
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    Student response to critical literacy within the dominant discourse.
    (2009-07) Knutson, Margaret MacCarthy
    Critical literacy is one application of critical pedagogy that focuses on the cultural and ideological assumptions that underwrite texts and discourses. While there is no simple, unified definition of critical literacy, instruction that aligns with this framework involves investigating the politics of representation and interrogating the inequitable, cultural positioning of speakers and readers within discourses. Critical pedagogy and critical literacy are often framed pedagogies of the oppressed with little attention to their relevance within the dominant Discourse. However, many theorists believe that such teaching within predominantly white and affluent populations is not only relevant, but necessary (Howard, 2003; Thandeka, 2002). Drawing on teacher-as-researcher design, this study examines how the students in her all white class within an affluent suburb made sense the ideas of power and privilege and how they responded to critical literacy pedagogy. This action research utilizes grounded theory and critical discourse analysis to illuminate the complex and nuanced responses of students. Data includes video recorded class discussions, student work samples, fieldwork observation notes, interviews and surveys. Findings from this study reveal the complex and sometimes thorny ways that critical literacy manifested itself in the classroom and in students' lived lives. The implications for teaching are presented in two themes 1) The need for teachers to build trust with communities outside of the classroom, namely, parents and administrators through strong communication, academic rigor, understanding, and 2) The need for teachers to increase awareness of the potential negative effects of critical literacy on students and minimize them. The intent of this study is to address the need for greater understanding of how students engage in critical literacy to better support teachers, students and to strengthen it as a pedagogy.
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    Understanding an Action Research Process in a Youth Sport Organization
    (2021-07) Okamoto, Katlin
    Youth sport is often considered a setting for ‘youth development’ and for young people to acquire ‘life skills’. In shifting from a sole focus on physical fitness and sporting competence to a more complex understanding of young person and ‘life skills’, the coach becomes a youth worker. Yet, to claim that youth sport can play a role in youth development is complex and dependent on the theoretical and practical chosen frames of youth development and their corresponding goals and values. When ‘life skills’ are presumed to be acquired- these too have social meaning- they are often done within an adolescent and/or ‘positive youth development’ frame and are obtained inequitably across age, social class, ethnicity, gender, geography, and the like. This suggests existing understandings of ‘youth development’ and ‘life skills’ in youth sport are narrow and inadequate, in social terms and of themselves, without full recognition of social class, ethnicity, gender, and other social demographics. Thus, an opportunity to expand the embodied meanings of ‘youth development’, and what outcomes are desired, in youth sport exists- both those of adults and those of youth players. One possible approach is through democratic process embedded in a civic youth work orientation and potentially overlapping classic youth coaching strategies and carried out through an action research process, one more common in other areas of education practice.This dissertation sought to understand action research as an individual, team, programmatic, and organizational change process in a youth sport organization in an upper-middle class, suburban, Midwest community. To do this, an action research project was developed, implemented, and assessed in a new youth soccer club. The study had two levels- the action research project focused on exploring the core values with youth players (Level I), and a self-reflection on the process of doing action research (Level II). The project consisted of twenty four, one-hour sessions with ~ twenty eight youth- boys and girls from two soccer teams- a co-facilitator, and myself. The project took place over a period of five months and was informed by community youth development and social justice youth development theories, a civic youth work orientation, and the researcher’s expertise as a licensed soccer coach. Data were collected before, during, and after the project in the form of interviews, field notes, observations, artefacts, documentation, a learning journal, archival records, and dialog with ‘critical friends’ and were analyzed for qualitative themes. Several findings emerged at Level I and Level II of the study. Youth players shared a commitment to and were able to live out the soccer club’s core values (teamwork, respect, leadership, ownership) in their everyday soccer lives, and sometimes in other youth life realms, and enjoyed the experience. Parents and club directors expressed their satisfaction with the project. I learned about my ability to create a democratic youth work space in a youth sport organization (Level I) within my coach training and also with the young people and with my co-facilitator. The action research project showed itself as possible in the youth sport club and trust and relationship building emerged as essential to the project’s start, implementation, and completion in the youth sport organization. These findings suggest youth sport can be amenable to a civic youth work practice and a democratic process is possible in U.S. youth sport clubs, albeit with difficulty, patience, skill, and fortuitous conditions. This study has implications for exploring youth sport as a place for youth work and it provides evidence of specific “life skills” that can be achieved through such practice. For those youth workers who utilize theories of community youth development or social justice youth development, or for social workers who identify as youth and community workers, these findings can be read to encourage further consideration of the ways economic inequality influences outcomes and opportunities and/or the way that cultural differences may alter taken-for-granted values and practices. Finally, this study can inform youth sport policy to better align with desired coaching practices, and for action research as a coach development process within sport. However, given the realities of the club and the youth and families included in this study, it is vital that civic youth development work also be undertaken with young people, families, and communities from a wider array of social class, ethic/racial background, and geographic communities in order to understand the cultural and social contexts of such goals and practices. My professional development brought into personal tension the differences, as well as similarities, between my coaching training, orientation, and practice and that school of youth work called community youth work. This should be explored more deeply across social class, gender, ethnicity/race, and geographic spaces. Keywords: Youth sport, youth work, action research, social work
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    Using Action Research to Support an On-going Organizational Culture Transformation
    (2016-09) Kuhn, Jane
    This study explored the use of action research to support an on-going large-scale organizational culture transformation at a health care organization based in the Midwest. The Plano Clark & Creswell (2015) eight-step action research process was used to guide the study done by the Culture Action Research Team (CART), which consisted of eight employees. CART identified eight opportunities to support the on-going culture transformation. Three opportunities were researched further, with the decision to implement one of these ideas – the new employee experience which would create a consistent, welcoming experience for all new employees joining the organization. The team gathered and analyzed data, developed a three-phase implementation plan, created the communications and creative theme, established an implementation process, implemented the updated communications, and evaluated and reflected on the process. Results indicated that the updated process had a positive impact on new employees and hiring managers to support the on-going culture transformation. Based on the research process, the team identified five enablers (employee involvement, systems thinking and practice, senior leadership support, champions within the business, and communications) and two barriers (resistors and the matrix environment within a large organization) to culture change. Additionally, the team identified lessons learned to apply to future change opportunities.