Teacher understandings of orientation and transition programs from action research in five schools

Discontinuity between prior-to-school and school sectors in Australia reflects an historical, philosophical and pedagogical schism. This is most evident as children transition from one sector to the other. However, contemporary international research, alongside an intensive focus on policy and practice in early years education has challenged many of the taken-for-granted assumptions that perpetuate this rift. Drawing on data collected in a recent action research project, we present evidence of how a group of primary school kindergarten teachers define differences between orientation and transition programs, understand the importance of transition and how they position themselves in this process. The absence of Australian policy mandating and guiding the work of teachers across sectors is a significant factor perpetuating discontinuity in transition practices between prior–to-school and school sectors.

Engaging creativity through an action learning and action research process to develop an Indigenous art exhibition

In most art exhibitions, the creative part of the exhibition is assumed to be the artworks on display. But for the Capricornia Arts Mob’s first collective art exhibition in Rockhampton during NAIDOC Week in 2012, the process of developing the exhibition became the focus of creative action learning and action research. In working together to produce a multi-media exhibition, we learned about the collaborative processes and time required to develop a combined exhibition. We applied Indigenous ways of working – including yarning, cultural respect, cultural protocols, mentoring young people, providing a culturally safe working environment and sharing both time and food – to develop our first collective art exhibition. We developed a process that allowed us to ask deep questions, engage in a joint journey of learning, and develop our collective story. This paper explores the processes that the Capricornia Arts Mob used to develop the exhibition for NAIDOC 2012.

Beyond ethnography: Engagement and reciprocity as foundations for design research out here

This paper explores an emerging paradigm for HCI design research based primarily upon engagement, reciprocity and doing. Much HCI research begins with an investigatory and analytic ethnographic approach before translating to design. Design may come much later in the process and may never benefit the community that is researched. However in many settings it is difficult for researchers to access the privileged ethnographer position of observer and investigator. Moreover rapid ethnographic research often does not seem the best or most appropriate course of action. We draw upon a project working with a remote Australian Aboriginal community to illustrate an alternative approach in Indigenous research, where the notion of reciprocity is first and foremost. We argue that this can lead to sustainable designs, valid research and profound innovation. This paper received the ACM CHI Best Paper Award, which is awarded to the top 1% of papers submitted to the ACM CHI conference.

Conceptualising, evaluating and reporting social resilience in vulnerable regional and remote communities facing climate change in tropical Queensland : marine and tropical sciences research facility transition project final report

Regional and remote communities in tropical Queensland are among Australia’s most vulnerable in the face of climate change. At the same time, these socially and economically vulnerable regions house some of Australia’s most significant biodiversity values. Past approaches to terrestrial biodiversity management have focused on tackling biophysical interventions through the use of biophysical knowledge. An equally important focus should be placed on building regional-scale community resilience if some of the worst biodiversity impacts of climate change are to be avoided or mitigated. Despite its critical need, more systemic or holistic approaches to natural resource management have been rarely trialed and tested in a structured way. Currently, most strategic interventions in improving regional community resilience are ad hoc, not theory-based and short term. Past planning approaches have not been durable, nor have they been well informed by clear indicators. Research into indicators for community resilience has been poorly integrated within adaptive planning and management cycles. This project has aimed to resolve this problem by: * Reviewing the community and social resilience and adaptive planning literature to reconceptualise an improved framework for applying community resilience concepts; * Harvesting and extending work undertaken in MTSRF Phase 1 to identifying the learnings emerging from past MTSRF research; * Distilling these findings to identify new theoretical and practical approaches to the application of community resilience in natural resource use and management; * Reconsidering the potential interplay between a region’s biophysical and social planning processes, with a focus on exploring spatial tools to communicate climate change risk and its consequent environmental, economic and social impacts, and; * Trialling new approaches to indicator development and adaptive planning to improve community resilience, using a sub-regional pilot in the Wet Tropics. In doing so, we also looked at ways to improve the use and application of relevant spatial information. Our theoretical review drew upon the community development, psychology and emergency management literature to better frame the concept of community resilience relative to aligned concepts of social resilience, vulnerability and adaptive capacity. Firstly, we consider community resilience as a concept that can be considered at a range of scales (e.g. regional, locality, communities of interest, etc.). We also consider that overall resilience at higher scales will be influenced by resilience levels at lesser scales (inclusive of the resilience of constituent institutions, families and individuals). We illustrate that, at any scale, resilience and vulnerability are not necessarily polar opposites, and that some understanding of vulnerability is important in determining resilience. We position social resilience (a concept focused on the social characteristics of communities and individuals) as an important attribute of community resilience, but one that needs to be considered alongside economic, natural resource, capacity-based and governance attributes. The findings from the review of theory and MTSRF Phase 1 projects were synthesized and refined by the wider project team. Five predominant themes were distilled from this literature, research review and an expert analysis. They include the findings that: 1. Indicators have most value within an integrated and adaptive planning context, requiring an active co-research relationship between community resilience planners, managers and researchers if real change is to be secured; 2. Indicators of community resilience form the basis for planning for social assets and the resilience of social assets is directly related the longer term resilience of natural assets. This encourages and indeed requires the explicit development and integration of social planning within a broader natural resource planning and management framework; 3. Past indicator research and application has not provided a broad picture of the key attributes of community resilience and there have been many attempts to elicit lists of “perfect” indicators that may never be useful within the time and resource limitations of real world regional planning and management. We consider that modeling resilience for proactive planning and prediction purposes requires the consideration of simple but integrated clusters of attributes; 4. Depending on time and resources available for planning and management, the combined use of well suited indicators and/or other lesser “lines of evidence” is more flexible than the pursuit of perfect indicators, and that; 5. Index-based, collaborative and participatory approaches need to be applied to the development, refinement and reporting of indicators over longer time frames. We trialed the practical application of these concepts via the establishment of a collaborative regional alliance of planners and managers involved in the development of climate change adaptation strategies across tropical Queensland (the Gulf, Wet Tropics, Cape York and Torres Strait sub-regions). A focus on the Wet Tropics as a pilot sub-region enabled other Far North Queensland sub-region’s to participate and explore the potential extension of this approach. The pilot activities included: * Further exploring ways to innovatively communicate the region’s likely climate change scenarios and possible environmental, economic and social impacts. We particularly looked at using spatial tools to overlay climate change risks to geographic communities and social vulnerabilities within those communities; * Developing a cohesive first pass of a State of the Region-style approach to reporting community resilience, inclusive of regional economic viability, community vitality, capacitybased and governance attributes. This framework integrated a literature review, expert (academic and community) and alliance-based contributions; and * Early consideration of critical strategies that need to be included in unfolding regional planning activities with Far North Queensland. The pilot assessment finds that rural, indigenous and some urban populations in the Wet Tropics are highly vulnerable and sensitive to climate change and may require substantial support to adapt and become more resilient. This assessment finds that under current conditions (i.e. if significant adaptation actions are not taken) the Wet Tropics as a whole may be seriously impacted by the most significant features of climate change and extreme climatic events. Without early and substantive action, this could result in declining social and economic wellbeing and natural resource health. Of the four attributes we consider important to understanding community resilience, the Wet Tropics region is particularly vulnerable in two areas; specifically its economic vitality and knowledge, aspirations and capacity. The third and fourth attributes, community vitality and institutional governance are relatively resilient but are vulnerable in some key respects. In regard to all four of these attributes, however, there is some emerging capacity to manage the possible shocks that may be associated with the impacts of climate change and extreme climatic events. This capacity needs to be carefully fostered and further developed to achieve broader community resilience outcomes. There is an immediate need to build individual, household, community and sectoral resilience across all four attribute groups to enable populations and communities in the Wet Tropics region to adapt in the face of climate change. Preliminary strategies of importance to improve regional community resilience have been identified. These emerging strategies also have been integrated into the emerging Regional Development Australia Roadmap, and this will ensure that effective implementation will be progressed and coordinated. They will also inform emerging strategy development to secure implementation of the FNQ 2031 Regional Plan. Of most significance in our view, this project has taken a co-research approach from the outset with explicit and direct importance and influence within the region’s formal planning and management arrangements. As such, the research: * Now forms the foundations of the first attempt at “Social Asset” planning within the Wet Tropics Regional NRM Plan review; * Is assisting Local government at regional scale to consider aspects of climate change adaptation in emerging planning scheme/community planning processes; * Has partnered the State government (via the Department of Infrastructure and Planning and Regional Managers Coordination Network Chair) in progressing the Climate Change adaptation agenda set down within the FNQ 2031 Regional Plan; * Is informing new approaches to report on community resilience within the GBRMPA Outlook reporting framework; and * Now forms the foundation for the region’s wider climate change adaptation priorities in the Regional Roadmap developed by Regional Development Australia. Through the auspices of Regional Development Australia, the outcomes of the research will now inform emerging negotiations concerning a wider package of climate change adaptation priorities with State and Federal governments. Next stage research priorities are also being developed to enable an ongoing alliance between researchers and the region’s climate change response.

Design research for the real world : a design-led innovation model for action research

The aim of this paper is to aid researchers in undertaking action research within industry with a particular focus on the study of design-led innovation. This paper presents the research design of a case study shaped to solve real world problems concerning a major Australian Airport Corporation by bridging the chasm between academia and industry. The researcher’s role is one of design-innovation catalyst, facilitating the integration of design as a new strategic capability and innovation approach within an organisation’s fabric. A discussion of the researcher experience within industry will provide evidence on the challenges facing such a research role, with strategies for overcoming these barriers presented. Based on the authors’ experience as a researcher within industry and reflection within practice, a project progression model for action research is presented to enable the improved management of industry based research.

Health education action research (HEAR) framework

As a mandatory assessment technique of the Health Education Senior Syllabus (QSA, 2010), action research provides an opportunity for unique insights into health related knowledge, behaviours, beliefs, attitudes and values. It has the potential to be a very motivating and engaging form of learning and assessment. Despite these benefits, action research can be a daunting prospect for some students and a challenging form of assessment for teachers to conceptualise and construct. Session participants will be provided with a visual framework for understanding, structuring and sequencing action research projects. This framework will present a series of action research phases and map them against the four general objectives and three assessable dimensions of the syllabus (QSA, 2010. Participants are strongly encouraged to bring a copy of the syllabus for reference and use during this session. Reference Queensland Studies Authority. (2010). Health Education Senior Syllabus 2010. Brisbane: QSA.

Technical Action Research

This entry into the SAGE Encyclopedia of Action Research outlines the history, purpose and orientation of what has been termed 'technical action research'. The primary purpose of technical action research (commonly referred to as TAR) is improving the outcomes of a practice or intervention, with the focus of the inquiry process typically determined by parties external to those directly involved in the practice.

Visual narratives and counter-narratives in aged care : Centring the participant as photographer in social science research

As detailed by a number of scholars (Emmison & Smith, 2000, 2012; Harrison, 1996, 2002, 2004), photographs and the process of photographing can provide fertile ground for sociological investigation. Examining the production of photography can tell us much about inclusion/omission and power/knowledge in a variety of social settings. Recently, some researchers have begun to utilise the participatory action research methodology, PhotoVoice, where people take and share photographs as a means of communicating and advocating on a specific topic. While medical sociologists have used PhotoVoice to communicate the impacts of disease in vulnerable populations (eg Burles, 2010), little social research has been done that combines PhotoVoice and older persons. This is interesting given the world’s population is ageing and the general lack of research that examines what daily life is like for older people living in aged care (Timonen & O’Dwyer, 2009). In response, a recent project tracked 10 participants who recently transitioned into living in residential aged care (RAC). The project combined the use of PhotoVoice methodology with repeated in-depth interviews. Residents were asked to orally and visually describe the positives and negative aspects of their daily lives. In the first instance, they shared the use of a RAC owned camera and later had the opportunity to access a camera for their sole use. Photographic analysis emphasised the value of centring the participant as an autonomous photographer in social research. In the photographs captured on a shared use camera, the photographs tended to depict predominately positive life stories (e.g. weekly morning tea outings, social activities). In comparison, the photographs captured on the sole use camera also described intimate but everyday activities, spaces, objects and people that frequented in their daily lives. Shifting the responsibility of the camera and photography solely to the participants resulted in the residents disrupting conventions of ‘suitable’ subject matter to photograph (Harrison, 2004) and in doing so, provided a much richer insight into what daily life is like in aged care.

Developing and evaluating interventions that are applicable and relevant to inpatients and those who care for them; a multiphase, pragmatic action research approach

Background Randomised controlled trials may be of limited use to evaluate the multidisciplinary and multimodal interventions required to effectively treat complex patients in routine clinical practice; pragmatic action research approaches may provide a suitable alternative. Methods A multiphase, pragmatic, action research based approach was developed to identify and overcome barriers to nutritional care in patients admitted to a metropolitan hospital hip-fracture unit. Results Four sequential action research cycles built upon baseline data including 614 acute hip-fracture inpatients and 30 purposefully sampled clinicians. Reports from Phase I identified barriers to nutrition screening and assessment. Phase II reported post-fracture protein-energy intakes and intake barriers. Phase III built on earlier results; an explanatory mixed-methods study expanded and explored additional barriers and facilitators to nutritional care. Subsequent changes to routine clinical practice were developed and implemented by the treating team between Phase III and IV. These were implemented as a new multidisciplinary, multimodal nutritional model of care. A quasi-experimental controlled, ‘before-and-after’ study was then used to compare the new model of care with an individualised nutritional care model. Engagement of the multidisciplinary team in a multiphase, pragmatic action research intervention doubled energy and protein intakes, tripled return home discharge rates, and effected a 75% reduction in nutritional deterioration during admission in a reflective cohort of hip-fracture inpatients. Conclusions This approach allowed research to be conducted as part of routine clinical practice, captured a more representative patient cohort than previously reported studies, and facilitated exploration of barriers and engagement of the multidisciplinary healthcare workers to identify and implement practical solutions. This study demonstrates substantially different findings to those previously reported, and is the first to demonstrate that multidisciplinary, multimodal nutrition care reduces intake barriers, delivers a higher proportional increase in protein and energy intake compared with baseline than other published intervention studies, and improves patient outcomes when compared with individualised nutrition care. The findings are considered highly relevant to clinical practice and have high translation validity. The authors strongly encourage the development of similar study designs to investigate complex health problems in elderly, multi-morbid patient populations as a way to evaluate and change clinical practice.

‘Ngulluck Katitj Wah Koorl Koorliny/ Us mob going along learning to research together’ : drawing on action research to develop a literature review on Indigenous gendered health and wellbeing

This paper describes the collaborative work practices of the Health and Wellbeing Node within the National Indigenous Research and Knowledges Network (NIRAKN). The authors reflect on the processes they used to research and develop a literature review. As a newly established research team, the Health and Wellbeing Node members developed a collaborative approach that was informed by Action Research practices and underpinned by Indigenous ways of working. The authors identify strong links between Action Research and Indigenous processes. They suggest that, through ongoing cycles of research and review, the NIRAKN Health and Wellbeing Node developed a culturally safe, respectful and trulycollaborative way of working together and forming the identity of their work group. In this paper, they describe their developing work processes and explain the way that pictorial conceptual models contributed to their emerging ideas.

Working on the edge : Exploring the creative tensions experienced by practitioners facilitating participatory media projects with refugees and asylum seekers in Australia

This paper aims to provide a contextualised and embedded exploration of how the notions of "practice" and "participation", key concepts in the study of culture and media, are manifest in an example of a complex creative project. This project aimed to engage with refugees and asylum seekers through the co-creation of cultural material and is an outcome of an? ethnographic action research (Tacchi et al. 2003) partnership involving a community development worker in a settlement support agency and a storytelling/community media researcher (the author), along with other project collaborators. The discussion of this project focuses on the role of the facilitator and illustrates the processes of orchestrating a complex project involving a series of linked stages with cumulative effect. As practitioners at this site we are working in the space where personal narratives, participatory arts and media, and the staging of intercultural, civic dialogue events, intersect. Co-creative media facilitation in these contexts involves both managing hybrid communicative spaces and (re)combining the "integrative practices" (Schatzki 1996) of a range of professional approaches and creative roles. This is liminal work, located on the boundaries of several disciplines and practices. Drawing on reflections gathered from collaborative ethnographic descriptions (Bhattacharya 2008), this paper traces moments of practitioner uncertainty that can be linked to the way "practice" and “participation” is problematised within the community cultural development field in a way that is at times an uneasy fit with conventional ways of operating in social service roles. These moments of tension also indicate where this project pushed practitioners into spaces of improvisation and new learning. Keywords: Youth, refugees, community cultural development, co-creative media facilitation, ethnographic action research, intercultural dialogue.

The fluid nature of action research

Action research is a fluid, unfolding process of research. It involves cycles of questioning, gathering data, critical reflection and deciding on a course of action (Stringer, 2008). Through action research, educators research their own practice in their own setting. They learn from their experiences as the action research cycles progress, and apply new learning to practice.

Mobilising School and Community Engagement to Implement Disability-Inclusive Education through Action Research: Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu

This publication emanates from the four-country research project entitled “Strengthening capacity for disability-inclusive education development policy formulation, implementation and monitoring in the South Pacific region” funded by the Australian Development Research Award Scheme (ADRAS) and conducted jointly by the academic staff from the Queensland University of Technology and the University of the South Pacific.

Urban informatics beyond data: Media architecture, placemaking, and citizen action

Since 2006, we have been conducting urban informatics research that we define as “the study, design, and practice of urban experiences across different urban contexts that are created by new opportunities of real-time, ubiquitous technology and the augmentation that mediates the physical and digital layers of people networks and urban infrastructures” [1]. Various new research initiatives under the label “urban informatics” have been started since then by universities (e.g., NYU’s Center for Urban Science and Progress) and industry (e.g., Arup, McKinsey) worldwide. Yet, many of these new initiatives are limited to what Townsend calls, “data-driven approaches to urban improvement” [2]. One of the key challenges is that any quantity of aggregated data does not easily translate directly into quality insights to better understand cities. In this talk, I will raise questions about the purpose of urban informatics research beyond data, and show examples of media architecture, participatory city making, and citizen activism. I argue for (1) broadening the disciplinary foundations that urban science approaches draw on; (2) maintaining a hybrid perspective that considers both the bird’s eye view as well as the citizen’s view, and; (3) employing design research to not be limited to just understanding, but to bring about actionable knowledge that will drive change for good.