Assurer la rigueur scientifique de la recherche-action

Les critères auxquels on peut se référer pour juger de la qualité et de la rigueur d’une recherche varient selon la posture épistémologique des chercheurs. Alors que la recherche positiviste s’appuie sur des critères de validité scientifique et que la recherche interprétative est soutenue par des critères méthodologiques et relationnels, qu’en est-il de modèles de recherche comme la recherche-action? Cet article vise d’abord à rappeler les critères de rigueur de la recherche interprétative, à faire ressortir les critères qui s’appliquent spécifiquement à la recherche-action et, enfin, à proposer des moyens pour satisfaire à chacun de ces critères.

Recherche-action-formation au préscolaire et au 1er cycle du primaire : pistes méthodologiques

La recherche-action-formation est un type de recherche encore peu documenté. Pourtant, des programmes de subvention québécois font de plus en plus appel à celle-ci afin d’accompagner des enseignantes dans le renouvèlement de leurs pratiques. Notre contribution souhaite à la fois définir ce qu’est la recherche-action-formation et en présenter le désign méthodologique. Pour ce faire, nous illustrerons nos propos par la présentation de notre propre recherche-action-formation ayant comme objectif général d’offrir des séminaires de formation et de recherche en littératie, volets lecture et oral, à deux enseignantes du préscolaire, à neuf du 1er cycle du primaire et à deux orthopédagogues afin qu’ils élaborent et expérimentent des situations d’apprentissage et d’évaluation (SAÉ) intégrant la littératie. Loin de nous l’idée de présenter une recherche exemplaire, mais plutôt de démontrer la rigueur, la souplesse et la complexité de ce type de recherche ainsi que sa grande pertinence sociale et scientifique en éducation.

La recherche-action et la recherche-développement au service de la littératie

Remerciements -- Introduction : pour une plus grande reconnaissance de la recherche innovante en éducation / Isabelle Carignan, Marie-Christine Beaudry, François Larose --Assurer la rigueur scientifique de la recherche-action / Louise Bourgeois -- Enseigner la lecture au primaire :un aperçu des pratiques d’enseignants des 2e et 3e cycles du primaire./ Pascale Thériault, Nadine Laurin -- Recherche-action-formation au préscolaire et au 1er cycle du primaire :pistes méthodologiques / Lizanne Lafontaine --Intégration de la multimodalité dans les projets d’innovation de stagiaires en formation / Nathalie Lacelle, Amal Boultif -- Dispositif didactique pour développer la lecture littéraire au deuxième cycle du secondaire / Marie-Christine Beaudry.

Local strategic partnerships in England: the continuing search for collaborative advantage, leadership and strategy in urban governance

Local Strategic Partnerships are being established in England to provide an inclusive, collaborative and strategic focus to regeneration strategies at the local level. They are also required to rationalise the proliferation of local and micro-partnerships set up by a succession of funding initiatives over the last 25 years. This article explores their remit, resources and membership and discusses how this initiative relates to theoretical work on urban governance, community engagement and leadership. It concludes by debating whether urban policy in England is now entering a new and more advanced phase based on inter-organisational networks with a strategic purpose. But questions remain about whether the institutional capacity is sufficient to deliver strong local leadership, accountability and community engagement.

An algebra and conceptual model for semantic tagging of collaborative digital libraries

Cost-effective semantic description and annotation of shared knowledge resources has always been of great importance for digital libraries and large scale information systems in general. With the emergence of the Social Web and Web 2.0 technologies, a more effective semantic description and annotation, e.g., folksonomies, of digital library contents is envisioned to take place in collaborative and personalised environments. However, there is a lack of foundation and mathematical rigour for coping with contextualised management and retrieval of semantic annotations throughout their evolution as well as diversity in users and user communities. In this paper, we propose an ontological foundation for semantic annotations of digital libraries in terms of flexonomies. The proposed theoretical model relies on a high dimensional space with algebraic operators for contextualised access of semantic tags and annotations. The set of the proposed algebraic operators, however, is an adaptation of the set theoretic operators selection, projection, difference, intersection, union in database theory. To this extent, the proposed model is meant to lay the ontological foundation for a Digital Library 2.0 project in terms of geometric spaces rather than logic (description) based formalisms as a more efficient and scalable solution to the semantic annotation problem in large scale.

Elements of a methodology to assess the alignment of core-values in collaborative networks

Collaborative networks are typically formed by heterogeneous and autonomous entities, and thus it is natural that each member has its own set of core-values. Since these values somehow drive the behaviour of the involved entities, the ability to quickly identify partners with compatible or common core-values represents an important element for the success of collaborative networks. However, tools to assess or measure the level of alignment of core-values are lacking. Since the concept of 'alignment' in this context is still ill-defined and shows a multifaceted nature, three perspectives are discussed. The first one uses a causal maps approach in order to capture, structure, and represent the influence relationships among core-values. This representation provides the basis to measure the alignment in terms of the structural similarity and influence among value systems. The second perspective considers the compatibility and incompatibility among core-values in order to define the alignment level. Under this perspective we propose a fuzzy inference system to estimate the alignment level, since this approach allows dealing with variables that are vaguely defined, and whose inter-relationships are difficult to define. Another advantage provided by this method is the possibility to incorporate expert human judgment in the definition of the alignment level. The last perspective uses a belief Bayesian network method, and was selected in order to assess the alignment level based on members' past behaviour. An example of application is presented where the details of each method are discussed.

Supporting conceptualisation processes in collaborative networks: a case study on an R&D project

The development of new products or processes involves the creation, re-creation and integration of conceptual models from the related scientific and technical domains. Particularly, in the context of collaborative networks of organisations (CNO) (e.g. a multi-partner, international project) such developments can be seriously hindered by conceptual misunderstandings and misalignments, resulting from participants with different backgrounds or organisational cultures, for example. The research described in this article addresses this problem by proposing a method and the tools to support the collaborative development of shared conceptualisations in the context of a collaborative network of organisations. The theoretical model is based on a socio-semantic perspective, while the method is inspired by the conceptual integration theory from the cognitive semantics field. The modelling environment is built upon a semantic wiki platform. The majority of the article is devoted to developing an informal ontology in the context of a European R&D project, studied using action research. The case study results validated the logical structure of the method and showed the utility of the method.

Models and tools for value systems analysis in collaborative environments

Dissertation to obtain the degree of Doctor in Electrical and Computer Engineering, specialization of Collaborative Networks

Drivers of participation in collaborative consumption ventures

A Work Project, presented as part of the requirements for the Award of a Masters Degree in Management from the NOVA – School of Business and Economics

Petites villes européenes au bas Moyen Âge: perspectives de recherche

Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia,

Community indentification in peer-t-peer collaborative consumption services

Even though collaborative consumption (CC) is gaining economic importance, research in CC is still in its infancy. Consumers’ reasons for participating have already been investigated but little research on consequences of participation has been conducted. This article examines whether interactions between customers in peer-to-peer CC services influence the willingness to coproduce service outcomes. Drawing on social exchange theory, it is proposed that this effect is mediated by consumers’ identification with the brand community. Furthermore, continuance intention in CC is introduced as a second stage moderator. In a cross-sectional study, customers of peer-to-peer accommodation sharing are surveyed. While customer-to-customer interactions were found to have a positive effect on brand community identification, brand community identification did not positively affect co-production intention. Surprisingly, the effect of brand community identification on co-production intention was negative. Moreover, continuance intention of customers did not moderate this relationship. Bearing in mind current challenges for researchers and companies, theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.

Results of a collaborative study of the EDNAP group regarding mitochondrial DNA heteroplasmy and segregation in hair shafts.

A collaborative exercise was carried out by the European DNA Profiling Group (EDNAP) in order to evaluate the distribution of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) heteroplasmy amongst the hairs of an individual who displays point heteroplasmy in blood and buccal cells. A second aim of the exercise was to study reproducibility of mtDNA sequencing of hairs between laboratories using differing chemistries, further to the first mtDNA reproducibility study carried out by the EDNAP group. Laboratories were asked to type 2 sections from each of 10 hairs, such that each hair was typed by at least two laboratories. Ten laboratories participated in the study, and a total of 55 hairs were typed. The results showed that the C/T point heteroplasmy observed in blood and buccal cells at position 16234 segregated differentially between hairs, such that some hairs showed only C, others only T and the remainder, C/T heteroplasmy at varying ratios. Additionally, differential segregation of heteroplasmic variants was confirmed in independent extracts at positions 16093 and the poly(C) tract at 302-309, whilst a complete A-G transition was confirmed at position 16129 in one hair. Heteroplasmy was observed at position 16195 on both strands of a single extract from one hair segment, but was not observed in the extracts from any other segment of the same hair. Similarly, heteroplasmy at position 16304 was observed on both strands of a single extract from one hair. Additional variants at positions 73, 249 and the HVII poly(C) region were reported by one laboratory; as these were not confirmed in independent extracts, the possibility of contamination cannot be excluded. Additionally, the electrophoresis and detection equipment used by this laboratory was different to those of the other laboratories, and the discrepancies at position 249 and the HVII poly(C) region appear to be due to reading errors that may be associated with this technology. The results, and their implications for forensic mtDNA typing, are discussed in the light of the biology of hair formation.

Le Q-sort, un outil pour la recherche en soins le cas des représentations chez les infirmiers en psychiatrie de l'âge avancé [Q-sort, a useful research method in care in cases of psychiatric nursing of the aged]

Q-sort is a research method which allows defining profiles of attitudes toward a set of statements, ordered in relation to each other. Pertaining to the Q Methodology, the qualitative analysis of the Q-sorts is based on quantitative techniques. This method is of particular interest for research in health professions, a field in which attitudes of patients and professionals are very important. The method is presented in this article, along with an example of application in nursing in old age psychiatry.