Critical reflection writing in teacher education programmes is often undertaken without appropriate learning support despite the contribution it makes to informing meaningful changes in the early stages of their teaching careers. Students' attempts at writing critical reflections often lack discursive depth when connecting theory to practice.…

This article addresses the question of how theatre interventions as elements of a participatory and action-oriented research design can contribute to justice-oriented Caring Community processes. Caring Communities are local initiatives that strengthen everyday solidarity through civic engagement and neighbourhood support, link informal and formal…

This paper presents a small-scale Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR) study, investigating school leaders' efforts to enhance families' engagement in their children's learning, through classroom teachers' use of social media. The study occurred within three Australian primary schools, situated within a culturally and linguistically…

Action research (AR) offers an ideological fit with the culture and the work of the academy - they share a culture of collegiality, evidence- and theory-based practice, and a focus on reflection and evaluation to inform change and innovation. An AR approach and methodology are also integral to the development of leadership capacity for learning…

Clinical nurse educators within Queensland, Australia, tend to be selected for the job based on their clinical expertise and consequently may lack knowledge of educational theories and practices. Within the Nursing School in which this project was based, there is interest in developing expertise in Transformative Learning theory. To share this…

Critical Participatory Action Research (CPAR) requires communicative space to develop shared understandings and decisions. We examine the interactional accomplishment of such a space between a classroom practitioner and an academic researcher when meeting to reflect on a lesson and agree on future action to bring about change in the practitioner's…

The Australian Professional Standards for Teachers identify a range of supposedly demonstrable capabilities for graduate teachers. Elaborations privilege the realization of Standards through mentoring, and feedback from senior colleagues. As manifestations of the logic of neo-liberalism they operate as audit technologies for pre-service teachers…

This study emerged from a state initiative to improve teaching and lift school outcomes in Melbourne, Australia. At the invitation of participating schools, the data presented here were produced for follow-up sessions in a professional development program using the 'Developmental Management Approach'. Fieldnotes of teacher talk intended to give…

This paper explores the development of cooperative inquiry as a methodology for nursing research. It commences with a historical overview of Action Research and its use in nursing. The applicability of Action Research approaches in higher education are then discussed in the context of creating partnerships between universities, students and the…

As co-founders of the Action Learning and Action Research Association (ALARA), we tell the story of this international network organisation through our personal experience. Our history traces the evolution of ALARA from origins at the first World Congress in 1990 in Brisbane, Australia, through development over two and a half decades, to its…

The purpose of this article is to provide an educational, theoretical, and methodological framework for using a special kind of action research, namely PALAR (participatory action learning and action research). This integrated methodology of lifelong action learning (AL) and participatory action research (PAR) has been developed over the past…

This paper describes how an action research process, centred around a professional development program for teaching critical thinking, enabled teachers in a specialised program for high-achieving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students (Solid Pathways) to develop their pedagogical practices to support student cognition. It argues that a…

Action research has enjoyed phenomenal growth in the field of education as a catalyst for teacher professional learning with a view to school improvement, but it is commonly remodelled across various local settings. Adopting a Schatzkian perspective, this study investigates the experiences of a range of teachers engaging in an action research…

The Pedagogy, Education and Praxis (PEP) network is a cross-institutional, collaborative research programme which brings together researchers from Australia, Columbia, Finland, Norway, Sweden, the Caribbean, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. These researchers are investigating the nature, traditions and conditions of pedagogy, education and…

This article reports on an evaluation of three action research projects developed by a group of teachers working across the early years in three independent schools. The article examines the role of action research in developing educational leadership capabilities. Drawing on the educational leadership literature, concepts and ideas of action and…