Millions of people worldwide have experienced abrupt and traumatic disruption in the flow of their personal life story as a result of stroke and the onset of aphasia. For each one who survives and embarks on the journey toward recovery, their unique and evolving narrative yields gems of wisdom borne of the experience. This wisdom is shared with…

In this article, we present participatory action research (PAR) as a radical act of humanity: a direct response to real dehumanization of vulnerable communities. We argue, as an enactment of critical social theories, that PAR privileges relationships and shared knowledge creations as strategies for transforming everyday worlds. We draw on…

For Foucault, discourses shape people's knowledge and inform how they act in a society. Power over others is legitimated by dominant discourses, a means through which hegemony discloses itself: a given group is entitled to oppress another. As a parent-educator based in Italy, I see such discourses manifesting themselves in actions and speeches. As…

Action research is conceived as a feet-on-the-ground process--a way of addressing and improving the everyday experiences and concerns of people who deliver real goods and services in an organisation, through the process of finding out new things--i.e. research in the broadest sense. This article explores the question of how action researchers do…

It is common for researchers in Indigenous Knowledge (IK) in science education research to draw on aspects of the scientific paradigm from their science training. The consequent research seeks to be objective. This paradigm is not necessarily appropriate for IK research. While there have been calls for IK-aligned methodologies (Chilisa 2012; Keane…

This paper documents a year in the life of an ESOL adult literacy teacher. It is a work of narrative inquiry, an examination of reflective teaching in action. As such, it includes commentary on the cycle of observation, reflection, research, and action. In particular, this narrative examines the relationship between literacy practice and…

This paper presents the findings of a research project that sought to interrogate the possibilities of digital storytelling as a pathway towards a more complete understanding of treaties and the treaty relationship in western Canada. This research is situated in the province of Saskatchewan, where treaty education (that is, education about the…

The public education system in the U.S. has been under assault with the latest neoliberal education reforms. Those reforms are characterized by their antidemocratic and homogenizing assessment system, which reinforces a banking model of education. Such model goes against teachers and teaching, linguistic and cultural diversity and bilingual…

This paper demonstrates the importance and implications of Hannah Arendt's theory of action for action research. Using examples from my teaching experience I demonstrate the relevance of her ideas in understanding the purpose and aims of action research in the classroom.

In this article we consider the importance of reflective practice and research attitude for the professional development of in-service teachers. Nine teachers engaged in an international master's course (in a Belgium and French university) were interviewed to obtain self-narratives. The two year full-time master's course aims to develop skills in…

Narratives and activity theory are useful as socially constructed data collection tools that allow a researcher access to the social, cultural and historical meanings that research participants place on events in their lives. This case study shows how these tools were used to promote reflection within a cultural-historical activity theoretically…

Voice in mobile texts has received attention lately among scholars in literacy, sociolinguistics, and rhetoric. Some sociolinguists of globalisation have argued that uptake is shaped by the norms of each literacy regime. Though texts of non-western communities will gain positive uptake in local literacy regimes according to their own norms and…

This article traces the experiences of three pre-service teachers as they engaged in teacher research as part of their teacher education program and considers how teacher research might disrupt dominant paradigms that aim to de-contextualize teaching and offer one-size-fits-all solutions to address inequities. In particular, the article examines:…

Collaboration between participants with different roles, but equal status, is the aim in action research. In this project we experienced problems establishing equality between the participants. The research question discussed in this paper is: "How did the researcher experience that the use of narratives affected the level of equality between…

This article focuses on the challenges and opportunities a researcher may encounter in practice, and presents four narratives that take the reader into situations which may arise when the researcher steps into the practice field. Episodes that challenge the researcher both cognitively and emotionally are depicted in the narratives. The authors…