This article reinterprets practising for diversity and difference discursively and contextually using post-colonial, anti-racist feminist, and post-structural lenses. Working with data from a participatory action research project, the article critically reflects on normalized and standardized discourses of difference and diversity by interrogating…

Despite the growing number of collaborations between volunteers and professional scientists, research efforts investigating the impacts of such collaborations, which we have termed Public Participation in Scientific Research (PPSR), have been very limited. Examples of PPSR projects include citizen science, volunteer monitoring, and participatory…

Zero-tolerance discipline policies, harsh sentencing laws, and the gentrification of communities of color have devastating effects for the lives of young people. Coupled with the fact that urban schools can devalue their views, values, and understandings of the world, this article examines an effort to challenge deficit theories that permeate…

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present experiences and insights from an higher education-led initiative to build leadership capacity within the South West of England in order to the shed light onto the processes and mechanisms of regional capacity building. Design/methodology/approach: The approach was one of participative action…

Background/Context: Significant research has been done on the cognitive and academic outcomes of older-younger and peer-peer student relationships. Whether in a one-on-one setting or a setting in which responsibility for teaching is shared among members of a collaborative group, well-planned, well-organized, and well-executed student-student…

Rooted in feminist philosophy, critical race theory, and participatory action research (PAR), I partnered with four faculty and four students at an elite, private, college preparatory day school for boys in order to examine bullying. In this article I closely examine the role of language and discourse when conducting counter hegemonic research…

This paper presents a community-school-higher education partnership approach to the prevention of childhood obesity. Public elementary school personnel, primarily teachers, participated in the design and delivery of a curriculum targeting primary caregivers of 8-9-year-old children. Theoretical framework and methodological approaches guided the…

Purpose: This paper aims to: extend the concept of "The learning organization" to "The learning community," especially disadvantaged communities; demonstrate how leaders in a migrant community can achieve positive change at the personal, professional, team and community learning levels through participatory action learning and…

This study used Q methodology to examine perspectives regarding participatory action research (PAR) among participants in a UNICEF initiative aimed at enhancing HIV/AIDS prevention among youth in the Caribbean. We interviewed 20 youth PAR researchers and 12 project managers from youth organizations about their attitudes and experiences. Statements…

This is a collective interpretive record of a graduate course in Social Work on participatory action research (PAR) offered during the winter of 2007. It is written by 14 individuals including the instructor. It was inspired by the image of a chickadee bird borrowed from Jonathan Lear's (2006) book "Radical Hope." The chickadee is a…

This article illustrates the story of a primary school in South Auckland, New Zealand, considering the state of well-being of its pupils. Situated in a deprived area with many people living in poverty, parts of the community caught in inter-gang rivalry, some children consider the school environment to be a safer place to be. Elements of the early…

The "No Outsiders" research consortium draws upon the Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) notion of a community of practice with a shared focus on "researching approaches to sexualities equality in primary schools". While the word "community", for some, may carry connotations of harmony and even homogeneity,…

This article describes the application of a university-community partnership model to the problem of adapting evidence-based treatment approaches in a community mental health setting. Background on partnership research is presented, with consideration of methodological and practical issues related to this kind of research. Then, a rationale for…

Background/Context: School closure is becoming an increasingly common policy response to underperforming urban schools. Districts typically justify closure decisions by pointing to schools' low performance on measures required by No Child Left Behind. Closures disproportionately fall on schools with high percentages of poor and working-class…

In 2006, a 9th-period program and an A, B, C, Incomplete grading policy were implemented as high school reform initiatives in a rural high school in the Midwest. The purpose of this qualitative research study was to determine how teachers interpreted the effect of the A, B, C, Incomplete grading policy and the 9th period reform initiatives at the…