What is First Person Action Research
This is a type of Action Research or inquiry which is called “First Person” Action Research in a similar way to the “first person singular” part of speech used in grammar which is either “I” or “Me” depending on being the subject or object of a verb. But the “I” in First Person Action Research is both the subject and the object. First person plural would involve “we” and “us” so that’s the more standard participatory Action Research with groups of people who are involved in the research process as well.

Why choose 1st person Action Research
That’s enough explanation of the name, what’s the use of it? Usually to improve the researcher’s own practice, both as a practitioner in whatever field, and also as a researcher. The researcher may be pioneering a new type of practice, so there’s nobody else to share learning with, or they may be simply isolated by circumstance. So the only way forward is to set up cycles of action taking and data gathering, analysis and reflection, seeking validation from the researcher’s own results, sense of achievement and possibly future sharing of research if suitable contacts can be found.

Who might use First Person Action Inquiry
A classic example is the unmentored teacher, alone in a classroom, with a series of challenges from pupils, under pressure of work and deadlines with no time to discuss with other teachers, poor thing. Another scenario is the homeworker building websites and services, trying out this and that application, able to read and comment on what others are doing in a similar position, but working with a totally unique set of parameters in a specialist niche environment creating an experience in which collaboration almost impossible.

How is it done
Essentially the method is the same as any other action inquiry in that following some planning, a preliminary reconnaisance and literature search may be undertaken, then an action is chosen which is designed to bring about an improvement in the situation being researched, which in this case is the researcher’s own practice. Data is collected, including rich qualitative data, and then at the end of the designated period, the data is analysed and the entire process reflected upon. Any tentative conclusions or findings can then be fed back into the choosing of the next action for the following cycle. That’s the clean version, but it is accepted as given that the actual process in practice will become much messier, with some overlapping cycles and spirals of wheels within wheels. In the next post in this series I will introduce the use of the Action Log.

The post First Person Action Research appeared first on Technology Research Blog.

The post London Wiki Wednesday appeared first on Technology Research Blog.

Areol, action research and evaluation on line, is a 14-week public course offered each semester as a public service by Southern Cross University and the Southern Cross Institute of Action Research

The course begins sometime this month so the timing is just right to continue the conversations and further develop the ideas of communities of practice and action research, which coincides closely with the central idea of DAR – Distributed Action Research.

Let me try and explain a bit better so that you can evaluate whether you might be interested in taking part.

* Action Research is a methodology (or possibly a group of methodologies) which combines action for improvement with systematic research methods, and has proved to be a useful way for practitioners to develop and share best practices. Some AR is practiced in developing countries, in rural environments, some in educational institutions and more recently – some entirely on the internet.
* Bob Dick is a leading exponent of Action Research and he runs a regular email course on the subject, which runs out of a University in Australia but is open to anybody.
* Myself, some members of CPsquare and others have decided to register for the course which starts in February, and we will form a small learning group within the wider course.
* This particular group will focus on Action Research in the context of Communities of Practice.
* Communities of practice are groups of people who share a domain, a practice and a community and the term is used these days to refer to online communities when they also meet those criteria. Online COPS are sometimes called distributed COPS or VCOPS ( for “virtual”)

So there are people who have been thinking about and developing strategies for working with COPS for ages, but have perhaps not consciously deployed the methodology of action research. And there are people who have been studying and practising action research, maybe including online learning communities, but have perhaps not encountered the living theory nor had the pragmatic experience of working with real communities of practice. It may be mutually beneficial to bring these together.

If you’d like to join us then please register as soon as possible by following the simple intructions here:
http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/gcm/ar/areol/areolsub.html

It might help when you send the email to Bob to mention that you’d like to part of the COP/DAR group.

The post DAR group at AREOL appeared first on Technology Research Blog.