Transcript Using collaborative action research as an evaluation

Using collaborative action research as
an evaluation approach: where’s the
rigour in that?
Tina Cook
Northumbria University
[email protected]
Action learning approach:
what is it?

An individual development programme

A problem-solving forum
How does it work?




Small groups of about 6 people meet regularly to
work through some of the issues and problems
associated with their work
Usually they meet for about three or four hours once
every four weeks or so. But timings are negotiated
to suit the group
Everybody takes turns at talking about his or her
issue – the rest of the group asks questions to help
get the thinking straight. People decide on their own
actions based on the exchange of views.
Between meetings action is taken and reviewed at
the next meeting. The process goes on until the
issue is resolved.
Synetics



Creative problem solving method
Designed to play with problems so as to
break our of restricted ways of seeing
solutions
Changes can be made such as changes in:




context
perspective
nature of ingredients
identification with other parties in the situation
Issue of rigour when using
action research as an
evaluation approach
Application of method
Interpretation of data
Evaluating the early years sector of an
Education Action Zone.

Participants




Health visitors
Nursery nurses
Parents
Librarians

Methods



Interviews
Focus groups
Photography and video
Evaluating the development of inclusive
practice in an Early Years Development and
Childcare Partnership.

Participants:






toy libraries
out-of-school clubs
private, voluntary and
LEA nurseries
Playgroups
parent and toddler
groups
and childminders

Methods





Interviews
Focus groups
Photography and video
Workshops
Evaluation forms
Researching notions of research, consent to
research and ethics held by men with learning
difficulties with histories of offending
behaviour.

Participants:


men with learning
difficulties and
staff who worked with
them

Methods




Interviews
Focus groups
DVD, CD
Workshops
Action research should:
“…have an impact on ideas/opinions and
influence action through the generation of
knowledge and understanding”
Somekh and Lewin 2006:355
Evaluation



for development;
for knowledge building;
and for accountability.
Action Research as a form of inquiry

“…uses the experience of being committed to
trying to improve some practical aspect of a
practical situation as a means for developing
our understanding of it. It is research
conceived and carried out mainly by
‘insiders’, by those engaged in and
committed to the situation, not by outsiders,
not by ‘spectators’ (although outside
‘facilitators’ may also, indeed, have rather an
important role to play)” (Winter, 2002:27)
Methodological approach and
associated methods

Facilitated Collaborative Action Research







Interviews
Focus Groups
Workshops
Photography projects
Mapping
Diaries, field notes from observations…..
Evaluation forms
The questions
• “So when you have
done all this talking
with everyone, and
the workshops and
photographs and
everything, what will
you do to collect
some standardised
evidence?”
• “..but you have
asked those people
who are already
doing it, and they
have a bias towards
the way they are
doing it – why did
you ask them and
not someone without
that bias?”
Why did I choose these methods



What is meaningful to practitioners is strong
evidence
Collaborative methods can get beyond the
‘already expert’
Knowledge needs to be constructed rather
than collected
Remaining aloof is:

‘to risk the worst kind of subjectivism – the
objective observer is likely to fill in the
process of interpretation with his own
surmises in place of catching the process as
it occurs in the experience of the acting unit
which uses it’ (Blumer, 1969:86)





There are multiple realities
Knowledge constructed without participants
can only be partial
Co-labouring important in developing
knowledge
Features of the work would guide the criteria
applied to judge it
Non participant observers are likely interpret
situations with their own surmises
Synetics – (for defining the issues)

perspective:


nature of ingredients


Describe the situation as if you had just arrived from Mars –
are a reporter for a tabloid journal…
Describe the situation as if it were taking place in a science
fiction or other changed setting…
identification with other parties in the situation

Describe the situation from the point of view of another
party eg If I was John I



would be feeling…..
Would be wanting……
Would be considering…..