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This chapter introduces the history and development of inquiry-based learning (IBL) and describes how teaching and learning strategies over several decades in P-12 and higher education have built upon the ideas of John Dewey. Though personal reflection, uncertain learning paths and outcomes, and mindful inquiry have been central foundations undergirding IBL, the approach now stands upon the shoulders of theoretical and research giants such as Piaget, Vygotsky, and Bruner. Over 100 years, modern IBL proponents like Gruenewald, have implemented and experimented, contributing to cognitive and social science pedagogy, for instance, by attempting to make contemporary teaching and learning relevant, thoughtful, and action-oriented.

Dewey’s work continues to dominate educational landscapes and inquiry-based approaches to teaching and learning have, in contemporary forms, withstood the test of time. Two case studies in this chapter illustrate how IBL has materialized as problem-based and place-based methodology, reflecting influences of social and cognitive constructivism, humanistic psychology, and eco-feminism. Those who embrace IBL continue to improve teaching and learning strategies in order to find more effective methods of immersing themselves and their students in globally critical conversations about essential life issues – inside and outside of classrooms – a central and enduring tenet of Dewey’s experiential learning.

Given prior limited research on boards in clean-tech enterprises, we investigate what constitutes an effective board exploring in-depth: who the board members are, what roles they perform and how these roles are performed.

Our study is an inductive, multiple case study of five clean-tech enterprises established in Norway.

We find that board composition in terms of complementary resources that the top management team lacks added by outside directors, their increased engagement in the board service role and board behavioural integration are important constituents of board effectiveness, which in turn translates into the increased levels of the firm’s strategic action capabilities, both action speed and breadth.

We suggest that these three constituents (prevalence of outside directors, board service role engagement and board behavioural integration) together make up the board contribution, which is most valued by clean-tech enterprises in the earliest stages of their development. Future research could be conducted in other types of high-tech start-ups and/or in other hybrid social enterprises to strengthen the generalizability of our findings.

While the mainstream governance research focuses on for-profit boards in large established companies, our study adds to the research on non-for-profit governance and boards in clean-tech enterprises that are both small entrepreneurial and hybrid social enterprises.

In this Festschrift, written and shared to celebrate the life and work of Dr Kathy Charmaz, I draw upon both personal reflections and Kathy's extensive writings to showcase Kathy's contributions to my personal research journey and to the field of qualitative research methodology. I examine the intersection of constructivist grounded theory and social justice research, an important theme of Kathy's work and research. I discuss three components of constructivist grounded theory that support social justice research: researcher reflexivity, prioritizing participants, and the importance of context. I share examples from my own work showing how these three facets of constructivist grounded theory contributed to an unintended yet much appreciated social justice thread in my research. My hope is through my reflection, other researchers, who were not able to meet and interact with Kathy, will be able to understand and appreciate her influence and impact, and her view of research as a responsive, flexible, and meaningful process.

The purpose of this paper is to present the participatory action project, in an attempt to redefine the aprioristic approach, which does not bring significant results for the local community regarding the sustainable concept as an estimative goal. The purpose of introducing the process management (PM) as a technique was to incorporate the collaboration between academic research with ongoing activities of local authorities, and furthermore to preserve living and dwelling patterns to make them sustain within the neighborhood in time.

PM is a method of approaching planning that can be used in complex, unpredictable situations common in the field of development and social change. The method allows stakeholders to pursue different goals or activities within a common project. Under such circumstances, the planning process must respond to many interests as a key aspect of the public interest of a particular community. This concept helps planners by anticipating the precise events and activities to satisfy the larger goals and processes.

This study sets out with the aim to establish sustainability definition in this case study, i.e. based on the notion of the ability of future generations to meet their own needs, the management of the project described in these participatory activities has attempted to resolve the complexity of stakeholder positions in the contemporary community. Emphasizing the social content, general and specific objectives of the project interact and evolve during this process of implementation of sustainable methodology and become the subject to negotiations and compromises, which change during the process.

The survey could help to get the needed information to create correlated activity diagrams. They represent the actual and the proposed situation in the neighborhood regarding social interaction between the dwellers and their interlock of interests on different scales. These are highly mutable components that depend on a certain period. The hypothesis regarding certain research problem could give significant statistical differences, but depend on relevant survey questions.

A common topic is established – the importance of half-private spaces. The students have learned how to create and use analytical tools in the process of creating a program that has social significance for the inhabitants. In terms of the study curriculum, the students benefit from this project as a part of their education process. Local authorities and dwellers also become aware of the significance of particular social values regarding property value and land use assessment.

Social sustainability becomes a project where the planning process must respond to many interests as a key aspect of public interest where municipal sustainability requires self-assessment, to reinforce the connection between citizens and local authorities as their real representatives.

The hypothesis regarding social behavior gave significant differences when the following aspects were statistically analyzed: time-sharing between household members, the importance of house yard preferences, barrier properties between households and negotiation boundary between neighbors (space compromise). Urban Facility Management (UFM) is seen as the primary factor in creating an urban ecosystem, which has people and the environment as the main driving forces.

With confidence in the British Political system in decline, it is more important than ever that the top-down approach to decision-making and service strategy in public services is challenged. In this chapter, we examine how coproduction of services can be achieved using Get Talking, an approach to participatory action research that utilizes creative consultation techniques to engage with publics. We explain how the approach enabled Staffordshire Fire and Rescue Service (SFRS) to involve young people in the development of a Children and Young People’s Strategy. The case study approach, building on qualitative methods including focus groups and semi-structured interviews, demonstrates how creative approaches were used by public sector staff to engage young people and partners in strategy development. Creative consultation techniques were used to facilitate the focus group activity. While using Get Talking as an approach to policy development required a resource investment in terms of staff time, it provided SFRS with insight into the needs of service users. This resulted in a more relevant strategy being developed and a cultural shift in how the organization works with young people. Engagement with the Get Talking process had a positive effect on staff, providing them with a sense of ownership over the resulting strategy, enhanced the reputation of SFRS with partners, and improved relationships with young people through demonstrating that they were valued partners in coproduction. While the approach was well received by all parties, challenges of using Get Talking in a public service setting resulted in pragmatic adaptations to a traditional PAR approach.

This chapter argues that the revised ISO14001:2015 environmental standard for business constitutes a fundamental reframing of business engagement with environmental management. Drawing on the values framework of Shalom Schwartz, it is demonstrated how the revised standard represents a values shift-away from self-limiting approaches based on power, control and conformity. Instead, the revised standard frames environmental management into the language of achievement and openness where managers are encouraged to work together, make a difference, lead, inspire, engage and find innovative and creative solutions. Drawing on empirical research with small and medium enterprise managers, the significance of this values reframing is illustrated. Managers drawing on power and conformity to engage with environmental actions tended to focus on short-term actions that demonstrated quick financial payback or reputations wins. This is contrasted with managers drawing on achievement and self-direction values who took a longer term view to making a difference and working with others to find innovative solutions to complex problems. It is posited that this reframing represents a significant opportunity for business generally and for the environmental profession specifically to develop the skills and approaches required to tackle climate change and other sustainability related concerns.

This chapter argues that while Organization and Management Theory (OMT) appears in good health it stands on the precipice of a crisis of its own making. This stems from an overly self-referential and narrow focus on theoretical contribution, at the expense of a broader set of societal commitments. Paradoxically, this is particularly the case if a researcher is putatively engaging with broader societal issues. The central thesis advanced in this chapter is that researchers should be more socially reflexive about what they are researching, why they are researching it, and for whom. As a corollary, the chapter calls for researchers to interrogate the research that they are undertaking critically and to work out the broader social significance of their work. The chapter unfolds with concise analyses of two branches of OMT: the sociology of the professions and institutional theory. The chapter highlights how research into the professions runs the danger of being captured by the objects of its research: as researchers busy themselves examining pre-existing concepts, rather than exploring the power struggles that take place in particular fields. The chapter argues for a re-framing of research into the professions. The chapter highlights the rise of institutional theory to its current position of dominance within OMT. Institutional theory’s recent move to study ‘Grand Challenges’ is welcomed but also problematised. The chapter closes with reflections on a course of action for making OMT matter.

This paper has chosen a participatory action design (PAD) to approach the construction of KPIs in a novel way. A PAD will assist the researcher to encourage involvement, engagement of multiple stakeholders in the KPIs construction process.

A workshop series based on participatory action design was developed together with the researcher and stakeholders at the innovation department of a large international organization. PAD facilitated interaction between the researcher, stakeholders, and KPIs under construction.

The findings show that the PAD workshops created interlevel collaboration and group dynamics in constructing the KPI. The knowledge that was shared during the PAD workshops enabled an understanding of the process of constructing a KPI in innovation, where stakeholders design and implement simultaneously. In the end, it was a challenge to construct a KPI using the PAD, as certain conditions seemed not to be.

This paper enhances our empirical understanding of applying PAD to construct KPIs in innovation. This study adds to the growing interest in literature to implement novel methods such as PAD to construct a KPI in innovation.

Practically, the findings of this study will inform managers in innovation (projects) to use a method such as PAD to construct KPIs in innovation. This study shows the implication of using a PAD for a KPI and what opportunities and challenges it can bring.

This paper is one of the few papers that address using the participatory action design methodology for the construction of KPIs in innovation. To date, PAD is rarely used to construct KPIs in innovation.