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1 – 10 of over 36000My aims in this chapter are to discuss alternative ways of doing education and research, and thereby highlight key contributions from Paulo Freire, Orlando Fals-Borda and Dorothy…
Abstract
My aims in this chapter are to discuss alternative ways of doing education and research, and thereby highlight key contributions from Paulo Freire, Orlando Fals-Borda and Dorothy Lee, to active learning, participatory action-research and intercultural dialogue. These scholars were heirs of the university reform movements of the twentieth century, and their vital legacy is alive as shown in this book. The enclosed ideas and illustrations of transformative research and education draw from my academic experience in various corners of the world and points in time.
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Nicola Yelland and Clare Bartholomaeus
The purpose of this article is to contribute to the research methodology literature that arose out of the (new) sociology of childhood and the UN Convention of the Rights of the…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this article is to contribute to the research methodology literature that arose out of the (new) sociology of childhood and the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child (1989) with regard to conducting ethical research with children rather than on children. In particular, this article reflects on the development of a method (learning dialogues).
Design/methodology/approach
Learning dialogues were designed to enable children to share their responses to prompts about specific aspects of their lifeworlds. This was one method used to produce the data corpus which also included a large-scale survey, classroom ethnographies and (video) re-enactments of children's lives after school.
Findings
The piloting of the learning dialogues took place in several iterations and a particular form was used for the main study. The original idea and development of the learning dialogues highlights they were both a rich source of data that complemented the other data sources in the study and an activity that children indicated that they enjoyed. The authors discuss the practicalities involved with adapting a qualitative method to different settings and to projects with large numbers of children.
Originality/value
The conceptualisation of the learning dialogues as sources of personal documentation about aspects of children's lifeworlds was unique to this research. In thinking about the learning dialogues as one source of data within a broader project, the research aimed to be more inclusive of all participants in contributing to the findings produced in the project.
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This chapter discusses a form of pedagogy of reflection suggested to be defined as the dialogical-reflective professional-development school (DRPDS) – a framework that develops and…
Abstract
This chapter discusses a form of pedagogy of reflection suggested to be defined as the dialogical-reflective professional-development school (DRPDS) – a framework that develops and empowers students by engaging them in a process of continual improvement, responding to diverse situations, providing stimuli for learning, and giving anchors for mediation. The pedagogy of reflection relates to dialogue not only from a theoretical historical context but also by way of example – that is, it offers empowering dialogues within the traditional teacher-training framework. This chapter outlines the importance of the pedagogy of reflection in the multicultural educational space of the preservice education field in Israel, analyzing the first university PDS model. The pedagogy of reflection in the context of the educational dialogue of educators is outlined as a tool for student empowerment, achieved through a community of learners who dedicate space to the development of their whole personality within the profession, taking a moral stance toward the educational discourse, minimizing judgmentalism and prejudice, creating national/gender equality with the goal of examining the fundamental question of educational performance, and reinforcing their sense of organizational belonging within the system. In these contexts, the chapter is based on the elements of dialogical philosophy exemplified in the thought of Burbules, Nelson, Isaacs, Bohm, and Heckmann and the reflective basis of educational and organizational performance exemplified in the writings of van Manen. The chapter also presents two examples from a project in which teaching units based on dialogue and reflection were developed within a dialogic community that represents in its very being collective empowerment, the possibility of coping with problems that are too large for an individual to solve on his/her own, and an alternative to sealed and alienated organizations.
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Soila Lemmetty and Kaija Collin
The purpose of this study is to describe the construction of leadership through authentic dialogues at work and leaders’ actions as contributors to dialogic leadership.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to describe the construction of leadership through authentic dialogues at work and leaders’ actions as contributors to dialogic leadership.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors collected the data by recording the organisation’s meetings and discussions and used content analysis of dialogic leadership and typifying of critical moments as analytical methods.
Findings
On the basis of the findings, this paper suggests that dialogic leadership begins with a startup critical moment and progresses through the different positions by manager and employees through democratic interaction. Individual and collective level learning of participants and the formation of new knowledge were used in decision- or conclusion-making. The manager promoted the construction of dialogic leadership in conversation by creating important critical moments, which enabled a dialogue to start or contributed to already ongoing dialogue.
Originality/value
The study proposes concrete actions that can be applied in working life. This study provides a new understanding of the leader’s activities in promoting dialogue.
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Elizabeth Cornelia Annan-Prah, Florence Baffoe and Raphael Papa Kweku Andoh
The purpose of this study was to examine effects of the human aspects of the learning organisation (i.e. continuous learning; inquiry and dialogue; team collaboration and learning…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine effects of the human aspects of the learning organisation (i.e. continuous learning; inquiry and dialogue; team collaboration and learning; and employee empowerment) on the performance of a public university’s administrative staff. Differences in the human aspects of the learning organisation across perhaps the two most important demographic characteristics (educational attainment and years of experience) were also examined.
Design/methodology/approach
This study focused exclusively on the human aspect of the dimensions of the learning organisation questionnaire. Specifically, differences in the people aspect of learning organization (PALO) across demographic characteristics were analysed using the Kruskal–Wallis test with a Bonferroni adjustment to the alpha values in the Mann–Whitney U tests that followed. Hierarchical linear regression using the standard (enter) method was adopted in analysing the PALO and administrative staff performance while controlling for age and gender.
Findings
This study demonstrated that a difference in the PALO existed across the education level and years of experience of the administrative staff. Specifically, Diploma holders performed better than those with Postgraduate degree. Also, administrative staff with 5–10 years of experience did better than the staff who had more than 15 years of experience. In addition, continuous learning; inquiry and dialogue; and collaboration and team learning each had a significant effect on administrative staff performance.
Practical implications
Employees, especially those with higher levels of education and more work experience, should be motivated through rewards as well as challenging and thought-provoking tasks as they could serve as mechanisms that would make them contribute substantially to the sustainability of the PALO. Again, public universities should pay attention to the PALO, which is at the individual and team levels.
Originality/value
This study focuses solely on the people aspect of the dimensions of the learning organisation questionnaire and sheds light on its importance to the learning organisation culture.
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C. Grill, G. Ahlborg Jr and E. Wikström
Middle managers in health care today are expected to continuously and efficiently decide and act in administration, finance, care quality, and work environment, and strategic…
Abstract
Purpose
Middle managers in health care today are expected to continuously and efficiently decide and act in administration, finance, care quality, and work environment, and strategic communication has become paramount. Since dialogical communication is considered to promote a healthy work environment, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the ways in which health care managers experienced observing subordinates’ dialogue training.
Design/methodology/approach
A qualitative study using semi-structured interviews and documents from eight middle managers in a dialogue programme intervention conducted by dialogue trainers. Focus was on fostering and assisting workplace dialogue. Conventional qualitative content analysis was used.
Findings
Managers’ experiences were both enriching and demanding, and consisted of becoming aware of communication, meaning perceiving interaction between subordinates as well as own silent interaction with subordinates and trainer; Discovering communicative actions for leadership, by gaining self-knowledge and recognizing relational leadership models from trainers – such as acting democratically and pedagogically – and converting theory into practice, signifying practising dialogue-promoting conversation behaviour with subordinates, peers, and superiors.
Research limitations/implications
Only eight managers participated in the intervention, but data afforded a basis for further research.
Practical implications
Findings stressed the importance of listening, and of support from superiors, for well-functioning leadership communication at work.
Originality/value
Studies focusing on health care managers’ communication and dialogue are few. This study contributes to knowledge about these activities in managerial leadership.
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Gørill Warvik Vedeler and Kristin Elaine Reimer
In this chapter, we present a collaborative autoethnographic study with two main layers: first, we share experiences of two separate educational research projects and explore how…
Abstract
In this chapter, we present a collaborative autoethnographic study with two main layers: first, we share experiences of two separate educational research projects and explore how different dialogic research practices facilitate both participants and researchers to discover the phenomenon being studied; second, we engage in a dialogic conversation to discover our own research practices. Focussing on projects in two different countries (Norway and Canada), our initial centring question for this chapter is: how do our research practices facilitate insight into participants’ real-life experiences and practices? Then turning the light on our own research practices, we ask: what onto-epistemological assumptions shape our dialogical research practices? The chapter reveals that dialogic research practices allowed collective wisdom to be discovered and ensured that we were able to break through the taken-for-grantedness both of the concept being studied and of our own research practices.
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Christina Grill, Gunnar Ahlborg Jr, Ewa Wikström and Eva-Carin Lindgren
This paper aims to illuminate and analyse the participants’ experiences of the influences of a dialogue intervention. Cooperation and coordination in health care require planning…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to illuminate and analyse the participants’ experiences of the influences of a dialogue intervention. Cooperation and coordination in health care require planning of dialogically oriented communication to prevent stress and ill health and to promote health, well-being, learning and efficiency in the organisation.
Design/methodology/approach
An intervention method based on dialogue theory, with Socratic provocations and concrete workplace examples enhanced authenticity of conversations. A qualitative study, using qualitative content analysis, entailed interviews with 24 nurses, assistant nurses and paramedics, strategically selected from 156 intervention participants.
Findings
Two themes emerged, dialogue-learning processes and dialogue-promoting communicative actions. The first includes risk-taking to overcome resistance and fear of dialogue, expressing openly thoughts and feelings on concrete issues and taboo subjects, listening to and reflecting on one’s own and others’ perspectives and problematising norms and values. The second comprises voicing opinions, and regarding one’s own limits; requesting support and room for manoeuvre; and restraining negative emotions and comments in the interest of well-being. Findings depict strengthened awareness and readiness regarding dialogue and multiple balancing of dialogue at work.
Research limitations/implications
This study implies further observing and examining of communicative patterns during workplace dialogue.
Practical implications
A useful approach to communication development for occupational health and personnel in health care and other workplace contexts.
Originality/value
Previously, arenas have been created for dialogue, but close-process studies of dialogue in health-care work are scarce. This study provides insights into how workplace communication can develop towards dialogue.
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Tony Gear, Russ Vince, Martin Read and A. Leonard Minkes
The article presents a practical approach to generating collective learning in organisations. The approach utilises a low profile on‐line group process support technology known as…
Abstract
The article presents a practical approach to generating collective learning in organisations. The approach utilises a low profile on‐line group process support technology known as Teamworker, which is based on a wireless handset design. Group interactive sessions are arranged with a series of groups of eight to 16 employees from across the organisation. A case study is presented in order to demonstrate that this method can capture the interplay between individuals and groups of employees by aiding a process of dialogue that is central to organisational learning. The mode of operation of the technology, and the design of the group process, are critical elements to minimise defensive reactions of individuals, while seeking to maximise the outputs of collective communication and learning taking place in a political environment. Our conclusion at this stage is that this is a promising approach that is capable of further research and development by means of fieldwork linked with theory.
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