Search results

Educational training programs, at times, are criticized for inadequately addressing issues that occur in the field (Brydon-Miller, Greenwood, & Maguire, 2003). This omission in relevancy might possibly be attributed to the fact that teacher education faculty no longer engage with K-12 students on a daily basis. We have decided to fill that relevancy void through our graduate student action research projects. Action research projects, undertaken by graduate students within our program, not only foster reflection upon the needs of the students within their K-12 classrooms, but also inform us, as education faculty, as we prepare our undergraduate students for the world of teaching. In this chapter, we outline action research as a framework of inquiry. We argue in the chapter that engaging students in the individualized action research projects has benefits for multiple stakeholders ranging from the learners in K-12 classrooms to students in pre-service teacher education programs. Using four case studies, we illustrate how the action research process works and the ways it fosters inclusivity in classrooms at numerous levels. We will discuss the benefits and challenges to our approach and will conclude by discussing the lessons that can be learned from our experiences in humanistic education.

This chapter traces the author's journey of change research from positivism to pragmatism and how different types of “engaged scholarship” shape how we know and do change. It takes readers through the ontology, epistemology, and methodology of different types of research and how these were expressed in studies of planned change interventions, mergers and acquisitions (M&A), cynicism and its consequences, “soul work” and community building in business, organizational transformation, and the development of more socially and environmentally conscious people, purposes, and practices. The paper reflects on the author's research as it relates to regulatory versus radical change and whose interests are and might be served by change research.