Using collaborative action research as an evaluation approach: wheres the rigour in that

1
Using collaborative action research as an
evaluation approach wheres the rigour in that?

• Tina Cook
• Northumbria University
• tina.cook_at_unn.ac.uk

2
Action learning approach what is it?

• An individual development programme
• A problem-solving forum

3
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.

4
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

5
Issue of rigour when using action research as an
evaluation approach

• Application of method
• Interpretation of data

6
Evaluating the early years sector of an Education
Action Zone.

• Participants
• Health visitors
• Nursery nurses
• Parents
• Librarians

• Methods
• Interviews
• Focus groups
• Photography and video

7
Evaluating the development of inclusive practice
in an Early Years Development and Childcare
Partnership.

• Methods
• Interviews
• Focus groups
• Photography and video
• Workshops
• Evaluation forms

• Participants
• toy libraries
• out-of-school clubs
• private, voluntary and LEA nurseries
• Playgroups
• parent and toddler groups
• and childminders

8
Researching notions of research, consent to
research and ethics held by men with learning
difficulties with histories of offending
behaviour.

• Methods
• Interviews
• Focus groups
• DVD, CD
• Workshops

• Participants
• men with learning difficulties and
• staff who worked with them

9
Action research should

• have an impact on ideas/opinions and influence
  action through the generation of knowledge and
  understanding Somekh and Lewin 2006355

10
Evaluation

• for development
• for knowledge building
• and for accountability.

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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, 200227)

12
Methodological approach and associated methods

• Facilitated Collaborative Action Research
• Interviews
• Focus Groups
• Workshops
• Photography projects
• Mapping
• Diaries, field notes from observations..
• Evaluation forms

13
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?

14
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

15
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, 196986)

16

• 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

17
Synetics (for defining the issues)

• perspective
• Describe the situation as if you had just arrived
  from Mars are a reporter for a tabloid journal
• nature of ingredients
• 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..