The article is based on a participatory action research project with refugees, volunteers and concerned citizens in rural Germany facing the challenges of integration in diverse communities. Integration is an interactionist and open-ended process with the aim of fair chances of participation in society. The word 'integration' is still the…

Youth participatory action research (YPAR) projects are powerful developmental contexts for important lessons in identity, power, stereotypes, and bias. African American girls develop in a society that devalues and often stigmatizes their racial and gendered identity. Although studies have shown that African American girls score high on…

The term 'large group process' (LGP) refers to a range of participatory approaches to community engagement, geared towards exploring and/or identifying solutions to shared issues and problems, and planning change. Primarily used for applied purposes, they can be also used as a method of inductive inquiry in social research, particularly within…

In this paper, we investigate how a Benchlearning program for principals in Norway and Sweden supports changes in Norwegian principals' leadership practices. The program design builds on principles for practical action research. The aim of the program was to inspire changes in the principals' leadership practices that encourage innovative school…

This paper describes how an action research process, centred around a professional development program for teaching critical thinking, enabled teachers in a specialised program for high-achieving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students (Solid Pathways) to develop their pedagogical practices to support student cognition. It argues that a…

Research engagement and exploratory dialogue are central to forms of practitioner inquiry such as action research, in particular with regard to developing conceptual knowledge before action. Recently, practitioners have started engaging with technology such as podcasts as a way to facilitate opportunities for these focused interactions to take…

This paper deals with the topic of professional development programmes' impact. Concepts and ideas of action research, constructivism, and systems theory are used as a theoretical framework and are combined to describe and analyse an exemplary professional development programme in Austria. Empirical findings from both quantitative and qualitative…

This paper presents an account of how I developed the Dialogos approach to practical philosophy through action inquiry research. The process of development is understood as a contribution to the reconstruction of the notion "Bildung zur Humanität" as an ideal in education. Core perspectives, traditions and purposes involved in the action…

This article focuses on the double role of the academic action researcher working as facilitator and researcher in democratic professional development projects. The inquiry is based on three partnership projects: "research circles" in Sweden, "dialogue conferences" in Norway and "tailored professional development" in…

Questions about the nature and extent of students' active involvement and influence within schools and the wider community prompted this author to investigate ways in which student voice, as one important manifestation of active participation, was translated into action through a "students as researchers" activity. A three-phase…

The overarching question addressed in this paper is the following: Can Dialogos dialogues conducted over time lead to the development of respect, mutual understanding and friendship among participants with diverse cultural and life stance backgrounds? Dialogos is a pedagogical approach to practical philosophy aimed at enhancing human maturity and…

The European Commission has determined the following priorities to increase the quality of teacher training programmes in the European Union: ensuring that all teachers have access to the knowledge, attitudes and pedagogic skills they require to be effective; ensuring that provision for teachers' education and professional development is…

The empirical basis of this article is the reconciliation process in a destructive conflict between students of different cultural and religious backgrounds in upper secondary education in Norway. The Dialogos approach to dialogical philosophizing was tried out through an action research process in order to bring about reconciliation, letting the…

This article will be a reflective report, made by participants, facilitators and tutors, on the first stage of a project entitled "Mentalentity", which had as its brief the promotion of positive attitudes to mental health among men in rural areas. The arts "product" is a 25-minute film made by a group of men in South Armagh…

This manuscript provides insight into a new education doctorate program where action research is taught in core courses and used as signature pedagogy and capstone experience. To contextualize action research in this program, a brief introduction as to how it fits into its mission, goals, and needs is provided. Although this fit carries promises,…