Sub-Saharan Africa trails other regions in the realm of key human development indicators, produces less than 1 percent of the global research output despite having 12.5 percent of the global population. If the region is to improve on its human capital development indicators, it must embrace action research in addressing the many developmental…

The rise of interest in the learning organization (LO) concept attests to the value of learning by individuals and organizations for continuous improvement and adaptability to the ever-changing environment. Although the LO concept originated from business contexts, it was subsequently extended to educational organizations, particularly to schools.…

We explored the relationships between social contexts and factors that promoted and inhibited curriculum change at two universities. Thirty interviews were analysed using a general inductive approach to identify factors and forces in three social contexts (lecturer, departmental, and institutional). Curriculum change was characterised by six…

To this date, research on the interplay between organisational structure/managerial and organisational value/psychological elements which impact on educational quality is scarce and fragmented. As a consequence of a lack of knowledge in this area, institutions often address these elements in isolation, moving past integral approaches, which…

New Zealand, like many countries, faces the challenge of building and sustaining an educated population. Particular challenges are posed by the need to educate an increasing proportion of the population to higher levels in order to support the growth of a modern skills and knowledge economy, as opposed to an economy built on low-cost labour and…

Purpose: This paper aims to explore the use of developmental evaluation methods with community of practice programmes experiencing change or transition to better understand how to target support resources. Design/methodology/approach: The practical use of a number of developmental evaluation methods was explored in three organizations over a…

This is an account of practice. It explores the meeting point between action learning and action research, as a way of doing capacity building in organisational development (OD) in the NHS in the UK. The authors were part of a short cooperative inquiry (Heron, J. 1996. "Co-operative Inquiry: Research into the Human Condition." London:…

The aim of the article is to understand practice as negotiation of meaning among novice and internal change agents in school organisations. The research question is as follows: What themes of participation and reification/management occur among the change agents? The study was qualitative in design using the social learning theory of community of…

The generational approach to conceptualising first-year student learning behaviour has made a useful contribution to understanding student engagement. It has an explicit focus on student behaviour and we suggest that a Capability Maturity Model interpretation may provide a complementary extension of that understanding as it builds on the…

We highlight three ways of conceptualising and enacting academic development: firstly as authentic, practice-based activity, secondly in terms of a new transformative paradigm for academic development units (ADUs), and thirdly as a space for disruption. We illustrate these conceptualisations through our investigation of the practice of internal…

Organizations today are faced with the challenges of expanding their traditional classroom-based approaches into blended learning experiences which integrate regular classrooms, virtual classrooms, social learning, independent reading, on the job learning and other methodologies. Our team converted a two-day classroom-based program, taught from…

Academic career paths in Europe are heterogeneous, and the chances for early career researchers to become a permanent member of the academic profession differ from country to country. In some countries, the employment prospects are very insecure. It is asked whether contract conditions at universities influence the chance of taking over a mature…

Despite considerable commitment to the application of action learning as leadership and organization development by a large number of Korean organizations, few identified empirical studies of action learning practices have been reported. The purpose of this study was to conduct case studies of South Korean action learning practices to examine…

This study aimed to determine the level of transformational leadership practices by headmasters in the primary national schools in the district of Temerloh, Malaysia. The four dimensions of Transformational Leadership studied were fostering the ideal influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulating and individual consideration. The…

This paper explores the relationship between action learning and Organisation Development (OD). It proposes that they are overlapping fields of practice, with interesting similarities and differences. Both fields of practice are experienced as challenging to conventional ways of viewing organisations and people but are also subject to increasing…