This paper, delivered as a provocative keynote address to the Collaborative Action Research Network (CARN) conference in Manchester on 28th October 2023, explores the question if action research might have a sweet spot. A sweet spot is defined as an ideal location, area or combination of factors for a particular activity or purpose. It draws on…

The purpose of this paper is to identify key characteristics and forms that both research approaches use within the applied field of education. In this paper, we ask--how are CPAR and IS-GR similar and different? And, can tools or propositions from each be used in tandem within a research project? We invite readers to consider useful frameworks…

Action Research is now frequently practiced and promoted as a form of continuing professional development for language teachers, with recent studies reporting many benefits for those who engage in Action Research. Less frequently reported, but equally as important for sustainability, are the wider impacts of Action Research engagement on teachers'…

Parental involvement in schools can make a difference on the success of the children at the school. The parental involvement in inner-city schools has been researched on the positive effects it can have on schools. However, there is not a best practices method of raising parental involvement. This research looks at the parental involvement at…

Office of Social Innovation undertakes transformative initiatives that challenge systemic issues and create a space to imagine alternative pathways and perspectives. Our team of staff, students, and faculty has undertaken an intentional process to reflect on these initiatives and elaborate a scholarly approach: one that enters into dialogue with…

Purpose: This paper aims to provide an overview of the development of learning organization concepts from the perspective of Dr. Peter Senge and presents an interesting evolution of his systems oriented view of the learning organization field over three decades. Design/methodology/approach: Through a conversation with a thought leading scholar,…

A Future Search (FS) Conference is a systems based large group intervention that utilizes a dialogue process among interdependent stakeholders to analyze the past, understand the present, envision a better future, and agree to action plans to work towards the desired future. This study uses an instrumental case study design (Stake, 1995) to…

Education for global citizenship is one of many of strategies adopted by higher education institutions. We share the findings of a qualitative study in one Australian university that examined the impact of a university goal to embed global citizenship. We found Bronfenbrenner's ecological model to be a suitable framework to examine the process of…

The objective of this project was to learn what elements of a systemic-focused implementation guide are key to facilitating the involvement of families and faculty in rural southeastern North Carolina elementary schools as an intervention to reduce the use of exclusionary discipline for children's externalized behavior in school. Guided by the…

Purpose: This paper aims to demonstrate how the Nordic model, featuring highly regulated trade union-employer collaboration, has enabled the building of learning organizations through a co-generative learning model involving both practitioners and action researchers. Design/methodology/approach: A literature search on the Nordic sociotechnical…

There is a growing body of action research on school improvement and development. Many of these studies have found the use of critical friendship valuable in relation to teachers' or principals' practice. Yet, little attention has been paid to critical friendship at the school district level. This study explores how a superintendent and three…

Purpose: There is a growing call for novel approaches in education with respect to sustainable development. Transformative learning lacks empirical research. This paper responds to that gap and aims at analysing how transformative learning nurtures ecological thinking. Design/methodology/approach: The "Students Swap Stuff" sustainability…

Reflection in action research is a complex matter, as is action research itself. In recent years, complexity science has regularly been called upon in order to more thoroughly understand the complexity of action research. The present article investigates the benefits that complexity science may yield for reflection in action research. This article…

Effectively addressing wicked problems requires collaborative, embedded action. But, in many cases, scholarly commitments, social justice, privilege, and precarity collide in ways that make it difficult for community-engaged scholars to ethically navigate competing duties. This article presents our efforts to support reciprocal community…

Bringing a complex systems perspective to bear on classroom-oriented research challenges researchers to think differently, seeing the classroom ecology as one dynamic system nested in a hierarchy of such systems at different levels of scale, all of which are spatially and temporally situated. This article begins with an introduction to complex…