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…

Meeting the needs of students dealing with trauma-related behavioral challenges poses a significant challenge. Research has shown that childhood trauma affects a student's capacity to learn in academic, social, and emotional contexts and that educators are faced with significant challenges when trying to provide an educational path for each of…

Educators are crucial for student success in higher education, yet they often experience high levels of occupational stress which threaten their wellbeing. Informed by a conceptual framework initially developed for addressing worker wellbeing in the healthcare sector, another sector where workers experience high levels of occupational stress, this…

Student development theory has been an important guide in practice; however, few theories focus on both the individual and the influence of the environment. Spencer's (1997) Phenomenological Variant of Ecological Systems Theory (PVEST) examines the individual, the environment, and the role of environmental feedback on self-perceptions, with a…

In this article, we develop and evaluate a novel system and computing platform to structure, measure, and improve student development using points. We define student development broadly as the achievement of learning to do, know, live together, and be. The system leverages individual agency, social influences, content generation and sharing,…

The Grand Challenges for Social Work were introduced by the American Academy for Social Work & Social Welfare in 2016, which are social problems that are interrelated and "exceedingly complex". We discuss the relevance of complexity theory, operationalized by complex adaptive systems (CAS), to the Grand Challenges. CAS moves beyond…

Understanding complex systems is important in science and has become a prominent aspect of STEM education in recent years. System thinking plays a critical role, focusing on system attributes such as interactions between components, emerging phenomena and hierarchical organisation. In this study, we provide a network analysis of bibliometric…

Complex Dynamic Systems Theory (CDST), an instantiation in applied linguistics of complexity epistemology that transcends disciplinary boundaries, has gained much traction and momentum over the last decade, finding expressions in a fast-growing number of empirical second language developmental studies. However, the literature, while rapidly…

Interlocking systems of oppression are embedded and embodied in the world. Utilizing intersectionality (Crenshaw, 1989; 1991) as a framework and perspective to interrogate oppressive systems, intersectional research (IR) has been produced across adult education (AE) journals. IR articles published in AE journals were reviewed using diffractive…

For decades, cluster initiatives and funding programmes have been used as instruments of industrial and innovation policy--addressing system failures by strengthening linkages among actors, fostering innovation, and developing more effective innovation systems. More recently, a growing segment of these initiatives are also focused on driving…

Blaming teachers and schools for perceived or actual educational failures are popular tropes for justifying educational reforms in the United States. Critical educational research implicates neoliberalism in the normalized positioning of teachers and schools as the key suspects in educational failures. This article critiques the etiology of…

Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIEd) is an emerging interdisciplinary field that applies artificial intelligence technologies to transform instructional design and student learning. However, most research has investigated AIEd from the technological perspective, which cannot achieve a deep understand of the complex roles of AI in…

The current research sought to explore the utility of the Assessment for Intervention (AFI) model in bridging the gap between assessment and intervention, through the conceptual lens of Bio-Ecological Systems Theory (BEST) and Social Constructivist Theory (SCT). AFI is a five-stage assessment model that aims to provide useful and evidence-based…

Reviewing complex interventions is challenging because they include many elements that can interact dynamically in a nonlinear manner. A systems perspective offers a way of thinking to help understand complex issues, but its application in evidence synthesis is not established. The aim of this project was to understand how and why systems…

Relying on the social cognitive theory, which postulates that human behaviour is due to social experiences and cognitive interpretation, the current study seeks to investigate the mediating role of collective teacher efficacy (CTE) in the relationship between principals' systems thinking (PST) and school effectiveness in terms of academic emphasis…