Action Learning and Action Research deepens understanding and contributes to new knowledge about the theory, practice and processes of Action Learning (AL) and Action Research. It clarifies what ...constitutes AL/AR in its many forms and what it is not.
What are the micro-level interactions and conversations that underlie successful and failed diffusion? By comparing the spread of direct action tactics from the 1999 Global Justice Movement protests ...against the World Trade Organization in Seattle to grassroots activists in Toronto and New York, Lesley Wood argues that dynamics of deliberation among local activists both aided and blocked diffusion. To analyze the localization of this cycle of protest, the research brings together rich ethnography, interviews, social network analysis and catalogs of protest events. The findings suggest that when diverse activists with different perspectives can discuss innovations in a reflexive, egalitarian manner, they are more likely to make strategic and meaningful choices.
What is the best source for tracking protest activity? Newspaper sources remain dominant, but other options are tempting. This article compares three differently sourced catalogs of protest events in ...Toronto from July 15 to September 15, 2020. The widely discussed Movement for Black Lives and housing justice cycles of protest are visible in all three catalogs, but apart from this, the field of protest they reveal is very different. While the coverage by the newspaper with the largest circulation, the Toronto Star, shows Toronto protest as state-centered, domestic, and progressive, other catalogs that include television, radio, and social media content reveal a more diverse, fragmented, and globalized protest field. Catalogs sourced from Nexis Uni and Twitter show the significant presence of diasporic protest. These observations suggest new limits to relying on mainstream newspapers for representing the full array of protest activity. We recommend that, moving forward, researchers experiment with media aggregators to incorporate sources such as television coverage and social media into their research while remaining aware of the additional challenges such data generate.
Researchers need to provide evidence that they have met ethical requirements before entering the field—rightly so, since the power and privilege embedded in academic researchers is considerable. ...However, given the calls for universities to decolonize and democratize research, we need to question whether the ethical norms developed to cater for objective, researcher-driven enquiries are appropriate and sufficient to ensure ethical conduct for qualitative designs that are more subjective, participatory, and community-based. This conceptual article argues for the need to rethink the standards against which ethics boards evaluate community-based research projects and suggests some ways this could be done.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, ODKLJ, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is among the top two regions in the world with the fastest growing HIV epidemic. In this context, risks and vulnerability are high as the epidemic is on ...the rise with evidence indicating significantly increasing HIV prevalence, new HIV infections and AIDS-related deaths.
The aim of the survey was to assess HIV/AIDS knowledge and attitudes related to HIV/AIDS among a wide group of university students in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
In a cross-sectional survey, a total sample of 2,294 students (406 male; 1,888 female) from four universities in three different Emirates in the UAE were approached to take part in the study. Students self-completed a questionnaire that was designed to measure their knowledge and attitudes to HIV/AIDS.
The overall average knowledge score of HIV.AIDS was 61%. Non-Emirati and postgraduates demonstrated higher levels of knowledge compared to Emirati and undergraduate students respectively. No significant differences between males and females; and marital status were found. Eighty-five percent of students expressed negative attitudes towards people living with HIV, with Emirati and single students significantly holding more negative attitudes compared to non-Emiratis and those that are married respectively.
The findings provide strong evidence that there is a need to advocate for appropriate National HIV/AIDS awareness raising campaigns in universities to reduce the gaps in knowledge and decrease stigmatizing attitudes towards people living with HIV/AIDS.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Published evidence suggests that aspects of trial design lead to biased intervention effect estimates, but findings from different studies are inconsistent. This study combined data from 7 ...meta-epidemiologic studies and removed overlaps to derive a final data set of 234 unique meta-analyses containing 1973 trials. Outcome measures were classified as "mortality," "other objective," "or subjective," and Bayesian hierarchical models were used to estimate associations of trial characteristics with average bias and between-trial heterogeneity. Intervention effect estimates seemed to be exaggerated in trials with inadequate or unclear (vs. adequate) random-sequence generation (ratio of odds ratios, 0.89 95% credible interval {CrI}, 0.82 to 0.96) and with inadequate or unclear (vs. adequate) allocation concealment (ratio of odds ratios, 0.93 CrI, 0.87 to 0.99). Lack of or unclear double-blinding (vs. double-blinding) was associated with an average of 13% exaggeration of intervention effects (ratio of odds ratios, 0.87 CrI, 0.79 to 0.96), and between-trial heterogeneity was increased for such studies (SD increase in heterogeneity, 0.14 CrI, 0.02 to 0.30). For each characteristic, average bias and increases in between-trial heterogeneity were driven primarily by trials with subjective outcomes, with little evidence of bias in trials with objective and mortality outcomes. This study is limited by incomplete trial reporting, and findings may be confounded by other study design characteristics. Bias associated with study design characteristics may lead to exaggeration of intervention effect estimates and increases in between-trial heterogeneity in trials reporting subjectively assessed outcomes.
Teachers, specifically those who work in under-resourced contexts, face many challenges within their workplace that negatively affect their experiences of well-being. Although research indicates that ...if teacher well-being improves, a more enabling climate for teaching and learning is created, little support is available for teachers in this regard. The aim of this study was to work collaboratively with teachers to help them find ways to improve their experiences of well-being. Following a participatory action learning and action research (PALAR) design, 6 teachers in a rural primary school met as an action learning set over a period of 6 weeks to reflect on their learning about how to improve their experiences of well-being. The findings indicate that frequent, informal social contact with colleagues, coupled with explicit action to focus on positive emotions, could improve teachers’ experiences of well-being. The PALAR design afforded the structure for this to happen. This study offers insight into how a collaborative action learning process could help to enhance teachers’ ability to improve and sustain their experiences of well-being.
•Collective movement identity is a complex and relational phenomenon.•Theoretical and methodological innovation is possible through investigating the associations among many discrete collective ...identities.•Associated identities comprise connected assemblages of political communities, their commonalities and difference.•Histories of social movement struggle, shared affinities, and political-economic master framing mark distinct political communities.
Activist identities in contentious events are the product of local interactions, and of evolving and mobile cycles of protest. In other words, they are both territorialized and deterritorialized. This paper proposes a way of understanding processes of collective identity within contentious events. It builds on existing conceptions of collective identity, (della Porta, Diani, Flesher Fominaya, Tilly), but uses Deleuze and Guattari's conception of assemblage to show how at any one time and place, identities are multiple and in motion. Social relations shape the ‘being’ of relationships amongst identities within a movement event, and make possible future ‘becomings.’ Such complexity is made visible by combining ethnographic data of the 2010 G20 summit protests in Toronto, with logistic regression of a survey of 379 activists participating in those protests. The results show the multiple, and entangled identities activists use in what might simply be described as a ‘global-justice movement’ event. By better understanding the assembled relations among movement identities, one can better understand the complex ways that movement events can unfold and be understood.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
I researched my practice as a lecturer in a teacher education college in Zimbabwe as I was concerned that my teaching was not assisting students to realise their potential for independent thinking ...and knowledge creation and preparing them with appropriate skills and knowledge for life and work in the 21stcentury. I believe both aspects of education are essential in teacher preparation. There are injustices in the way the curriculum is enacted. I therefore focussed this research on improving learning to integrate social justice values into my practice and how to liberate my students and myself from traditional didactic pedagogy. I opted for Place-Based Learning as a teaching strategy since it has been shown to promote student engagement, critical thinking, innovation and reflexivity by embedding the learning in the social reality of the students. I collected and analysed data in the form of interviews, reflective diaries, and student assignments to enhance my learning to improve my practice and as evidence to support my knowledge claims that I had enabled students to become producers rather than just consumers of knowledge; fostered inclusion; and enabled transformative learning, all of which heightened student awareness of the need to make their future teaching more socially relevant and just. I conclude by proposing guidelines for professional practitioners in any educational context using Place-Based Learning to facilitate learning intended to promote students’ inclusion, democratic knowledge generation, and active participation.
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