Volume 25, Number 1, 2025 Guest-edited by Manu Sharma

EN:

Environmental education looks to motivate and empower positive environmental actions that respect the complexity of natural systems. It follows that related educational research takes up a multiplicity of voices, and possibilities for exploring ecological curriculum and practice. Participatory action research (PAR) does this as it brings together theory, inquiry, and social justice, and PAR that includes children as researchers is transformative for both young researchers and the community. There is, however, limited research on the experiences of young learners in PAR in environmental education. This paper shares the reflections of the Eco Research Organization, a group of grade six researchers, and Susan Jagger, their adult co-researcher, on their engagement in PAR in a longitudinal study of their school garden and nature in their community.

EN:

Tutors in higher education institutions often face the challenge of aligning learning outcomes, subject matters, instructional activities, and assessment practices. Drawing from a decade of teaching experience, the authors employ practical action research (PAR) to develop a common anchor for achieving alignment. Their project unfolds in three phases: baseline data collection, intervention development and use, and post-intervention evaluation. Baseline data analysis revealed the intricacies of evaluating alignment within class lessons, emphasizing the need to reevaluate current practices. The interventions, mapped to the cognitive and knowledge dimensions of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives, were transformative tools aimed at achieving alignment. Post-intervention data analysis demonstrated tangible changes in lesson outlines and responses to follow-up questions, validating the effectiveness of the interventions. The authors underscore the importance of Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives as a facilitator for alignment, offering tutors a practical and straightforward approach. The authors conclude by proposing the scalability of this approach during semester planning, providing tutors with a systematic framework to achieve alignment. Additionally, they suggest avenues for future research, exploring beyond the cognitive and knowledge dimensions to enhance the alignment phenomenon in educational practices.

EN:

In this study, we aimed to examine graduate students’ experience when working with peers to complete a learning task focused on conducting a program evaluation in a qualitative research course. A generative artificial intelligence (GenAI)-powered platform was incorporated to support an experiential learning activity designed by the instructor-researcher. A collaborative action research approach was employed through the planning, enactment, and reflective phases of the study wherein four graduate students who engaged with the platform were interviewed to help improve the next iteration of the learning activity in future courses. This study contributes to the pedagogical discourse about the use of experiential learning for teaching and learning qualitative research methods.

EN:

In this collaborative analytic autoethnography, five researchers and teacher educators from various contexts describe how their participation in a network of critical action researchers led to rhizomatic growth across their landscapes of praxis. Through the authors’ narratives, we learn how Deleuze and Guattari’s (1987) concept of the rhizome and Wenger’s (2015) notion of the landscape of practice are interconnected and have allowed multiple non-hierarchical points for engagement in research and knowledge mobilization. The autoethnography also illustrates how the outgrowth of a healthy rhizome can be more vibrant and lead to innovative approaches to education and research across various contexts.

EN:

This paper describes a participatory action research project that was delivered on Saturday mornings to vice-principals (VPs) in two Anglophone school districts in the province of New Brunswick, Canada, in 2022 and 2023. The project was set up as an invitational five-part seminar series that was grounded in educational theory and leadership standards in Atlantic Canada. Forty-three VPs participated in the seminars offering the researcher/seminar leaders a deep look into their complex working lives. Data was gathered through a World Café activity, seminar observations, pre- and post- surveys, and exit interviews. Several themes were constructed by the research team and given back to the VPs for their consideration and reflection. Final seminars focused on topics and strategies that supported the VPs in their leadership development.

EN:

Anonymous marking, as a means to mitigate bias in grading, involves evaluating student work with their identities withheld. Anonymous marking is explored in this self-study to mitigate implicit bias, which negated a practitioner-researcher’s educational values. The mixed methods action research findings show withholding student identities during grading alleviates confirmation bias and the halo effect. Despite a short period of adjustment, anonymous marking promotes objectivity and fosters more consistent feedback. However, it prevents personalized feedback, jeopardizes relationship building, and undermines the detection of contract cheating. Moreover, anonymity cannot avert affectual influences and is impracticable for scaffolded formative assessments requiring follow-up feedback. Overall, anonymous marking is shown to be but one measure to counter assessment bias; strategies to mitigate bias unrelated to student identities need to be explored. This self-study also helped the author better understand her role as a practitioner and researcher, enabling her to generate her living-theory.