No / Managers today increasingly find themselves facing unexpected problems, needing to learn how to cope with complex environments and to take action in an often chaotic flow of events. This paper discusses how researchers can engage managers in a form of dialogical action research, capable of nurturing meaningful knowledge and facilitating change. This is achieved by creating space for collaborative dialogue between managers and researchers, and supplementing it with the integration of a reflexive writing practice that can be used to create ‘generative moments’ for learning within experience. The paper first presents methodological reflections related to the challenges of sustaining management practice through action research. Second, we explicate dialogical action research and illustrate the reflexive writing practice through two vignettes, which provide opportunities to reflexively explore “how things work” in managers’ organizational contexts. This forms the basis for sustaining participation and learning at individual and collective levels. Finally, we identify and discuss the specific conditions and limits of such an approach.

Action research has become a widely accepted and popular form of teacher professional development/learning, within the UK and internationally, and forms part of the professional actions of the Scottish Chartered Teacher. Whilst action research may be a valuable form of professional development supported through awardbearing courses (such as the Scottish Chartered Teacher programmes), funded projects or partnerships with university colleagues, it is questionable to what extent this is continued or even valued by teachers beyond the parameters of CPD courses. If Chartered Teachers are to engage meaningfully in action research then it is vital we understand how they perceive the nature and purpose of such activities and explore the opportunities and limitations they may face. This is not just an issue for Chartered Teachers in Scotland but one that may concern any teacher attempting to engage in action research as part of their practice. To explore teachers’ lived experience of engaging in post-award non-funded action research a case-study approach was adopted. The case study comprised six qualified Chartered Teachers with this thesis focusing on the stories from three of the teachers. In-depth loosely structured interviews were held with participants at three intervals over the course of a year to discuss their current and ongoing action research work. In addition visual data was created by participants to explore, share, (re)present and negotiate their understandings of action research. Documentary data was also collected. A broadly inductive approach to the analysis was taken, coding both within and across cases. A thematic narrative analysis of the individuals’ stories was also undertaken because I believe teachers’ individual stories are critically important and was keen not to reduce these to ‘codes’ and ‘categories’. Emerging from the data are three significant themes - the importance of understanding the nature and purpose of action research; the teachers’ evolving identities as Chartered Teachers/action researchers; and the need to develop and promote a Third Space – creating a conceptually different way of being a teacher. The data shows that traditional notions of research are influencing these teachers’ understanding of action research and this limits their action research work. How teachers understand the nature and purpose of action research is deeply interrelated with their identity as a teacher/Chartered Teacher/action researcher. Their identity(ies), I suggest, is/are a site of struggle, contestation and negotiation and Chartered Teachers are, arguably, in an in-between space: they are simultaneously teacher and researcher, yet they are neither one nor the other. It is possible, then, to understand Chartered Teacher as a hybrid identity and I draw upon Third Space theory as a heuristic to understand Chartered Teacher as a distinctly different way of being a teacher. I argue that a more complex view is needed that promotes the dynamic and fluid nature of action research. The insights drawn from this study offer some understandings that may help us to (re)consider and (re)frame the way in which we understand the teacher as researcher.

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf i-xlvii).

Thesis (M. Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaf 91-94).

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1996. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves i-xlvii). Also available in print.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--University of Hong Kong, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 91-94). Also available in print.

M.Ed. / The research was done in Sections A, DI, D2 and E, Giyani Township, in the Northern Province. The main participants were mothers who had lost their adult children in fatal traffic accidents. Other members of the community were also interviewed to find out about their attitudes towards traffic fatalities of young people in Giyani. The research methods used were interviews, questionnaires and observations. These three methods were found to be appropriate in the elicitation of the data. The main purpose of the research was to find out what the views of bereaved parents were with regard to an awareness campaign in road safety. After the analysis of data, it was found that people in Giyani do really need a solution to the said problem, but they would most probably prefer a support group whereby people would be offered assistance after traumatic experiences - not necessarily only when confronted with fatal traffic experiences, but all types of trauma. The opinion of a support group was that people believed traffic fatalities are unpredictable and unavoidable.

This study is an account of an action research process to develop a planning, learning and accountability (PLA) system for the sustainable agriculture chain development programme of VECO (Vredeseilanden Country Office) Indonesia. Many monitoring and evaluation (M&E) processes in development programmes are largely carried out to provide information for funding agencies, to meet external accountability requirements and for symbolic protection. This study generates insights into an integrated, learning-oriented monitoring practice which fosters reflective practice, provides feedback to programme stakeholders about performance, progress and results achieved, facilitates improved accountability, and generates information and knowledge useful for the programme stakeholders to take decisions for improved action. It is argued that M&E systems have the potential, if developed well, to serve as a framework or ‘carrier’ for organisational and institutional learning – an essential requirement to respond to the complex nature of development processes. Outcome mapping is presented as a possible approach to be used as the basis for such a M&E system. This study was underpinned by a socially critical orientation to development (programmes) and by an action research method to guide the PLA system design process. The design process was organized around seven steps - which in themselves were a result of the action research process – including specific steps to ensure a learning-oriented M&E system. Based on the agreed purposes and intended uses of the monitoring and learning process, the resulting PLA system is focused around the organizational spaces and rhythms of VECO Indonesia which are central to sharing, debate, learning and decision-making. In this way, the PLA system becomes integral to the thinking and doing of the organization. It is built on the premise that monitoring does not end with gathering data; it also needs to include a process of understanding and deciding how data can best be used and analysed to strengthen concerted action and facilitate decision-making. It highlights the importance of sense-making – interpreting information to make it usable for action. Furthermore, it incorporates an approach to assess and consciously plan for the creation of the necessary organisational conditions to implement and maintain a learning-oriented M&E system. The study is completed by critical reflection on the relevance of VECO’s new PLA system for planning, learning and accountability, combined with the use of a future scenario technique to generate recommendations and identify critical future directions. Further exploration of ‘intelligent’ information-seeking methods and processes is called for; and a practice which moves beyond intra-organisational monitoring – focusing on VECO’s own monitoring needs – towards a monitoring process that facilitates change based on the viewpoints of, and in collaboration with local actors, i.e., institutional monitoring and learning, is recommended. VECO is encouraged to continue developing a mindset and practice whereby the programme team and partners have the ability to leave the safe zone of pre-determined outcomes and actions, and to make sense of the world as they engage in action.

This research innovation reports on the application of Herrmann’s Whole Brain® theory in facilitating and assessing learning in Mathematics in the senior phase, Grades 7 - 9. It is a two-part interrelated initiative that seeks both to augment current Mathematics-specific educational theories to improve practice, as well as to reflect on ways that these theories impact on the teaching practice. The literature review synthesises existing educational theories in terms of Herrmann’s Whole Brain® model into a new proposed comprehensive Mathematics-specific Whole Brain® model. This synthesis of existing “good practices” in Mathematics education in terms of Herrmann’s Whole Brain® model, supports the need for a Whole Brain® approach to teaching Mathematics. Furthermore, it hopes to be a user-friendly model with which teachers can plan and facilitate learning and assessment opportunities in Mathematics. Data was collected on the thinking preferences of each Mathematics teacher participant, as well learners’ perception of their teachers’ thinking preferences. Both qualitative and quantitative data was used to report on the findings. Individual and collective reflective practices, situated in the framework of professional development and action research, were used to analyse and report on the findings. The reflective practice resulting from the initiative is in itself an outcome of the research, since “those teachers who are students of their own effects are the teachers who are the most influential in raising students’ achievement” (Hattie & Yates, 2014, p. 24). The degree to which the reflective process impacted on each participant’s practice appears to be dependent on each teacher’s level of professional development. Teacher participants engaging in post-graduate studies showed the ability to complement their “existing competencies with needed situational competencies” (Herrmann, 1996, p. 39), meaning that these teachers were not limited by their thinking preferences, but were able to employ lesser preferred preferences when needed. Each teacher participant’s unique set of thinking preferences was obtained using the Hermann Brain Dominance Instrument (HBDI®). When each of these unique profiles were combined, they produced a compound Whole Brain® profile. This supported Herrmann’s (1990, p. 10) notion that every sizeable group would consist of a “composite whole brain”, but also showed that there is no specific set of thinking preferences unique to a Mathematics teacher. The learner questionnaires also indicated a reasonably balanced Whole Brain® profile amongst learners, supporting the need for a Whole Brain® approach to facilitating learning and assessing in Mathematics. The reflective cyclic process of theory informing practice and practice in turn informing theory is at the core of this research innovation. This cyclic process has become my living theory from which I hope to inspire others to engage in similar initiatives. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Humanities Education / PhD / Unrestricted

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