Much has been written about the benefits to be derived from maximising organisational capability as a means of increasing competitive advantage, establishing human resource functions as a strategic partner and improving stakeholder satisfaction. However, there is very little in the research on how organisations build their organisational capability (OC). This thesis explores how developments in our understanding of strategic planning and human resource practices have contributed to a focus in organisations on building their organisational capability. The emergence of the resource-based theory of the firm, together with changes in human resource practices in job analysis, performance management and staff development has laid the foundation for organisational capability. A Model of Organisational Capability is proposed that explores how systems and processes can be aligned to maximize core organisational capability. Three research questions emerge from the literature and the Model: *How do organisations define their Strategic Intent Domain? *How can organisations define their Core OCs? *How do organisations embed their OCs into their Job Context, Organisational Systems and Knowledge Networks Enablers? These questions are explored by examining an Australian University utilising a participatory action research methodology. The study focused on how the organisation engaged senior managers to develop an organisational capability framework and agreed on a strategy to embed the capabilities in HR practice. As a result, this thesis presents a step-by-step process for organisations seeking to build their Core Organisational Capability. Practitioners wishing to maximize their organisational capability can draw on the Model of Organisational Capability, step-by-step process and contextual principles, to assist them to engage with the organisation to explore an organisational capability agenda.

Educational disadvantage, long recognised as a factor in determining post-school options, manifests in forms of marginalisation from and resistance to education, and in under-representation in tertiary education. Moreover, while student voice is becoming a more normalised aspect of decision making in schools, marginalised students have limited opportunities to participate in education reform processes. The practice of &quotstudents as researchers" (SaR) extends student voice through engaging students in researching the educational issues that directly affect them and inviting participation in pedagogical and school reform issues. In this research, I examine the application of an SaR model with marginalised secondary school students, and the outcomes for the participants and their schools. The Student Action Research for University Access (SARUA) project provides the site of my empirical investigation. The research is informed by two complementary lines of theory: Habermasian critical theory, which provides the framework for participatory research, and Bourdieuian social reproduction theory, which scaffolds the aims of empowerment underlying SaR. These theories are extended by a theory of imagination to take account of difference and to establish a link to post-modern considerations. I employed a participatory action research methodology to investigate changes in the students' awareness of post-school options, their aspirations regarding tertiary study, and the development of related educational skills as a result of their participation in the project. The principal findings from the research are that the SARUA model provides an effective medium for the empowerment of marginalised students through engagement in meaningful, real-life research; that participant schools are positioned to benefit from the students' research and interventions when school and student habitus are in accord; and that the SARUA model complements current pedagogical reforms aimed at increasing student engagement, retention, and progression to higher education.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis investigates the situated knowing-in-practice of locally-based community organisations, and studies how this practice knowledge is translated and contested in inter-organisational relations in the community services field of practices. Despite participation in government-led consultation processes, community organisations express frustration that the resulting policies and plans inadequately take account of the contributions from their practice knowledge. The funding of locally-based community organisations is gradually diminishing in real terms and in the competitive tendering environment, large nationally-based organisations often attract the new funding sources. The concern of locally-based community organisations is that the apparent lack of understanding of their distinctive practice knowing is threatening their capacity to improve the well-being of local people and their communities. In this study, I work with practitioners, service participants and management committee members to present an account of their knowing-in-practice, its character and conditions of efficacy; and then investigate what happens when this local practice knowledge is translated into results-based accountability (RBA) planning with diverse organisations and institutions. This thesis analyses three points of observation: knowing in a community of practitioners; knowing in a community organisation and knowing in the community services field of practices. In choosing these points of observation, the inquiry explores some of the relations and intra-actions from the single organisation to the institutional at a time when state government bureaucracy has mandated that community organisations implement RBA to articulate outcomes that can be measured by performance indicators. A feminist, performative, relational practice-based approach employs participatory action research to achieve an enabling research experience for the participants. It aims to intervene strategically to enhance recognition of the distinctive contributions of community organisations’ practice knowledge. This thesis reconfigures understandings of the roles, contributions and accountabilities of locally-based community organisations. Observations of situated practices together with the accounts of workers and service participants demonstrate how community organisations facilitate service participants’ struggles over social justice. A new topology for rethinking social justice as processual and practice-based is developed. It demonstrates how these struggles are a dynamic complex of iteratively-enfolded practices of respect and recognition, redistribution and distributive justice, representation and participation, belonging and inclusion. The focus on the practising of social justice in this thesis offers an alternative to the neo-liberal discourse that positions community organisations as sub-contractors accountable to government for delivering measurable outputs, outcomes and efficiencies in specified service provision contracts. The study shows how knowing-in-practice in locally-based community organisations contests the representational conception of knowledge inextricably entangled with accountability and performance measurement apparatus such as RBA. Further, it suggests that practitioner and service participant contributions are marginalised and diminished in RBA through the privileging of knowledge that takes an ‘expert’, quantifiable and calculative form. Thus crucially, harnessing local practice knowing requires re-imagining and enacting knowledge spaces that assemble and take seriously all relevant stakeholder perspectives, diverse knowledges and methods.

Improving the quality use of medicines (QUM) among seniors, particularly those using multiple medicines, is a national priority. The National Prescribing Service??s Seniors QUM Program was developed in collaboration with consumers to address seniors?? medicines information needs. Seniors are trained as peer educators to convey QUM messages to other seniors in a single group session. However, there is a dearth of research assessing peer education for seniors about medicines, and little understanding of what peer educators do in practice. This research investigated how peer educators empower seniors toward the quality use of their medicines. A participatory action research inquiry was undertaken nationally with organisational leaders and locally with peer educators. The design was a nested case study with multiple sites, where the Seniors Program was the overarching case containing eight disparate local sites. The participatory inquiry engaged peer educators from each local site. Qualitative data were collected through participant observation and interviews. Data were analysed using grounded theory methods and findings were triangulated with other data sources. Peer educators demonstrated five main functions in the program ?? one primary function within QUM sessions and four support functions outside of sessions. The primary function of facilitating peer learning comprised 10 elements. A model depicts these elements in the context of varying session conditions and consequences. Educators?? lived experience as seniors and lay persons was an overarching contributor to peer learning, used strategically through storytelling to assist other elements. Sharing QUM outside of sessions occurred frequently, but requires development to reach isolated seniors. Peer educators exceeded expectations in getting QUM messages to seniors, applying unique skills to the information exchange within sessions. Their status as lay persons tackling the complex topic of QUM reflected an understanding of the disempowerment seniors may feel when seeking information about medicines. Peer educators?? ability to model an active partner role by applying their lived experience through storytelling in an interactive, mutually sharing session challenged seniors to rethink their medicines management and interactions with health professionals. As the population ages and medicines use increases, understanding and using seniors effectively as educators has great potential.

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis investigates the situated knowing-in-practice of locally-based community organisations, and studies how this practice knowledge is translated and contested in inter-organisational relations in the community services field of practices. Despite participation in government-led consultation processes, community organisations express frustration that the resulting policies and plans inadequately take account of the contributions from their practice knowledge. The funding of locally-based community organisations is gradually diminishing in real terms and in the competitive tendering environment, large nationally-based organisations often attract the new funding sources. The concern of locally-based community organisations is that the apparent lack of understanding of their distinctive practice knowing is threatening their capacity to improve the well-being of local people and their communities. In this study, I work with practitioners, service participants and management committee members to present an account of their knowing-in-practice, its character and conditions of efficacy; and then investigate what happens when this local practice knowledge is translated into results-based accountability (RBA) planning with diverse organisations and institutions. This thesis analyses three points of observation: knowing in a community of practitioners; knowing in a community organisation and knowing in the community services field of practices. In choosing these points of observation, the inquiry explores some of the relations and intra-actions from the single organisation to the institutional at a time when state government bureaucracy has mandated that community organisations implement RBA to articulate outcomes that can be measured by performance indicators. A feminist, performative, relational practice-based approach employs participatory action research to achieve an enabling research experience for the participants. It aims to intervene strategically to enhance recognition of the distinctive contributions of community organisations’ practice knowledge. This thesis reconfigures understandings of the roles, contributions and accountabilities of locally-based community organisations. Observations of situated practices together with the accounts of workers and service participants demonstrate how community organisations facilitate service participants’ struggles over social justice. A new topology for rethinking social justice as processual and practice-based is developed. It demonstrates how these struggles are a dynamic complex of iteratively-enfolded practices of respect and recognition, redistribution and distributive justice, representation and participation, belonging and inclusion. The focus on the practising of social justice in this thesis offers an alternative to the neo-liberal discourse that positions community organisations as sub-contractors accountable to government for delivering measurable outputs, outcomes and efficiencies in specified service provision contracts. The study shows how knowing-in-practice in locally-based community organisations contests the representational conception of knowledge inextricably entangled with accountability and performance measurement apparatus such as RBA. Further, it suggests that practitioner and service participant contributions are marginalised and diminished in RBA through the privileging of knowledge that takes an ‘expert’, quantifiable and calculative form. Thus crucially, harnessing local practice knowing requires re-imagining and enacting knowledge spaces that assemble and take seriously all relevant stakeholder perspectives, diverse knowledges and methods.

Education for Sustainable Living (ESL) requires a whole-system pedagogical shift that changes the discourse from a positivistic worldview into one founded on ecological principles. The emerging environmental and sociopolitical challenges of the 21st century are complex, and schools present an important platform embracing sustainable changes. This participatory action research surveyed staff attitudes and student values from one Manitoban urban high school, to better understand the school culture of sustainability. In addition, a school wide Equity Conference was profiled for contributions to ESL through student exit slips; and a focus group with teachers where survey data was discussed also became part of the data corpus. The intent of this research was to understand on a deeper level how sustainability projects and initiatives are related to a culture of sustainability school wide. From these findings, recommendations to improve a whole-school approach to sustainability are provided. / February 2016

Participatory Action Mapping (PAM) as a methodology strives to fill the gaps created by participatory and critical mapping methodologies. Public participatory GIS (PPGIS), which often fails to elicit a bottom up approach to mapping, and community mapping, which typically produces critical mappings that often fail to be taken seriously by decision makers both fall short in offering members of the public meaningful opportunities to make claims about particular places. Through the implementation of a critical mapping methodology that utilizes professional cartography techniques, PAM offers community organizations the ability to assert their claims through maps. Using a critical cartography lens, this case study focuses on PAM with a community-based organization in west Atlanta and reveals how this methodology can be successful in engaging professional mapping practices to communicate the truths of, and subsequently inspire action among, community members.

This thesis attends to recent calls and decades of demands to de-whiten and de-colonise the discipline of Geography and higher education more broadly. This manuscript contributes unique empirical research and analysis on race, gender, sexuality and everyday life to geographies of intersectionality, visceral geographies of (micro)aggressions, and toxic geographies. Intersectionality is a Black Feminist framework that centres the entanglement of race and gender, (micro)aggressions are often unconscious and subtle insults experienced at the scale of the body by marginalized people, and toxic geographies are spaces with high concentrations of (micro)aggressions. The main objectives are to explore the co-constitutive nature of (micro)aggressions and space, engage intersectionality in practice through Participatory Action Research (PAR), and to centre the lives and promote the agency of students of colour, women, queer, transgender and gender non-conforming (TGNC) students in US higher education. The empirical research of this thesis is a PAR project and team composed of eleven people, myself included, on race, gender, and sexuality based (micro)aggressions at an elite US residential institution of higher education. The PAR team collectively curated a public art event where the university community was invited to share stories of (micro)aggressions experienced, witnessed, and produced. The PAR team’s efforts resulted in a powerful encounter that led to changes in policy and practice to mitigate toxicity in one particular place. The analysis of the empirical research involves an exploration of the fluidity, fixity, and spatiality of toxic geographies along the axes of race, gender and sexuality and within the context of the academic-military-prison industrial complex (AMPIC), a framework of structural violence. In addition, this thesis applies the higher-level analytic of intersectionality to the empirical research, connecting the micro level of (micro)aggressions, the meso level of the PAR team, and the macro level of the AMPIC to provide an empirical example of the complexity of toxic geographies, and an avenue for future research, by highlighting the material impact of the neoliberal university on the mental health of students of colour, women, queer, and TGNC students.

Enquanto caminhamos para a terceira década no século XXI, o mundo enfrenta problemas expressivos e complexos, interligando desenvolvimento e estilo de vida, sem esquecer alguns desafios um pouco mais urgentes, como o aumento das desigualdades sociais, desmatamento e desaparecimento de espécies, mudanças climáticas, qualidade e escassez de água, e segurança alimentar. Ainda que possamos identificar os resultados do modelo positivista e mecanicista de desenvolvimento adotado, em especial no mundo ocidental, temos sido incapazes de agir para evitar a destruição do planeta. A educação popularizada nos últimos séculos, com o objetivo de sustentar e promover o modelo de desenvolvimento em questão, enfrenta um movimento global de contestação, e tampouco tem conseguido evoluir. Frente a esse panorama, este estudo, de caráter exploratório, faz uso da teoria da Educação Sustentável como ponto de apoio para propor uma metodologia de Aprendizagem Baseada em Projetos (ABP) em turmas do curso de Administração de Empresas, e compreender os efeitos da ABP quando aplicada no ensino de Sustentabilidade. A Teoria da Aprendizagem Experiencial (TAE) dá o suporte teórico para o entendimento dos processos vividos pelos participantes da pesquisa. Para viabilizar a concepção, aplicação e acompanhamento dos resultados e verificar a percepção dos discentes, a metodologia utilizada foi a Pesquisa Ação Participante (PAP). Durante os doze meses de pesquisa no campo, foi possível desenvolver dois ciclos de aplicação da ABP, onde mais de 150 alunos construíram projetos que se propuseram ultrapassar os muros da universidade e influenciar a comunidade, tendo a sustentabilidade como tema transversal e conector das propostas desenvolvidas O estudo apoia-se na percepção dos alunos, através de processos contínuos de feedback e recursivos de adaptação da metodologia, para refinar a proposta metodológica de aplicação da ABP e verificar a percepção dos alunos com relação à proposta desenvolvida. Ainda que haja estranhamento por parte dos estudantes em um primeiro momento (a característica mais progressista da disciplina, que coloca o aluno em uma posição de protagonismo, em muitos casos induz à incapacidade ou não interesse em exercer esse papel), ao final do semestre, após repetidos processos de reflexão sobre a experiência vivida, o desconforto em geral é ressignificado como aprendizado. Tal qual a TAE e a PAP, a proposta desse trabalho é avançar no entendimento das formas e resultados possíveis de serem atingidos com o uso da ABP tendo a sustentabilidade como contexto, porém tendo clareza sobre a complexidade da temática e a recursividade do processo de aprendizagem e sobre espaços para melhorias e adequações da metodologia. Esperamos que esse movimento possa inspirar outros colegas docentes a fazer uso da ABP ou outras metodologias ativas que ajudem na transformação urgente e necessária que vivemos hoje. / As we move towards the third decade of the 21st century, the world faces significant and complex problems involving development and lifestyle, added by some more urgent challenges, such as increase in social inequalities, deforestation and extinction of species, climate change, and water scarcity and food safety. Although we can identify the results of the positivist and mechanistic model of development adopted in the Western world in particular, we have been unable to act in order to prevent the destruction of the planet. The education popularized in recent centuries with the aim of supporting and promoting the development model mentioned is being challenged in a global scale and has not been able to evolve. This exploratory study makes use of the Sustainable Education theory as a fulcrum in order to propose a Project-Based Learning (PBL) methodology in business administration courses and understand the effects of PBL when applied to sustainability teaching. The Theory of Experiential Learning (TEL) gives the theoretical support for understanding the processes experienced by the study subjects. Participant Action Research (PAR) was used as methodology to facilitate the design, implementation and monitoring of results, and verify the perceptions of students. During the twelve months of field research, it was possible to develop two application cycles of PBL, where more than 150 students built projects targeting a public wider than the university community, using sustainability as an overarching theme connecting propositions The study is based on the students' perception through continuous feedback and recursive processes of methodology adaptation in order to refine the methodological proposition of application of PBL and verify the students' perception regarding the proposition developed. Although the students were initially uncomfortable (given the progressive characteristic of the course, which puts the student in a position of prominence, often making students feel unable to or not interested in playing this role), this discomfort is generally resignified as learning at the end of the semester, after repeated processes of reflection on the experience. Similar to TEL and PAR, the intention of this thesis is to advance our understanding of the forms and results achieved with the use of PBL having sustainability as context, while being aware of how complex the theme is and how recursive the learning process is. We also acknowledge that there is room for improvement and adaptation of the methodology. We hope that this initiative may inspire fellow educators to make use of PBL or other active methodologies in order to assist them in the urgent transformation which is needed today.

Enquanto caminhamos para a terceira década no século XXI, o mundo enfrenta problemas expressivos e complexos, interligando desenvolvimento e estilo de vida, sem esquecer alguns desafios um pouco mais urgentes, como o aumento das desigualdades sociais, desmatamento e desaparecimento de espécies, mudanças climáticas, qualidade e escassez de água, e segurança alimentar. Ainda que possamos identificar os resultados do modelo positivista e mecanicista de desenvolvimento adotado, em especial no mundo ocidental, temos sido incapazes de agir para evitar a destruição do planeta. A educação popularizada nos últimos séculos, com o objetivo de sustentar e promover o modelo de desenvolvimento em questão, enfrenta um movimento global de contestação, e tampouco tem conseguido evoluir. Frente a esse panorama, este estudo, de caráter exploratório, faz uso da teoria da Educação Sustentável como ponto de apoio para propor uma metodologia de Aprendizagem Baseada em Projetos (ABP) em turmas do curso de Administração de Empresas, e compreender os efeitos da ABP quando aplicada no ensino de Sustentabilidade. A Teoria da Aprendizagem Experiencial (TAE) dá o suporte teórico para o entendimento dos processos vividos pelos participantes da pesquisa. Para viabilizar a concepção, aplicação e acompanhamento dos resultados e verificar a percepção dos discentes, a metodologia utilizada foi a Pesquisa Ação Participante (PAP). Durante os doze meses de pesquisa no campo, foi possível desenvolver dois ciclos de aplicação da ABP, onde mais de 150 alunos construíram projetos que se propuseram ultrapassar os muros da universidade e influenciar a comunidade, tendo a sustentabilidade como tema transversal e conector das propostas desenvolvidas O estudo apoia-se na percepção dos alunos, através de processos contínuos de feedback e recursivos de adaptação da metodologia, para refinar a proposta metodológica de aplicação da ABP e verificar a percepção dos alunos com relação à proposta desenvolvida. Ainda que haja estranhamento por parte dos estudantes em um primeiro momento (a característica mais progressista da disciplina, que coloca o aluno em uma posição de protagonismo, em muitos casos induz à incapacidade ou não interesse em exercer esse papel), ao final do semestre, após repetidos processos de reflexão sobre a experiência vivida, o desconforto em geral é ressignificado como aprendizado. Tal qual a TAE e a PAP, a proposta desse trabalho é avançar no entendimento das formas e resultados possíveis de serem atingidos com o uso da ABP tendo a sustentabilidade como contexto, porém tendo clareza sobre a complexidade da temática e a recursividade do processo de aprendizagem e sobre espaços para melhorias e adequações da metodologia. Esperamos que esse movimento possa inspirar outros colegas docentes a fazer uso da ABP ou outras metodologias ativas que ajudem na transformação urgente e necessária que vivemos hoje. / As we move towards the third decade of the 21st century, the world faces significant and complex problems involving development and lifestyle, added by some more urgent challenges, such as increase in social inequalities, deforestation and extinction of species, climate change, and water scarcity and food safety. Although we can identify the results of the positivist and mechanistic model of development adopted in the Western world in particular, we have been unable to act in order to prevent the destruction of the planet. The education popularized in recent centuries with the aim of supporting and promoting the development model mentioned is being challenged in a global scale and has not been able to evolve. This exploratory study makes use of the Sustainable Education theory as a fulcrum in order to propose a Project-Based Learning (PBL) methodology in business administration courses and understand the effects of PBL when applied to sustainability teaching. The Theory of Experiential Learning (TEL) gives the theoretical support for understanding the processes experienced by the study subjects. Participant Action Research (PAR) was used as methodology to facilitate the design, implementation and monitoring of results, and verify the perceptions of students. During the twelve months of field research, it was possible to develop two application cycles of PBL, where more than 150 students built projects targeting a public wider than the university community, using sustainability as an overarching theme connecting propositions The study is based on the students' perception through continuous feedback and recursive processes of methodology adaptation in order to refine the methodological proposition of application of PBL and verify the students' perception regarding the proposition developed. Although the students were initially uncomfortable (given the progressive characteristic of the course, which puts the student in a position of prominence, often making students feel unable to or not interested in playing this role), this discomfort is generally resignified as learning at the end of the semester, after repeated processes of reflection on the experience. Similar to TEL and PAR, the intention of this thesis is to advance our understanding of the forms and results achieved with the use of PBL having sustainability as context, while being aware of how complex the theme is and how recursive the learning process is. We also acknowledge that there is room for improvement and adaptation of the methodology. We hope that this initiative may inspire fellow educators to make use of PBL or other active methodologies in order to assist them in the urgent transformation which is needed today.