Th1s study investigates the terms, dialogue, structure and active learning in Open Distance learning texts in aa constructivist and problem-solving approach. In-text activities are imbedded in selfstudy texts. Their construct is validated against appropriate instructional design and learning theories for active learning. A course team developed, implemented and piloted a Unisa course for mathematics teachers in South Africa. The results describe their professional development through action learning. The Tornado-approach affects teams in organisations. A team used participatory action research and action learning with rich descriptions to document the longitudinal case study of four action research cycles over eight years. Qualitative research involved a literature survey, notes, portfolios, mindmaps, letters, interviews, document analyses, and assessment results. Our action research demonstrates ways to implement a post-modern learning design in an industrialized· institution. The researcher applies action learning in professional development, in team management, and suggests models for successful/unsuccessful teams (tornado-effect).

This health services study employed a participatory action research (PAR) approach to engage nurse practitioners (NPs) from two health authorities in British Columbia in separate and concurrent inquiry groups to examine the research question: How does collaboration advance NP role integration within primary health care (PHC)? The inquiry with NPs is significant and timely, because the introduction of the NP role was only recently formalized in BC, supported by the passage of legislation and regulation, and the introduction of graduate education programs. For this PAR study, a first-, second-, third-person action research framework was adapted and applied to facilitate graduate student research. PAR fostered an iterative process of social investigation, education, and action, in which NPs strengthened their relations, shared and generated practice and policy knowledge, and engaged in collective visioning and action to improve health care delivery. The findings of this PAR study include design and substantiation of an ecological framework about collaborative health care culture. This collaborative culture framework was applied to and substantiated by the NP inquiry discussions. NP practice patterns were examined and found to parallel the PHC principles, indicating the importance of the NP role to PHC renewal efforts. The meaning of role integration was explicated and collaboration was found to be foundational to NP practice. The study revealed the political nature of the NP role and the extent to which NPs are reliant on collaborative relations at all levels of the health system to attain role integration. Given that NP role development is still at an early stage in this province, this study provides important information about the current progress of role implementation and direction for future role advancement.

This research explores how Participatory Video (PV) can facilitate empowerment and strengthen dialogue and engagement for public policy with members of recycling cooperatives and government in the greater metropolitan region of São Paulo, Brazil. The research project provided opportunities for catadores/as (‘recyclers’) to explore PV as a way to shed light on their livelihood challenges, but also as an approach to celebrate, demonstrate and legitimize the value and significance of their work to local government and community. Working through a participatory approach, twenty-two leaders from eleven cooperatives were involved in all aspects of the video-making process, from script writing to filming, group editing and knowledge mobilization. The research took place during nine months of fieldwork located in four municipalities in the greater metropolitan region of São Paulo, Brazil using multiple ethnographic and participatory methods. The methodology for this research is action-oriented, and applies a participatory community-based multi-methods approach. The purpose of the videos was to relay the message that catadores/as perform a valuable service to society, and through the organization of cooperatives have the capacity to be further supported and integrated into waste management programs. The videos were used as a tool for communication with government and for community outreach. This research is supported through the Participatory Sustainable Waste Management (PSWM) project, a six-year Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) funded University Partnership project (2005-2011). The overall purpose of the participatory-based PSWM project was to increase the effectiveness, safety, and income generation of organized waste recycling in originally four and later six Brazilian municipalities in the metropolitan region of São Paulo: Santo André, Diadema, Ribeirão Pires, São Bernardo do Campo, Mauá and some parts of the municipality of São Paulo. The capacity building activities and actions of the PSWM project have contributed to structure, organize and strengthen cooperative recycling enterprises and their members, for example, by setting up a pilot project on micro-credit and advancing the practice of solidarity economy through collective commercialization and networking of the recyclers in the region. In addition, the project has helped create a more inclusive culture amongst the local governments in this region, where many recyclers are now present in political meetings and decision making related to waste management. Unfortunately, this is not the case in all the municipalities and there are still barriers to participatory models in decision-making and a lack of political support. Findings support the conclusion that PV can be a powerful methodological tool contributing to the process of individual, community and organizational empowerment and is significant for democratic governance and the increasingly popular notion of the knowledge democracy. This research also has policy relevance and practical application. The findings have the capacity to inform models of participatory governance, and improved democratic processes in addressing complex urban development challenges, in addition to advancing practices in government accountability and transparency. / Graduate / 0344 / 0700 / 0999 / crystaltre@gmail.com

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.