The North American Action Research Alliance (NAARA) held their second Summit Meeting this past fall at the University of Notre Dame. Below is an executive summary of the meeting discussion:
- Friday, November 30, 2007
Participants: Gary Anderson, Mary Beckman, Mary Brydon-Miller, Jay Caponigro, Zaria Davis-Humphries, Radhika Gajjala, Sandra Good, Laura Hampton, Kathryn Herr, Joyce Long, Candice Munoz, Susan Noffke, Philip Nyden, Jardana Peacock, Tim Ready, Robert Reyes, Anu Sabhlok, Randy Stoecker, Vassi Tsitsopoulou, Lisa Vaughn, Patrick Vrooman, Bernard Young
Following a welcome from Mary Beckman and introductions from participants, Sue Noffke provided a brief overview of the history of NAARA. The idea for a broader network of organizations and individuals interested in Action Research began with discussions as part of the Action Research strand of the Qualitative Inquiry conference hosted by the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. This led to the First NAARA Summit in Spring 2006 sponsored by the University of Cincinnati Action Research Center.
We then discussed our goals for the summit. A number of common themes emerged including:
- Creating a space for dialogue and reflection
- Developing relationships and potential partnerships
- Learning about what others are doing and gathering ideas
- Addressing questions of legitimation and rigor of AR and assessing outcomes.
- Developing strategies for integrating AR into teaching
- Connecting higher education and service learning efforts with effective community engagement efforts.
- Addressing issues of institutional support including funding, IRB issues.
After a short break we reconvened to work in small groups to discuss the themes of teaching action research, developing effective community-campus partnerships, and institutional support for action research.
Group One reported back on their discussion of differing understandings of action research and of individual experiences and concerns. Some common themes that came up were the focus on social change and community involvement, questions regarding integrating action research into academic schedules, and institutional policies and procedures. Everyone brings to the process a different set of experiences and issues that must be explored together before it is possible to define a common set of goals and objectives. The group said that after the morning’s discussion they felt they had had the opportunity to get to know one another and were prepared to think about next steps.
Group Two focused their discussion on the broad theme of reversing power including addressing the issues of language and institutional power, working with diverse constituencies, developing critical, interdisciplinary strategies for teaching action research with a focus on promoting social justice, and creating institutional change. A major focus was on using community organizing as a model for action research.
Group Three examined the question of legitimation and of challenging dominant research practices and discussed specific concerns such as promotion and tenure, relations with university IRBs, funding, and conducting AR within an academic calendar. They also considered specific outcomes for NAARA including the development of a website to serve as a clearinghouse for action researchers across disciplinary boundaries. Information that could be made available on the website might include: criteria for IRB review of AR projects, examples of successful AR grants, publication outlets, and general discussion of action research practices.
The general discussion that came out of these group sessions focused on ways of engaging community partners in NAARA and the importance of having this engagement be useful and accessible. We also discussed ways in which we might continue to support a website.
After the lunch break we took some time out to look at the existing NAARA website. This site was developed by Carla Shafer and includes both a homepage and wiki. Anu Sabhlok described a recent project she did with a group of critical geographers to develop a common vision statement and we heard from Vassi about the development of preparation courses for students doing international projects.
After brainstorming a number of ideas for further group discussion we settled on three general topics: community organizing, pedagogy and teaching action research, and structures of higher education including issues of dissemination. The goal was to come up with some initial recommendations for further action and development.
The group on Pedagogy and Teaching Action Research divided their list into contributions that might be added to the website and off-line collaborations. In terms of the website they suggested we think of the website as a clearinghouse of materials that could include the following: effective practices and sample exercises, recommended readings, bibliographies and FAQs, sample teaching assignments and assessments. They also recommended that we consider posting successful teaching narratives to provide models for faculty going up for tenure and examples showcasing faculty leadership in curriculum development, as well as the creation of discussion spaces and a bulletin board. The off-line collaboration would provide an opportunity for people from different universities to come together on a common project, e.g. a book or special issue of a journal.
The Community Organizing group suggested that we find ways to document the principles of community organizing and community based research in order to determine the extent to which one translates into the other and to identify gaps between the two. Specifically they want to examine what the community organizing model might contribute to the practice of action research in terms of capacity building on both the academic and community side.
The Structures of Higher Education and Dissemination group focused in part on a further discussion of the NAARA website as a place where people could come from different disciplines and find resources. They discussed the possibility of having “area editors” for different components of the website which might be focused on issues such as: ethical issues and IRB, grant writing and fundraising, teaching and curricular issues, training modules, conferences and announcements regarding other action research related events, and a list of journals and other publication opportunities. The group also discussed other strategies for disseminating action research related work including the development of a monograph series, regional and international conferences, topical conferences or workshops, as well as some kind of shared writing activity such as the project discussed by Anu earlier in the day which might lead to both a vision statement to be posted on the website as well as a collaborative publication. In order to do this, we would need volunteers to be the point person to receive all the stuff that people send in on a given area. Their task would be to pull together the materials, look for quality, organize and upload.
In the general discussion following the small group reports it was clear that there were many areas of common interest and concern. A shared priority was on developing the website and in gathering relevant materials. We agreed that it made more sense to develop a single call for materials for all areas of the website and that before anyone could take over overall responsibility for the website we would need to contact Carla to find out the current status of the site and whether she wants to continue to work on it as well as to determine which of our institutions might be able and willing to provide technical support.
We agreed to assign specific tasks at our Saturday morning session apart from those participants unable to stay overnight. (A full list of task assignments appears at the end of this document.)
- Saturday, December 1, 2007
Participants: Gary Anderson, Mary Beckman, Mary Brydon-Miller, Jay Caponigro, Zaria Davis-Humphries, Sandra Good, Kathryn Herr, Laura Hampton, Joyce Long, Sue Noffke, Phil Nyden, Tim Ready, Randy Stoecker, Lisa Vaughn, Patrick Vrooman, Bernard Young.
Qualitative Inquiry Conference at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign — Sue will hold a place for us and perhaps some of us can meet there to help hold accountability.
Gary mentioned that Michelle Fine, Sonia Ospina, etc. are in the broader metro area of NYC with the potential for a regional gathering there.
In terms of the website, Mary Brydon-Miller will be the initial point person. She will contact Carla about her role with the website; Patrick will check into his university to see if it would be the webmaster; Mary will pay for updating current site if needed. Others will see if they can get the website assistance at their universities. We prefer to keep it outside a university for now. Could give credit to a university, though, for its assistance. Mary will get back to Patrick and Randy and Sue about the situations at their institutions to give help. For the rest, we’ll go ahead with text
Mary Beckman will facilitate a check in probably as conference call. Lisa will check on webx. If that doesn’t work, we’ll do a conference call. Mary will check into conference call costs. We’ll do it May 25th, Friday, noon eastern time.
Mary Beckman will keep files, lists, etc., but Mary Brydon-Miller will be the back up for this.
We discussed the possible need a few extra people to be part of a “steering committee” and decided to wait till the conference call in May to make a decision.
(The list of tasks and responsible people appears on the next page. For additional information on the scope of these tasks, see original meeting notes)
Finally, our deepest thanks for Joellen Conrardy, Ezinne Ndukwe, Shawn Finlen, Kevin Bailey, Joyce Long, and Mary Beckman of the Center for Social Concerns at the University of Notre Dame for all their work in organizing and hosting this event!
- List of Tasks and Responsible Person(s):
Preparation of meeting notes—Mary Beckman and Mary Brydon-Miller
Website development—Mary Brydon-Miller, Randy Stoecker, Patrick Vrooman, Sue Noffke
IRB and Research Ethics—Gary Anderson and Mary Brydon-Miller
Gathering collect syllabi and other artifacts for suggestions on how AR is taught — Sue Noffke and Joyce Long
Collecting methods materials—Lisa Vaughn and Kathryn
Developing publications and other forms of dissemination and calls for papers and conference announcements on website—Patrick Vrooman, Mary Brydon-Miller, and Phil Nyden
Documenting principles of community organizing and community based research—Randy Stoecker, Sandra Good, Bernie Young, Tim, Jay Caponigro , Sue Noffke, Joyce Long
Arts—Mary Beckman and Patrick Vrooman
Grants, funding and new philanthropy—Laura Hampton (we volunteered Phil Nyden here, too.).
Faculty support and institutional policy—Mary Beckman and Phil Nyden
Pre- and post-departure and assessment—Vassi Tsitsopoulou
Collaborative writing project, vision statement—Anu Sabhlok and Lisa Vaughn
Conceptualizing teaching action research project—Jardana Peacock
Teaching portfolio—Radhika Gajjila
Executive Summary prepared by Mary Beckman and Sue Noffke as well as Mary Brydon-Miller.
NAARA Lead Contacts:
- Mary Beckman, PhD
Associate Director, Academic Affairs and Research
Center for Social Concerns
Concurrent Associate Professor, Economics and Policy Studies
574-631-4172
phonembeckman@nd.edu
http://centerforsocialconcerns.nd.edu/ - Sue Noffke
Associate Professor
Curriculum & Instruction
321 Education Building
1310 S. 6th St. MC 708
s-noffke@uiuc.edu
217 333-1670 - Mary Brydon-Miller, Ph.D.
Director, Action Research Center
Associate Professor, Educational Studies and Urban Educational Leadership
College of Education, Criminal Justice, and Human Services
University of Cincinnati
Cincinnati, OH 45221-0049
(513) 556-5108
(o)mary.brydon-miller@uc.edu
This initiative is supported by a three-year grant from the Corporation for National Service 
