Search

This commentary reflects on the key themes and goals of this symposium. It contextualizes the relationship between participatory action research (PAR) and teaching in the increasingly popular field of critical action-oriented geography. It considers a number of benefits to student learning from engagement with PAR, drawing on the papers in the collection, and raises some critical questions for future development.

Schools have been identified as well placed to support students' wellbeing and encouraging the active participation of children and young people in school life is in line with current English legislation. Student-led research has the potential to create a positive, long-lasting impact. This evaluative systematic literature review (SLR) sought to identify the?features of?effective student?participation?in the co-production?of?whole-school?wellbeing?strategies, with a focus on Participatory Action Research (PAR) projects. Ten papers published between 2011 and 2021 were identified using the PRISMA framework and evaluated for methodological quality and appropriateness of focus. Several factors were identified as impacting on the success of PAR, including group composition, power balance, and sustainability. The paper concludes that carefully planned PAR projects can result in successful collaboration with students to develop whole-school strategies for a range of issues/topic areas. Further research evaluating the long-term impact of such projects on whole-school practice is warranted.

In response to the spread of COVID-19 in early 2020, schools across the UK moved to virtual teaching arrangements for the majority of their learners. Some localized school closures occurred in England in February 2020, with a national lockdown following in March 2020. Although relaxed in June 2020, concerns about rising cases of the virus led to a second period of enforced school closure across the UK in January 2021. With no sign of the pandemic abating, we wanted to gain insights into teachers' experiences at this unique time. We used a solicited diary method with teachers over a 4-month period to reflect on workload and wellbeing issues related to their changing teaching practices. The diaries were supplemented by a series of teacher interviews. In this paper, we carry out a critical reflection of diary use. We observe how diaries provide a structure for eliciting ideas in an ordered way, and which then become a resource for a teacher's professional reflection. This process also appears to strengthen some of the social connections that were compromised during the social distancing periods of the pandemic, and which has benefits for teachers' wellbeing.

This paper reports the co-creation of knowledge through a Practitioner Action Research Community of Practice of teachers and mid-level policy enactors which sought to engage the question of how to enhance Religious Education in primary schools serving socially disadvantaged children. Co-authors' professional values and assumptions are explored, and questions developed to carry out a needs assessment of primary teachers in contexts of social disadvantage; highlighting the advantages of effective school-community partnership, leading to a recognition of the importance of learning outside the classroom for enhancing children's experience of Religious Education. A model of successful learning outside the classroom was developed, centring on the importance of spaces for encountering the lived experience of religion, asking challenging questions, and sharing learning objectives. The benefits of this approach for children from disadvantaged backgrounds are explored. Feedback from teachers, children, places of worship and SACREs was fed into the reflective process to arrive at a series of opportunities, weaknesses and training needs for effective field visits and visiting speakers. The paper concludes by setting out a model for an online portal to enable schools and education officers from places of worship to connect effectively with one another to enhance primary Religious Education.

The BERA initiative on promoting Close-to-Practice (CtP) research raises new challenges for action research, particularly as uncertainties about the standing and rigour of action research were expressed in the report of the education panel for the 2015 Research Excellence Framework (REF) in the United Kingdom. The work of tackling these challenges is essential in advancing CtP research, and it discloses, in turn, new possibilities. In this paper we review some pioneering developments in action research and analyse the difficulties it has experienced in securing parity of standing with other forms of research. We argue that action research is more than, and sometimes other than, a social science. We seek to show that if action research is to be recognised by credentials that are its own, and judged by criteria that are proper to it, not only does it lose any lower standing. Rather, it becomes a major pathway, with deep roots in the critical traditions of Western practical philosophy, through which the defining purposes of education itself, as a distinctive human practice, are ascertained and affirmed, pursued and appraised.

This paper explores the processes and outcomes of an action research project, which utilised action learning sets to explore the experiences of a community of academics, who promote pedagogical enhancement in a UK university. Five academics acted as participant action researchers in a longitudinal study exploring the issues they face within their community of practice. Action learning sets were used as the forum through which the participants could discuss the issues they face. The result is an interwoven fabric of action learning and action research, with participants utilizing their reflections on the action research process itself as a catalyst to achieve greater insight into the issues they sought to address through their action learning. This paper explores the themes that emerged from these reflections: choosing between seeking 'solutions' versus promoting discussion in the action learning sets, the complementarity of action research and action learning, the challenges of a collective mode of inquiry. Ultimately, we offer up the process of incorporating action learning sets within an action research project as a participatory approach that can engage colleagues in different roles to reflect on pedagogical practice. Our findings demonstrate both the potential benefits and challenges inherent in combining action learning and action research.

Involving young people in the co-production of whole-school wellbeing strategies is aligned with the United Nations rights of the child and current UK legislation. This exploratory participatory action research (PAR) project aimed to facilitate teacher-student collaboration in one high school to develop whole-school practice with a focus on assessment. Training videos were co-created focusing on students' assessment experiences and ways to improve wellbeing and performance. Reflexive thematic analysis of the data identified key facilitators and challenges to the PAR process, alongside insights into students' assessment experiences. The paper concludes that PAR has the potential to empower young people and open channels of communication between students and teachers. Implications for educational psychology (EP) practice and future research are discussed.

This paper reports a small-scale action research project aimed at helping a school whose teachers were concerned about the behaviour and achievement of their Year 8 group. Two focus group was used to identify any worries or concerns of pupils in Key Stage 3 (Years 7-9; aged 11-14). These concerns were further explored using a ranking exercise completed by all 486 pupils across the three year groups. The same pupils then completed the 'Psychological Sense of School Membership' questionnaire. The results of the ranking exercise are reported. The pupils' scores on the PSSM questionnaire suggests that pupils in Year 8 identified least with the aims of the school. The scores did show that a third (33%) of the pupils in Year 8 scored at a level regarded as 'of serious concern'on the PSSM questionnaire indicating a negative view of the school. The results of the both exercises were shared with the teachers and a plan drawn up th improve the school's pupil management. Further development of this initiative was bought to a halt by the closure of the school in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The discourses around feedback and assessment within higher education are often proliferated as critical to student learning, and attention to student (dis)"satisfaction" is often high on the agenda. As academics spend extensive time and effort on the production of summative feedback, this paper draws on the initial findings from a small-scale study of the use of "Pecha Kucha" as a methodology for formative assessment within two undergraduate modules. The dominant themes suggest some disparity between staff and students regarding the "purpose" of formative assessment and the paper argues that "Pecha Kucha" can be used as a platform to develop assessment dialogues, with the subsequent development of a pedagogic literacy around feedback practices. Furthermore, the value of listening to different narratives from research studies, students and tutors supports the reframing of assessment as a supportive mechanism beyond the elicitation of "proof" of learning.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the role played by action learning in a collaborative action research project to alleviate poverty in a city region in the UK. Researchers from two universities worked with 12 large anchor organisations to investigate procurement and employment practices that positively impacted inclusive growth within the city region, and therefore had a positive effect on poverty, and spread those practices more widely. A core group of representatives from the 12 participating organisations met in action learning sets to share the results of their investigations, to design a model of good practice, and to develop and support action plans. The paper summarises the results of the project, examines the different methodologies that were employed, and reviews the contribution made by action learning.

The Marginalisation and Co-created Education (MaCE) project was developed between the University of Southern Norway, VIA University in Denmark and the University of Cumbria in the UK and funded by Erasmus+. The project aims to co-create proposals to achieve an equitable and socially just education system through participative action research with 'Early School Leavers'. This paper establishes a conceptual framework called 'Equalities Literacy' that evolved from the first action research cycle of the project. The framework is informed by the practice experience and theoretical knowledge of the international and interdisciplinary research team. It is applied to one youth narrative in this paper to illustrate its efficacy in revealing socio-cultural in/equalities. The Equalities Literacy framework is proposed to challenge and inform practice and further research. Further, the 'Indirect Approach' is introduced and located within action research as a participatory methodology that other researchers may wish to adopt.

This paper examines a Revans led action learning / action research project in services for people with learning disabilities which took place between 1969 and 1972 across seven local authorities in the UK. It explores aspects of social and political history as the project unfolded, including the notable scandals in hospital and social care which occurred around the time of Revans' work, starting with the Ely hospital scandal in 1967. The paper identifies some of the lessons from the project and from some of the social history of the period which may prove useful to practitioners engaged in social action work currently. Recommendations from hospital inquiries are often repeated, and many from the 1960s and 1970s included themes which obsessed Revans at the time, such as the need for better communications, inter-disciplinary working and stronger leadership and coordination of services. Key lessons and themes which emerge from his own intervention and from social history include the need to equip staff with the tools of analysis to carry out their own service investigations and evaluations, more honest sharing of 'chronicles of failure', and encouraging a climate of openness in which the need to speak out and challenge what is already known and believed is more fully supported.

This paper explores the ways in which collaborative action research can facilitate the development of inclusive practices and thinking in schools. The paper uses examples from a study that involved three countries and eight secondary schools to illustrate how the process of collaborative action research promoted inclusive thinking and practices. The study combined a well-established approach of professional development -- lesson study -- and a framework for engaging with the views of students. This led to a distinctive model of teacher professional development that has at its core the idea of engaging with the views of students. Thematic analysis of data collected from all the settings over three years, highlighted three ways in which collaborative action research led to the promotion of inclusive practices and thinking in schools: through teacher collaboration; through the development of reflective practice; and through student active participation. It is argued that what was distinctive through the process was the fact that collaboration occurred between adults and students, something that is less evident in the collaborative action research literature. Through this process, inclusive thinking and practices were developed.

In this paper we examine two systematic observation methods intended to be used by pre-service and in-service teachers to help increase their awareness of children's participation in productive classroom dialogue. We identify the affordances of these methods for supporting teachers' reflective practice, focusing in this case on students' equitable participation in science groupwork activities. This involves the use of Teacher-SEDA (T-SEDA), a sub-scheme of SEDA (Cam-UNAM Scheme for Educational Dialogue Analysis), which was empirically trialled by a mixed group of researchers and teachers, using video-recordings from primary science classrooms in the UK and Mexico. The T-SEDA trials reported in this paper compare a 'simulated live' approach based on time-sampling techniques, with a 'follow-up analysis' approach, which uses audio-recordings and transcripts. The findings suggest that using either technique regularly can aid teachers in noticing classroom events and adjusting teaching accordingly. The 'live' coding approach appears to be the more practical method that teachers could use to audit the development of classroom equitable participation. However, the follow-up analysis emerged as a more informative approach, shedding light on more ambiguous cases of relative participation.

This research paper explores the processes and outcomes of a peer review system which was introduced to 74 first-year students on a BA Education programme in 2016-17. In this one-year action research study, students completed a series of tasks linked to both their academic work and professional teaching placements. The scaffolded nature of these tasks aimed to develop the students' skills, knowledge and confidence as novice peer reviewers. The students' task responses, written reflections of the peer review process and interviews were analysed, to explore the potential value of producing and giving formative feedback to peers. The sustainability of peer review was considered when peer review moved into the students' professional context. This considered how becoming peer reviewers helped students to develop two graduate attributes - forming evaluative judgements based on an understanding of quality and being able to communicate feedback orally - and the influence of these qualities on students' development of self-regulation. The students' challenges in engaging in the peer review process were also considered.

This paper reports on research that took place at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) and Sheffield Hallam University (SHU), United Kingdom, over two years. The project formed the basis of an iterative, interpretive, action research study focussing on a particular set of participants--trainee teachers. The insights gained from the initial cycle fed into planning the second cycle, for which the action plan was modified and the research process repeated (Zuber-Skerritt 1992). The research project focuses on the use of Web 2.0 technology, specifically web logs, (or blogs) with trainee teachers, both during their university programme and during the first year of teaching as full-time newly qualified teachers. The purpose of this research was to add to a developing body of knowledge identifying whether technology used by trainee teachers during their training course can be cascaded into their practice once qualified. Participants from the two collaborating universities were introduced to blogs and blogging during their time at university, and encouraged to use it for themselves, and to also think about how it could be used in their own classrooms when they were teaching. Questionnaires were used to ascertain their thoughts on the use of blogs during training, and these were followed up with interviews with a number of the trainees to determine the cascading of this technology, once they had become newly qualified teachers (NQTs) and were teaching in schools. These interviews explored the reasons for enabling or inhibiting the use of blogs in their teaching in school. This paper presents the findings of the research and discusses the enablers and inhibitors that were identified in the light of current research findings. The research supports the view that developing innovative use of technology in the classroom is complex and experiences during training are not always transferred into practice. (Contains 1 table.)

It is difficult to ignore the impact that Web 2.0 and the subsequent social software revolution has had on society in general, and young people in particular. Information is exchanged and interpreted extremely quickly and in ways that were not imagined 10 years ago. Universities are struggling to keep up with this new technology, with outdated intranet systems and limited research into its application within the higher education sector. The aim of this paper is to firstly develop a greater understanding of the use of social software by students in product design education and the impact of blogs, wiki's, Facebook groups, Flickr images, Myspace pages, RSS feeds, Tweets and YouTube video posts on their learning processes. The research for the project involved a number of discrete methods over a four year period, initially involving a review of the technological platforms and the e-learning software available to product design academic staff and students and the effect this has had thus far on teaching practices. Product design academic staff were then asked to rank existing platforms against a number of criteria. This was followed by the examination of case studies of successful applications of social software within the writer's institution with a view to establishing if these technologies could be better integrated into higher education and current pedagogic practices in order to provide an enhanced learning experience for the student product designer. The first phase of the research culminated in a literature review to establish the state of play in the wider academic community and beyond. This preliminary research fed into action research which consisted of the formulation and design of a blog and information website for the institutions product design programmes. Semi-structured interviews were then conducted to establish the views and opinions of the blog from key stakeholders including university marketing directors, academics and the student cohort. Questionnaires followed so that qualitative and quantitative data could be analysed. The paper concludes with a description of the perceived validity and possible future developments for the blog and social software as a whole in the product design higher education sector. (Contains 7 figures.)

Engineering, the "E" in STEM, is seldom taught as a distinct curriculum subject in English and Welsh schools to pupils under the age of 14 years. This contrasts with design and technology (D&T), taken in this paper to represent the largest contributor to the "T" in STEM (the remainder being taken to be the computing and digital communications aspects of ICT), which is currently taught to all pupils up to the age of 14 and remains a very popular option thereafter. The UK Government STEM programme (with sister projects: the LSIS 16+ STEM programme, the London Engineering Project and the 14-19 Diploma in Engineering) has provided large-scale action-research opportunities to better understand the nature of the T and E in STEM. This paper describes how the T and E in STEM have been found to be subjects in their own right and also to provide practical context for other STEM subjects. Some effective-practice guidelines have been established as a result, and these are discussed, but the paper concludes there is still much to do to fully establish the identity and character of the T and the E in STEM. Ideas for how this might develop are offered. (Contains 3 figures.)

This article explains an action research response to the need for knowledge democracy in research projects between academics in global North and global South countries. It argues that if unspoken assumptions about knowledge creation are left unexamined, such collaborations can replicate forms of 'epistemic injustice'. The paper is premised on the belief that such collaborations should be based upon practical acknowledgement of plurality in the domain of knowledge and upon the right and responsibility of people to contribute to research conceptualisations and questions as equals. The article focuses on the facilitation processes applied during an initial, five-day strategic planning meeting for a three-year Erasmus Mundus research project, in which academics from universities in Spain, Portugal, Peru and the UK participated, and the conceptualisations and strategic direction of the project were established. The authors draw upon their experiences as project co-designers and joint co-ordinators. We conclude that if international research projects are to promote knowledge democracy, processes need to be established in which relevant concepts and objectives can be articulated and the research questions established by all partners, in order to accommodate multiple perspectives. The insights offered also have relevance for collaborations between multiple stakeholders inside and outside of academia.

The call to raise educational standards in the UK has a particular focus on the underachievement of pupils attending schools facing challenging socioeconomic circumstances. In 2017 the Education Policy Institute (UK) reported that the most disadvantaged pupils in England are on average over 2 years of learning behind non-disadvantaged pupils by the end of their secondary education. Contributing to this underachievement is the notion of 'poverty of expectation' with some teachers being unambitious in their teaching, failing to challenge their pupils to achieve at the highest levels. In primary science education this is exacerbated by the fact that non-specialist teachers commonly deliver the science curriculum. Lack of confidence and expertise in science can limit knowledge of teaching strategies and approaches required to engage and stretch pupils. The Hope Challenge Model for partnership brings together a university's Initial Teacher Education programme and urban primary schools facing challenging socio-economic circumstances. It aims to introduce trainee teachers to schools in a way that builds their confidence and nurtures more ambitious teaching for the future. This paper provides insights from an action research study designed to understand the processes and impact of the HCM (an action research cycle in itself) on primary science teaching. Early findings revealed how elements of the HCM approach support the goal of more ambitious science teaching in respect of trainees and importantly and how this rippled out to build the confidence and skills of more established school-based staff.

This paper reports an Action Research Inquiry that aimed to develop research supervision as a learning strategy, in order to facilitate early childhood undergraduates' completion of a primary research project and dissertation in the final year of their degree programme. Researchers in this context are conceptualised as a community of practice where there is a common goal for undergraduates to become researchers. In this community, supervision accompanies students along their research project; it provides opportunities for learning for the supervisor and the student. Communities of Practice are spaces for social learning. The objectives of introducing supervision as a group social practice were to provide a space to develop researcher identity, apply research skills and make sense of the experience of research. Group Supervision represented a shift in teaching and learning practice. Action Research was applied as a research method. Such an approach placed emphasis on the participation and collaboration of lecturers in a strategy for changing practice. The research was conducted in a University in the United Kingdom. One cycle of action research was completed. Findings from the study suggest Group Supervision is valued and understood, by lecturers and students, as a social learning process.

The subject of talent in sport continues to fascinate and intrigue as organisations seek to identify and deliver an effective talent development programme in an effort to ensure systemic success. In the quest to deliver an optimal national governing body talent development programme, this paper investigates the role that Appreciative Inquiry can play in addressing change within a complex landscape. The coaches (12 talent coaches) and researcher (Head of Performance) utilised an Appreciative Inquiry framework to identify a 'routemap' for change within the programme. Results highlighted the challenges and benefits of adopting a strength-based approach to programme development within sport, particularly the generative capacity of Appreciative Inquiry amongst coaches. Results also indicate some complexities of strength-based collaborative change, namely the need for time to break through semantics and coaching rhetoric. Through the design and delivery of an Appreciative Inquiry summit, key themes for an optimal development environment were identified. Namely, coaches felt that when at its best the programme adopts a mastery focus. Findings indicate that to achieve this, participants felt that for the programme to become optimal, the themes of leadership, coach-athlete relationships and player autonomy were integral elements to build on going forward.

This paper evaluates the meaning of respect in a 21st century global learning environment, with a view to exploring the implications for promoting harmonious working relationships among students of culturally diverse ethnic backgrounds in the classroom. Research conducted since 2005 that investigates the understanding, meaning and experience of respect between final-year undergraduate students on a consulting to business module, provides the context for this paper. The methodology consists of the following four consulting teams of volunteer focus groups, comprising of between four and seven students each, over a two year period of the study that includes two phases (based on two focus groups per phase). Each team is made up of students from different ethnic minorities and cultures and of mixed genders, aged between 22 and 43 years. The focus group sessions are conducted weekly or fortnightly over a 28 week period (the life of a module in an academic year) with each session lasting 30 minutes or an hour, which are also videoed. These focus groups are facilitated using a collaborative dialogue research approach which as acknowledged by Kitzinger 1995 who stated that "although group interviews are often used simply as a quick and convenient way to collect data from several people simultaneously, focus groups explicitly use group interaction as part of the method" and share stories of respect and disrespect as they emerge and affect them. I draw on the work of Prado (2006), Cohen (2001), Langdon (2007) and Noddings (2005) to explore definitions of respect research and provide a framework for discussion and analysis. I intend to disseminate findings from this research that reviews perceptions and attitudes to respect and their impact on beliefs and behaviour of the students in the study. The aim is to improve interaction and dialogue while promoting a positive approach to cultural difference. A review of historical concepts of respect is conducted to determine its influence in today's 21st century global age. An exploration of key factors regarding the notion of respect will also be discussed. Langdon (2007) intimates that research evidence indicates that whilst acknowledgement of respect is frequently reputed to be the driving force in improving situations where there is conflict or a need for dialogue, there is limited evidence to show that its relevance and effects have been assessed. This is something I intend to do in this paper. Findings to date indicate that respect is an important shared value for members from culturally diverse learning environments. The research findings also show that respect has a common meaning for those with similar cultural upbringing. That is, those students from collectivist societies (using Hofstede 2001, "Three levels of Human Mental Programming" Values and Culture mode model). According to Hofstede, (ibid) "at the collective level, most or all of our mental programming is learned, which is shown by the fact that we share it with people who have gone through the same learning processes but who do not have the same genetic makeup". Those from collectivist societies are therefore likely to exhibit the same or similar attitudes and behaviour towards respect such as, respect for extended family members and for members from their minority ethnic group. Initial findings suggest that these behavioural characteristics remain fairly consistent over different generations though marginal change is evident amongst second generations. This suggests that perceptions of respect are culturally situated and reinforced and can make behavioural change problematic. However, an awareness of difference based on facts, qualitative experience, rather than fiction or stereotypes are possible drivers for a positive approach to respect that can shift behaviours and mental models which Senge (2006) refers to as "internal pictures of how the world work" (pp. 163). The significance of respect from a global educational perspective is therefore crucial in society today.

The Open University, an open distance learning institution, is increasingly using a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) that requires internet access. This paper investigates how the move to a VLE has affected one group of students who do not have internet access--offender learners studying in prison. Members of the armed forces and secure hospital patients also have restricted access to the internet. E-learning practitioners design courses on the assumption that students will have easy internet access and other appropriate technology. This is not always the case. This paper reports on an action research project that identified alternative approaches to learning activities that required internet access. Project initiatives enabled six offender learners to complete a course that had previously been classified as unsuitable for study in prison. The use of alternative approaches opens up the possibility of distance learning for students who would otherwise be excluded from distance e-learning courses. The author proposes an EDO framework, classifying activities as "Essential", "Desirable" or "Optional". The framework highlights activities needing alternative approaches if a student is to complete the course successfully. By applying the framework, practitioners can design and deliver a course that utilises technology appropriate to the student's environment. (Contains 1 figure.)

The Learning to Learn in Schools Phase 3 Evaluation was a four year project across England exploring the concept of Learning to Learn in 33 primary and secondary schools. The project was funded through the UK based Campaign for Learning. One of the key aims of the project was to ensure that the locus of control in terms of development remains with the schools, who decided on the focus of innovation relevant to them under the umbrella heading of Learning to Learn. A team from the Research Centre for Learning and Teaching at Newcastle University then supported and facilitated the teachers in the systematic evaluation of their experiences. As a result we believe that this process supported meaningful professional development about teaching and learning. This paper exemplifies this process through two professional enquiries into pupil talk in the classroom and how it supported learning. The projects were carried out by teachers in two schools, one secondary (11-18 years) and one primary (4-11 years). Both schools decided that encouraging pupil talk about learning best fit with their priorities and the project aims of exploring Learning to Learn. The paper describes the different research methods and findings of the teachers' research, focusing on the decision making which occurred and how the process of the research has impacted on their professional development. Conclusions are drawn about how the philosophy of Learning to Learn can be as easily applied to the process of professional enquiry through action research and teachers' learning, as to the more traditional domain of students' learning and how this might contribute to the development of a successful Learning to Learn school culture. (Contains 10 figures and 2 endnotes.)

Much time is invested by markers in providing feedback to students that is personalised, aimed at providing them with information to feed forward into their next piece of work. Given the investment of time by tutors in the feedback process, we were necessarily concerned with how it is used by students and keen to explore and develop practice. This paper therefore draws on an action research project to explore students' perceptions of assessment feedback and the impact of an intervention to enhance its use. This paper presents an initial review of this work, highlighting the way that it has developed feedback processes and students' engagement in self-regulated learning.

This paper addresses the question: how can e-learning be embedded in traditional universities so that it contributes to the transformation of the university? The paper examines e-learning strategies in higher education, locating the institutional context within the broader framework of national and international policy drivers which link e-learning with the achievement of strategic goals such as widening access to lifelong learning, and upskilling for the knowledge and information society. The focus will be on traditional universities i.e. universities whose main form of teaching is on-campus and face-to-face, rather than on open and distance teaching universities, which face different strategic issues in implementing e-learning. Reports on the adoption of e-learning in traditional universities indicate extensive use of e-learning to improve the quality of learning for on-campus students, but this has not yet translated into a significant increase in opportunities for lifelong learners in the workforce and those unable to attend on-campus. One vision of the future of universities is that "Virtualisation and remote working technologies will enable us to study at any university in the world, from home". However, this paper will point out that realisation of this vision of ubiquitous and lifelong access to higher education requires that a fully articulated e-learning strategy aims to have a "transformative" rather than just a "sustaining" effect on teaching functions carried out in traditional universities. In order words, rather than just facilitating universities to improve their teaching, e-learning should transform how universities currently teach. However, to achieve this transformation, universities will have to introduce strategies and policies which implement flexible academic frameworks, innovative pedagogical approaches, new forms of assessments, cross-institutional accreditation and credit transfer agreements, institutional collaboration in development and delivery, and, most crucially, commitment to equivalence of access for students on and off-campus. The insights in this paper are drawn from an action research case study involving both qualitative and quantitative approaches, utilising interviews, surveys and focus groups with stakeholders, in addition to comparative research on international best practice. The paper will review the drivers and rationales at international, national and institutional level which are leading to the development of e-learning strategies, before outlining the outcomes of a case study of e-learning strategy development in a traditional Irish university. This study examined the drivers and barriers which increase or decrease motivation to engage in e-learning, and provides some insights into the challenges of embedding e-learning in higher education. While recognising the desirability of reaching out to new students and engaging in innovative pedagogical approaches, many academic staff continue to prefer traditional lectures, and are sceptical about the potential for student learning in online settings. Extrinsic factors in terms of lack of time and support serve to decrease motivation and there are also fears of loss of academic control to central administration. The paper concludes with some observations on how university e-learning strategies must address staff concerns through capacity building, awareness raising and the establishment of effective support structures for embedding e-learning.

This interdisciplinary paper discusses the meaning of open, critical, communal, and discursive learning spaces in higher education. It draws on recent research (Marshalsey, 2017) that illuminates the relationship between sensory affect and learning in studio education. It focuses on the extension and development of new learning configurations in the design studio, augmented by technology enhanced learning. Sensory affect is a form of feedback that can be used by learners to analyse and interpret the impact of the learning environment around them. This study used sensory affect as a lens through which to understand students' experiences of practice-based learning in Communication Design spaces in two distinct higher education settings in the United Kingdom and Australia. The evolution of specialist design studio learning spaces, from physical studios to a blend of virtual and online educational environments, has led to significant debate about how to design, use and evaluate learning spaces for practice-based design disciplines. The paper uses the methods process model, based on participatory design tools (Marshalsey, 2017; Sanders & Stappers, 2008). The MPM supports students and educators to qualitatively interpret and critique their learning spaces more explicitly within their design education.

Web-enabled technology is now being applied on a large scale. In this paper we look at open access provision of teaching and learning leading to many users with varying patterns and motivations for use. This has provided us with a research challenge to find methods that help us understand and explain such initiatives. We describe ways to model the research and identify where pressures and contradictions can be found, drawing on a reflective view of our own practice in performing the research. Open educational resources are defined as technology-enabled educational resources that are openly available for consultation, use and adaptation by users for non-commercial purposes (UNESCO, 2002). OpenLearn is one of the largest of such initiatives and is committed to the provision of open educational resources for all. It is being developed by The Open University and is primarily sponsored by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. It provides users with over 4,200 hours of higher educational material drawn from Open University courses. Other learning tools such as discussion forums, video conferencing, and knowledge mapping software are also available to the user. In this paper we aim to introduce OpenLearn and outline some of the main research issues surrounding such an initiative. We seek to explore theoretical and practical approaches that can provide suitable tools for analysis. Activity theory is seen as a suitable approach for macro analysis and its use is illustrated in terms of the complexity of large scale research. Activity theory, besides informing research perspectives, can be turned in upon the research process itself allowing us to consider the challenges and context of the research. By using activity theory in this way and illustrating from a range of practical approaches we demonstrate and illustrate a useful research approach.

This paper presents the results of a small scale action research project in which a group of seven Year 2 undergraduate initial teacher education (ITE) students experienced three interventions which were concerned with feedback on essay assignments--provision of traditional written tutor feedback; completion of a tutor feedback analysis worksheet; and an experience of peer marking, with an opportunity for resubmission of work. After each intervention students were asked to reflect on the effectiveness of the intervention. The paper presents a brief overview of recent research on the topic of assignment feedback, and the results of this project are considered in the context of this.

Action research has been characterised as systematic enquiry into practice, undertaken by those involved, with the aim changing and improving that practice: an approach designed to have impact. Whilst much has been written about the process and practice of "researching," historically "impact" has been somewhat taken for granted. In recent years, however, the impact of all forms of research has become the focus of interest with many funding bodies now demanding that researchers not only articulate the prospective impact of their work, but what kinds of evidence will be proffered to demonstrate that impact. This has raised questions for action researchers, not about whether their work has an impact, but what form that impact takes, how it is recognised and by whom. This paper focuses on difficulties researchers find in both articulating the impact of participatory research and demonstrating links between such forms of research and impact. We draw on discussions about the notion of impact with authors that have self-reported and published their work as participatory. These discussions revealed that not only were there difficulties in clarifying the participatory dimension of their research but that whilst authors were able to discuss particular impacts of their work, articulating and evidencing that impact was often absent from their published papers. This paper offers insights into some of issues and barriers those who undertake participatory research face in explicating, for the external audience (and indeed sometimes for ourselves), the impact of this action-based form of enquiry.

The interdisciplinary "Foodways and Futures" project (2013-2016) is based on a pilot study which found no improvement in the nutritional state of formerly homeless young people (16-25), now in supported accommodation at a charitable youth organization. Because a healthy food intake during adolescence is important, and because young people with socioeconomic lower backgrounds face difficulties in maintaining a healthy diet (Beasley at al., 2005), I investigated how the young people themselves experience their relationship to food. In this paper I explore links between the lived experience before and during their stay with the organization of this vulnerable group, and their food choices and practices. The study illustrates the ways in which those choices and practices may appear nutritionally undesirable, but are nevertheless linked to the young people's search for ontological security and social connectedness, in their new living environment. In this, I draw on and extend Schlossberg's (1981) transition theory in order to better understand the rationales underlying an individual's subjective food choices.

'Co-production' is advocated within UK legislation outlining children and young people's right to be heard and to take part in the development of the services they use. This paper aims to explore understanding and knowledge around engaging with children and young people about how services can be co-produced within education. By using cycles of action and reflection, this research presents what children and young people think is important when working with, and receiving services from, educational psychologists, and explores the experiences of both children and young people, and educational psychologists, as they have worked and continue to work together to co-construct an educational psychology service.

Evidence from the UN World Youth Report (2015) suggests that young people, while increasingly disengaged with formal political processes, are motivated by cause-related social action. Higher Education (HE), through research and partnership, provides ideal learning spaces to explore cause-related social action. However, as HE partnership opportunities continue to be reframed under a narrative of employability and one-off participation, there is a risk that these experiences miss an opportunity to critically engage young people with issues at a socio-political level. This research paper considers the potential of participatory action research (PAR) as a pedagogical mechanism for re-politicising social action for students in a UK HE context. The project explores the experiences of 160 undergraduate students, working in partnership with 400 young children, aged 2-10 years, to investigate and co-construct their views and action concerning causes represented by local community organisations. Findings suggest that using participatory, youth-action approaches students shifted their self-identified positions from a non-social-orientated approach to establishing them as advocates for causes and children's voices. We argue that PAR, as a learning experience, and service-learning pedagogy open up an alternative experience of social action through an educational context with engagement and consideration of social issues. In conclusion, we call for new alliances between HE, young people, and community organisations, to produce, through enquiry, critical knowledge aimed at social transformation, which can open-up authentic democratic spaces within the learning communities in HE and its networks.