Rural Remote Learning in Manitoba During COVID-19: Opportunities and Challenges of Action Research

In September of 2020, seven school divisions in Western Manitoba developed a remote learning program to support medically fragile families whose children could not return to classrooms. The coalition of these school divisions, known as the Westman Consortia Partnership (WCP), needed to investigate what beliefs, practices, and strategies were critical to this new rural remote learning program, hence the collaboration with researchers to answer that question. From action research perspectives, this paper unpacks opportunities and challenges researchers faced in pre-, peri-, and post- research contexts during the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper explores action research aspects that were both followed and disrupted given the social, cultural, and historical context of the participants in the study.

Sojourning Educators at International Schools Overseas and the Covid-19 Pandemic

The Covid-19 pandemic has jolted educational organizations and their stakeholders. Mobility between countries is a requisite feature at international schools, with students and educators shifting between home, host, and intermediary countries. Stakeholders are diverse in international schools, representing transcultural interests, giving rise to complex needs and considerations for school leadership. This article explores a subset of data from a study on educator acculturation in international schools that unpacks the effects of, and responses to, the pandemic by sojourning educators at international schools in Southeast and East Asia. Effects on students were not examined. Findings include adaptive responses, mobility barriers and role/school precarity, spikes in acculturative stress, and creative problem-solving. These effects have generated substantial leadership enigmas. Implications include an urgent need to activate adaptive leadership practices, including contingency planning and action research projects aiming at experiential learning from different stakeholder groups in international schools.

Helping Language Teachers in Lithuania take their First Action Research Steps During the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Online Strategy

This paper reports on the experiences of the authors teaching action research workshops as professional development for language teachers in Europe during the Covid-19 pandemic. It describes work carried out for Action Research Communities for Language Teachers, which is funded under the Training and Consultancies programme of the European Centre for Modern Languages of the Council of Europe as part of its aim to promote quality language education in Europe. The paper focuses on the necessary pivot from face-to-face to online action research workshops and project development in a difficult global context for a group of teachers in Lithuania. It outlines the challenges experienced by the authors and teacher participants, the lessons learned in online teaching of action research, and the positive outcomes for language teachers in setting out on their action research journeys. The paper contributes to the literature on action research in language education and professional development during Covid-19.

Socioscientific Issues and COVID-19: Responding to Curriculum Reform through Action Research

This collaborative action research project documents the exploration and student learning outcomes of COVID-19 socioscientific issue-based lessons. Analysis of student interviews, surveys, and work, combined with classroom observations, revealed that COVID-19 socioscientific issue-based lessons improved students' conceptual understanding of the science behind pandemic control measures, increased their feelings of personal responsibility in responding to COVID-19, and broadened their perspectives on the impacts of COVID-19 on diverse populations. The framework used to design the lesson series—Three Visions of Scientific Literacy—facilitated the authors' response to curriculum reform. Future use of the framework and implications for socioscientific issue-based teaching are discussed.

The entanglements of the law, digital technologies and domestic violence in Seattle

This paper draws on a community-based participatory action research project located in Seattle - before and during the COVID-19 pandemic - to examine the unanticipated impact that the pandemic has had on reducing barriers for survivors of domestic violence seeking protection through the legal system. We draw on interviews with survivors and victim advocates, along with autoethnographic participant observation during Domestic Violence Protection Order (DVPO) hearings, to trace survivors' experiences navigating the DVPO process before and after its transition from an analogue to digital system. We situate this research at the intersection of legal and digital geographic scholarship to analyze how the law and digital technologies reinforce the spatial operation of power and exclusion, while they simultaneously provide emancipatory potential for women's experiences of security, legal subjectivity and emotional personhood. By focusing on how the courts' transition to a digital system affects the emotional personhood and legal subjectivity of domestic violence survivors, this paper advances feminist calls within legal and digital geographies scholarship that encourage more sustained engagement with feminist thought to understand the varied effects of the law and digital technologies – respectively – on gendered bodies.

Harnessing the Affordances of Action Researchers to Address the Challenges of the COVID-19 Pandemic: Educational Leaders take Action Research Online

The unique affordances of Action Research, including flexibility, playfulness, accessibility, and a focus on practical problem solving provided crucial strategies for generating knowledge and developing solutions to the challenges created by the Covid-19 pandemic. The move to online research settings, in particular, required action researchers to find ways to adapt existing research methods and to devise new approaches. This article describes the work of a group of doctoral students in an Educational Leadership program and their instructor in carrying out action research methods in both synchronous and asynchronous online settings.If the months of the pandemic have taught us nothing else, it is that flexibility and willingness to innovate, which are central to action research, are valuable assets in times of uncertainty. The unique affordances of Action Research include creativity, playfulness, accessibility to multiple participants and audiences, transferability of findings, and a focus on the generation of knowledge designed to be pragmatic and problem-focused. These qualities can be harnessed to address the multiple challenges we have encountered during the pandemic including health equity and access, poverty and unemployment, and the interruption of education for vulnerable student populations. They also offer us hope that action research can continue to contribute to addressing the challenges we are sure to face in the future.As students in an educational leadership doctoral program, we focus on examining problems of practice in our schools and districts through action research. As we adapted to online learning in our own schools, we were able to bring these skills to bear in our doctoral studies by developing strategies for conducting these action research methods in both synchronous and asynchronous online settings. This paper describes some of the approaches we developed in the hope that this will enable other action researchers to implement these methods in their own schools, organizations, and communities. The specific action research methods described in this paper are Future Creating Workshops, Citizens' Juries, World Café, Nominal Group Technique, and Digital Storytelling.

Spreadable Action: Mapping Connections between the Arts and Action Research through an Arts-Based Research Exhibition

Many Canadian immigrant seniors living independently in Canada face unique challenges such as language barriers, adjusting to a new culture, and isolation from friends and family. Within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic these issues have become more complicated. This article explores a form of arts-based research (ABR) as an inquiry into ways that COVID-19 has impacted immigrant seniors in Vancouver, Canada. We situate our inquiry within action research (AR) and explore new methodological possibilities stimulated by merging artistic engagement within the inquiry. Our research is mobilized through two gallery exhibitions of Letters to COVID: an invitation to visually reflect on seniors' experiences. We consider what we might do to facilitate support for these citizens, inviting the public to rethink perceptions and strategies of social inclusion and support for immigrant seniors living independently in Canada.

Corrigendum: Displacement of the Scholar? Participatory Action Research Under COVID-19 (Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, (2022), 6, (762065), 10.3389/fsufs.2022.762065)

In the published article, there was an error in the Funding statement. The funding statement was missing. The correct Funding statement appears below. Copyright © 2023 Auerbach, Muñoz, Affiah, Barrera de la Torre, Börner, Cho, Cofield, DiEnno, Graddy-Lovelace, Klassen, Limeberry, Morse, Natarajan and Walsh.

Dilemmas and Strategies of Digital Servitization: A Multiple Case Comparative Study

Both servitization and digitization are mainstream types of business model innovation. In recent years, there have been an increasing number of studies integrating these two research topics to develop a series of research on digital servitization. Facing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the development of digital servitization capabilities in the manufacturing industry can help companies provide smart product-service systems (PSSs) to address uncertainties and shocks in the external environment. This study aims to explore "the dilemmas and response strategies of digital servitization” using a qualitative multiple case study comparative analysis. Through in-depth interviews, we identified the difficulties and bottlenecks that small and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) may encounter in the process of digital servitization and proposed corresponding response strategies. The results of this study contribute to the literature on digital servitization by accumulating and extending upon existing research.

Employee Experience Journey Mapping: A New Approach to Attracting Talent in the Tourism Sector in the Shadows of Covid-19

Purpose - While customer experience management has become an essential practice for service businesses, employee experience management is a less frequently used tool. This research aims to illustrate how the customer experience mapping approach can be applied as a strategic part of employee experience planning, taking into account tourism-specific HR challenges.Design - Despite the increasing attention given to employee experience in academia, there is a lack of research extending journey mapping to employees and a clear understanding and implementation of the concept in relation to hospitality employment. Methodology - The study includes step-by-step instructions for creating an Employee Experience Journey Map. The action research project is based on interviews with the manager of a 5-star hotel ( HR ) in Budapest. During the joint work with the hotel, the manager gave iterative feedback, so that the Journey Map was continuously improved and completed. Approach - The application of the Employee Experience Journey Mapping concept includes the identification of touch points and critical 'pain points" and the development of proposed solutions.Findings - The creation of an employee journey map can help determine the steps necessary to reduce turnover intent and improve the employee experience. Originality of the research - The results of the study show that it is important to develop an employee journey based on personas. In addition, it is beneficial for the marketing and HR departments to treat employee experience planning as a joint project.

Work in Progress: A Virtual Educational Robotics Coding Club Framework to Improve K-6 Students Emotional Engagement in STEM

Educational robots allow students deepen their knowledge of mathematics and scientific concepts. Educational Robotic coding clubs provide a learning environment for K-6 students that promotes coding through STEM digital literacy. Students in educationally disadvantaged families may not have the educational and financial capital to engage in STEM learning. Closures of schools and afterschool services during the COVID-19 pandemic increased this digital divide. This research proposes a framework for delivering a virtual robotic coding club in an educationally disadvantaged community. The framework develops young people's emotional engagement in STEM through robotic coding. Synchronous online classes were delivered into family homes using Zoom. Results demonstrate that children achieved emotional engagement as reported through high levels of enjoyment and increased interest after participating in the programme. The research shows promise in increasing children's STEM skills and knowledge, and in improving positive attitudes towards STEM for children and parents. © 2023 IEEE.

Post Covid-19 Insights: Building an Economically Sustainable and Resilient Ati Community in the Philippines through Community-Based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR)

The Ati are indigenous peoples of the Philippines who live in Sitio Tagaw, Tamulalod, Dumarao, and Capiz. In this community, there are 353 Ati whose sources of livelihood are farming crops, raising animals, and selling their arts and crafts, which the middlemen bought at a meager cost during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. With these, the researcher conducted Community-based Participatory Action Research (CBPAR). This study aimed to empower the Ati community by building an economically sustainable and resilient individual amidst the pandemic. Specifiically, it aimed to assess the needs of the Ati farmers in managing and marketing their farm products, design and implement the intervention activities that will address their needs in the management and marketing of their farm products, and ascertain the impacts of the intervention activities on the lives of the Ati beneficiaries. Community immersion, informal interviews, and observations were conducted while ethical considerations and health protocols were observed. The results showed that the participants encountered challenges in the value chain of their products and their children's education during this time of the pandemic. To address the issues on the value chain, the researcher implemented capacity-building activities on the management and production of their crops and animals and created social media to market their products on the digital platform. These intervention activities created positive socioeconomic impacts on the lives of the Ati community. Innovative marketing models are proposed to be adopted by other marginalized communities during and even beyond the pandemic. The strategies in this study that utilize social media platforms could also be applied to other marginalized and remote communities that need help accessing potential customers to improve their livelihood and income, even during calamities on a global scale. © 2022, Pakistan Journal of Life and Social Sciences. All Rights Reserved.

Participatory Action Research and climate change in indigenous territories of the Huasteca Hidalguense

The objective of this work is to analyze the specific impacts of climate change in the Huasteca Hidalguense, an indigenous region of the state of Hidalgo that, according to the State Action Program for Climate Change (Otazo, 2011), will be the most affected in terms of temperature increase, water availability, food production and health in the decade 2020-2030. To obtain the information, a Participatory Action Research (PAR) process was carried out, culminating in the "Regional Forum on Water, Biodiversity and Climate Change in the Huasteca Hidalguense" and the workshop "Past, present and future of our territory". These activities showed that since the 1980s, a series of endogenous and exogenous impacts have been occurring in three ejidos in the municipality of Atlapexco that have impacted water availability, sanitation, deterioration of natural resources, and rising temperatures. The unexpected irruption of the Covid 19 pandemic implied difficulties in influencing the elaboration of collaborative measures among different actors to act in the face of the impacts of this phenomenon. Despite the above, we concluded that it is necessary to promote PRA processes to strengthen water infrastructure in indigenous territories highly vulnerable to climate change to build participatory solutions to the problems identified. (English) [ FROM AUTHOR] El objetivo de este trabajo es analizar los impactos específicos del cambio climático en la Huasteca hidalguense, una región indígena del estado de Hidalgo que, según el Programa Estatal de Acción para el Cambio Climático (Otazo, 2011), será la más afectada en los rubros de aumento de temperatura, disponibilidad de agua, producción de alimentos y salud en la década 2020-2030. Para obtener la información se llevó a cabo un proceso de Investigación Acción Participativa (IAP) que culminó con la realización del "Foro Regional Agua, Biodiversidad y Cambio Climático en la Huasteca Hidalguense" y del taller "Pasado, presente y futuro de nuestro territorio". A través de dichas actividades se comprobó que, desde los años 80 del siglo pasado, tres ejidos del municipio de Atlapexco han experimentado una serie de impactos endógenos y exógenos que impactan en la disponibilidad de agua, el saneamiento, el deterioro de los recursos naturales y el aumento de las temperaturas. La irrupción inesperada de la pandemia de Covid 19 implicó dificultades para incidir en la elaboración de medidas colaborativas entre distintos actores para actuar ante las incidencias de este fenómeno. A pesar de lo anterior, se concluye que es necesario impulsar procesos de IAP para fortalecer la infraestructura hídrica en territorios indígenas altamente vulnerables al cambio climático, con la finalidad de construir soluciones participativas a las problemáticas identificadas. (Spanish) [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Relaciones: Estudios de Historia y Sociedad is the property of El Colegio de Michoacan, A.C. and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)

University to Tambon (U2T) program and sustainable community development during COVID-19 pandemic in Thailand

The Thai government created proactive policies designed to mitigate the negative effects of the COVID-19 pandemic while it developed durable interventions after the crisis ended. One such intervention, the U2T program ('University to Tambon") used universities to partner with communities to create lasting changes in areas such as sustainable community development. Using Participatory Action Research (PAR) and Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD), one case study is presented that addresses income insecurity among community elders. Qualitative data was collected through participant observation, interviews of participants (N = 36) and focus group members (N = 30) and augmented by needs assessments and asset mapping. The income generating activities for the elderly germinated from using PAR and ABCD. Themes that emerge from the data involve buttressing bridging capital in the Tambons and developing linking capital to expand and create new networks outside the community. The results suggest that universities can facilitate community development via PAR and ABCD.

Realising radical potential: building community power in primary health care through Participatory Action Research.

BACKGROUND: While community participation is an established pro-equity approach in Primary Health Care (PHC), it can take many forms, and the central category of power is under-theorised. The objectives were to (a) conduct theory-informed analysis of community power-building in PHC in a setting of structural deprivation and (b) develop practical guidance to support participation as a sustainable PHC component. METHODS: Stakeholders representing rural communities, government departments and non-governmental organisations engaged through a participatory action research (PAR) process in a rural sub-district in South Africa. Three reiterative cycles of evidence generation, analysis, action, and reflection were progressed. Local health concerns were raised and framed by community stakeholders, who generated new data and evidence with researchers. Dialogue was then initiated between communities and the authorities, with local action plans coproduced, implemented, and monitored. Throughout, efforts were made to shift and share power, and to adapt the process to improve practical, local relevance. We analysed participant and researcher reflections, project documents, and other project data using power-building and power-limiting frameworks. RESULTS: Co-constructing evidence among community stakeholders in safe spaces for dialogue and cooperative action-learning built collective capabilities. The authorities embraced the platform as a space to safely engage with communities and the process was taken up in the district health system. Responding to COVID-19, the process was collectively re-designed to include a training package for community health workers (CHWs) in rapid PAR. New skills and competencies, new community and facility-based alliances and explicit recognition of CHW roles, value, and contribution at higher levels of the system were reported following the adaptations. The process was subsequently scaled across the sub-district. CONCLUSIONS: Community power-building in rural PHC was multidimensional, non-linear, and deeply relational. Collective mindsets and capabilities for joint action and learning were built through a pragmatic, cooperative, adaptive process, creating spaces where people could produce and use evidence to make decisions. Impacts were seen in demand for implementation outside the study setting. We offer a practice framework to expand community power in PHC: (1) prioritising community capability-building, (2) navigating social and institutional contexts, and (3) developing and sustaining authentic learning spaces.

Participatory action research to co-design a culturally appropriate COVID-19 risk communication and community engagement strategy in rural Pakistan.

Background: Community engagement has shown to be fundamental component of the response to previous disease outbreaks. This study aimed co-design and implement a culturally appropriate COVID-19 risk communication and community engagement strategy with a resource-poor rural community in Northwest Pakistan. Methods: Participatory Action Research (PAR) was conducted from January 2021 to March 2022. Five PAR meetings took place with community members (n = 30) to: (1) explore how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted on the community; (2) identify challenges to limit the spread of the virus; (3) identify and implement solutions to these challenges; and (4) highlight the enablers, challenges and knowledge of the cultural context needed to optimize safety during emergencies. Focus group discussions (N = 6) with community members not involved in the PAR meetings (N = 50) and children of the community (N = 26) were conducted following the PAR meetings. Thematic analysis of the PAR and focus group data was conducted. Results: Delivery of messages on how to keep families safe, provision of personal protective equipment and improved water systems were part of the strategies taken by the community to create awareness and reduce the spread of COVID-19. Nine themes were identified: Attitudes to the pandemic: From skepticism to acceptance, Changing attitudes about vaccination: rumors and trust, COVID-19 and Faith, Social impact of the pandemic, Access to water, Resource mobilization: personal protective equipment, Spaces where collaborative effort can bring to solutions, Agents of change, and Empowerment of women. Discussion: The participatory approach of this research allowed understanding of the challenges faced by the community to engage in behavior change strategies to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and enabled the community to find sustainable solutions. Engagement with the community empowered men and women to be agents of change and promoted necessary precautionary actions to reduce the risk of infection within their community. Conclusion: Participatory approach highlighted the importance of engaging with and integrating to local culture and values to overcome challenges such as gender imbalance and distrust. Findings of this study are relevant to others working in diverse cultural settings in similar crises events regardless of particular cultural variations.

A call to create evidence-based mental health promotion interventions for youth that are equitable across ethnic/racial subgroups: Advocates 4-ALL Youth.

Background: Adolescents from historically racial and ethnic minoritized and low-income communities have higher rates of early-life and chronic difficulties with anxiety and depression compared to non-Hispanic White youth. With mental health distress exacerbated during and in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a need for accessible, equitable evidence-based programs that promote psychological well-being, strengthen one's ability to adapt to adversity, and build self-efficacy prior to adolescence. Methods: An evidenced-based resiliency-focused health coaching intervention was adapted using a health equity implementation framework to meet the needs of a Title I elementary school in rural Alabama (AL) that serves over 80% Black and Hispanic students. To ensure that the program met local community needs while maintaining core program educational activities, all adaptations were documented utilizing a standard coding system. Results: Leveraging an existing academic-community partnership with Auburn University and a local AL school district, a new program, Advocates 4-All Youth (ALLY), was created. Three major adaptations were required: (1) the use of local community volunteers (ALLYs) to deliver the program versus health coaches, (2) the modification of program materials to meet the challenge of varying levels of general and health-related literacy, and (3) the integration of the Empower Action Model to target protective factors in a culturally-tailored delivery to ensure key program outcomes are found equitable for all students. Conclusion: With continued increases in youth mental health distress, there is a need for the development of universal primary prevention interventions to promote mental well-being and to strengthen protective factors among youth from historically disadvantaged backgrounds. ALLY was created to meet these needs and may be an effective strategy if deemed efficacious in improving program outcomes.

Design, implementation, and evaluation of Students as Partners interactive feedback model.

In September of 2020, a group of dental students (DDS) and motivated faculty at the University of Western Ontario came together in response to the pandemic and established a real-time feedback model. The goal of this model was to address technical challenges following the quick transition from in-person courses to a fully online format for student learning. This initial offering formed the foundation of the Students as Partners (SaP) program to identify and address technical and curricular issues. We used an action research approach to evaluate and refine the innovation's delivery. Preliminary data from the first cycle suggested that students were unaware of the impact of their feedback and the actionable items from their feedback. Thus, for the second iteration we focused on making the entire process more transparent by using Padlet as a way to streamline posting and responding to feedback. To evaluate the refined system, we distributed surveys to student and faculty participants to obtain feedback on their awareness and satisfaction and effectiveness of the program. For students who utilized the system, the majority indicated that they were informed of changes based on their feedback. Furthermore, students reported that our innovation provided a platform for the student voice. Faculty impressions were generally positive, and the majority of faculty respondents indicated that they implemented changes to their content/curriculum based on feedback. These results demonstrate that the SaP program's real-time feedback system closed the feedback loop and facilitated real-time improvements based on actionable feedback. To our knowledge, this is the first study to design, implement, and evaluate a real-time feedback system for the purpose of modifying how an instructor teaches.NEW & NOTEWORTHY Course feedback surveys at the end of term infrequently result in beneficial change. However, student feedback should be considered to develop meaningful learning. In response to this problem, we report on a novel Students as Partners innovation to address instructional issues in real time with a virtual bulletin board application embedded in the learning management system. Students and instructors valued the system's ability to close the feedback loop and provide transparent, actionable change.

Transforming the way we think about infection prevention and control - It's time to challenge the biomedical rhetoric

Introduction: Infection prevention and control (IPC) came to the fore during the COVID-19 pandemic with global expectations in healthcare of compliance with recognised international guidelines. Yet despite 40 years of modern IPC practice, health services around the world struggle to maintain minimal IPC standards even without the pressures of a pandemic, many are in resource-limited settings. Atoifi Adventist Hospital (AAH) in the Solomon Islands is one such hospital. Aim(s): To investigate IPC practice at AAH with the aim of creating a meaningful and sustainable program. In doing this, staff and community knowledge and beliefs about infection transmission was explored, and IPC practice and rationale determined. Method(s): This qualitative study employed a participatory action research methodology using Photovoice followed by semi-structured interviews as the primary data collection method. Participants included staff educated in biomedical principles, and staff with little or no formal education. Result(s): Improving IPC practice is not straightforward. Cultural, spiritual and societal practices and beliefs influence how people view disease causation and transmission and affects healthcare worker's practice. 'Germ theory' does not necessarily inform people's beliefs, even for staff educated via the biomedical model;to implement IPC guidelines based on germ theory principles, and expect staff to practise accordingly, is not plausible. Conclusion(s): IPC programs will only work if they are transformed into a context that is understood by staff and community - one that complements the biomedical model. Governments and hospital leaders need to consider this when implementing IPC programs. It's time for us to challenge the rhetoric.Copyright © 2022

STUDENTS' DISCOURSES DURING THE ONLINE DISTANCE LEARNING IN THE FIRST WAVE OF THE COVID19 PANDEMIC: AN ACTION RESEARCH WITH STUDENTS AS CO-RESEARCHERS

The COVID-19 pandemic affected education communities by turning students and teachers abruptly to online teaching. This imposition of digital education is being investigated by various researchers all over the world since it has changed the way we conceive of the use of technology in classrooms and in our lives in general. Nevertheless, the students' voice is being neglected and not taken seriously into account. In this paper an action research is presented with the teacher acting as researcher and the students as co-researchers. This action research took place during the first wave of the pandemic (March 2020-May 2020) in Crete, Greece. The students, after investigating the online education in general and after various discussions, in their final accounts reflected upon a. the changes in their role as students, b. the changes in the role of the teacher, c. they proposed the role that a teacher should have today. The teacher-researcher analyzed these three categories with Critical Discourse Analysis to identify the discourses the students promoted or silenced. The findings showed that online education is not a success story as promoted by researchers, policymakers, and other stakeholders;rather it lacks human elements like humor, psychological support, and instant interaction © 2023, Turkish Online Journal of Distance Education.All Rights Reserved.