This guide draws on the authors’ previous work in facilitating and developing collaborative approaches to continuing professional development and collaborative action research, and focuses specifically on designing CAR to engage a broad constituency.
Summary
This ‘how to’ draws on the authors’ previous work in facilitating and developing collaborative approaches to continuing professional development and collaborative action research (CAR).
What Works Scotland has developed a CAR approach that provides an overarching framework to allow the distinctiveness of each case study site to be investigated, therefore illuminating the nuance and context specificity of developments within each setting while providing an overarching structure and process to support the identification of key themes and trends across the wider What Works Scotland programme of research.
In this paper Christopher Chapman and Mark Hadfield focus specifically on designing CAR to engage a broader constituency beyond a committed band of enthusiasts, explaining that a common issue associated with CAR is the failure to recognise different approaches are needed to draw in other leaders and staff who have been less involved or appear less interested in the idea. This can result in a small group of activists who quickly become a marginalised clique rather than part of a purposeful widespread movement.
Therefore, those involved in developing CAR initiatives must make a clear distinction between the processes used in working with enthusiasts (micro-mobilisation) and those used to bring in other colleagues.
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How to Design Collaborative Action Research (PDF)
More details
Authors: Chris Chapman, What Works Scotland and the Robert Owen Centre for Educational Change (University of Glasgow) and Mark Hadfield, Professor of Education, School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University and co-founder of the Urban Programmes Research Group.
Date of publication: March 2017
Publication type: Guide
Related resources
The What Works Scotland approach to collaborative action research
Discover more about our approach to collaborative action research and the learning that is emerging from our work in multi-agency, multi-practitioner public service environments.
