Volumen 2 (2015): Edición 2 (December 2015)

Transformative experiences can happen at unexpected times, in unexpected ways. This paper tells the story of how a gift of a goat can lead to the transformation of a life. Many organisations globally are engaged in a struggle to overcome poverty and injustice by providing livestock as a means for transformation. The animals in themselves are not enough for the transformed lives; they can be a valuable starting point. In the Uluguru Mountains in Tanzania, a Tanzanian and a Norwegian together took one such initiative in order to support teen-age orphans, one of the most vulnerable groups in the community who were struggling to survive. As practitioners and researchers, the four authors had been taking part in the development of the Mgeta Orphan Education Foundation (MOEF), which had developed through action learning/action research. Selected students received a goat and training, and the opportunity to join and develop a network of orphans throughout the region. In this article, we discuss the benefits and challenges the orphaned youngsters face when joining the foundation. How do they benefit from having the goat and what are the challenges, how do they learn and how do they contribute to fellow farmers in their communities? We claim that many of the students have experienced transformation, and provide examples to give evidence of this claim. However, the students are not the only ones who are transforming; so are we who, as co-researchers, have had the opportunity to play a role in and witness their efforts.

The valuing of biodiversity is considered to be a first step towards its conservation. Therefore, the aim of the BioDiv2Go project is to combine sensuous experiences discovering biodiversity with mobile technology and a game-based learning approach.

Following the competence model for environmental education (Roczen et al, 2014), Geogames (location based games on smartphones) for experiential outdoor learning activities are developed. The Finde Vielfalt Simulation (FVS) Geogame focuses on adolescent visitors of German youth hostels. The FVS-players are involved in a narrative keeping the traditions of their ancestors’ heritage as decisions are needed to balance biodiversity and economic success. They discover the natural environment and they solve location-based tasks at several places. If the players manipulate a simulation successfully they stand the test of the ancestors.

The initial theoretical framework consists of the components biodiversity-related attitudes, behaviour and knowledge, general environmental behaviour and attitude towards nature. According to the Uses and Gratification Theory, the game-related enjoyment is added. For the assessment different scales were developed or adapted and tested for secondary-school children. The framework evolved stepwise through systematic expert hearings, interviews with the target group, participant observation as well as through an online survey. In a first step the situational interest was considered to be important for the valuing of biodiversity. The final version of the framework was used and validated within a pilot study with 180 secondary school students.

The framework development was a highly transformative process engaging different actors, using complementary methodological approaches and integrating different disciplinary perspectives.

This paper uses first person inquiry and presentational form to argue the case for a sensory approach to understanding professional connection and disconnection with children who may be being abused. The approach is underpinned by an epistemology or theory of knowledge which stems from a participatory world-view where appearances are not permanent or separate from us: the act of perception takes place between the active sensible world and our own bodies, where ‘otherness’ expresses itself directly to our senses. Thus perception, conceived in this way, can lead to right action in the moment; or discounting what is actually being said by a child and disconnection. Buber’s notion of the ‘I-You’ is used to explore feelings and the movement to relation when professionals witness children’s ‘stories of suffering’ (Buber, 1965; Laub, 1992; Jones, 2008). The paper concludes by arguing the case for practitioners to become researchers of their own practice in rigorously facilitated inquiry groups. It is argued that this form of practitioner-research serves to quality assure frontline practice, and create new knowledge (or practice wisdom) such that feelings can be constructively worked with to improve connection with the lived reality for children.

In this paper, I will reflect on the initial reconnaissance, action, and reflection cycle of my doctoral research, exploring Community Philosophy as a tool for critical parental engagement in a primary school (Elliot, 1991). I will examine how I reflexively engaged with my influence on participants, which then significantly influenced the framing of, and the planning for, the second action research cycle.

The challenges that the initial stages of my research have presented will be considered using Herr and Anderson’s five components of validity (Herr and Anderson, 2014). I then use the four Chronotopes of Research developed by Kamberelis and Dimitriadis (2005) to discuss the implications for my understanding of positioning, authenticity and transformation, and the resultant reframing of my research.

In order to set the context for my research, I begin by giving a brief overview of my own interest in ‘democratic voice’. This is followed by an exploration of the current ‘closing the gap’ discourse in English education (OFSTED, 2013; Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission, 2014; Wilshaw, 2013), to demonstrate how parental engagement has become individualised, lacks democratic voice, and often valorises middle class parents. Hence I will argue that there is a need for a more democratic and collective model of parental engagement, and make a case for justifying Community Philosophy as a possible model.

This study shows the transformative potential of action research and information and communications technology (ICT) in the second language (L2) classroom. Two enquiries from teacher-researchers are detailed in the article. Their engagement in a collaborative professional development Masters programme was pivotal in designing and implementing ICT creatively in their classroom. Gee (2008) advocates the use of the preferred media of our classroom students in order to address their learning. Prensky (2001) urges us to feel the fear and do it anyway with our digital native classes. A post-primary teacher and a primary teacher show us how they felt the fear, did it and transformed aspects of their own teaching in the process. The Masters programme required the teachers to engage with innovative practices, informed by their own values, and integrate technologies that were new to them into their repertoire of classroom strategies. Peer validation meetings with colleagues enabled meaningful insights to emerge from the research. The teachers improve and transform their second language (L2) practice in collaboration and validation with others.