What is the Action Research Project (ARP)?
After reading part of a book on ARP, it helped me to understand what this project needs to entail and it was intriguing to read that’s its used widely in many fields.
ARP Definition : An action research project is a systematic approach used by individuals or groups to investigate and solve specific problems or challenges within a particular context. It involves a cyclical process of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting, often conducted by a range of people including practitioners, educators, or professionals directly involved in a specific field or setting
Norton, L. (2019). Action research in teaching and learning : a practical guide to conducting pedagogical research in universities. London: Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group.
Where I work and my research question
I work in the Learning Zone at CSM. The Learning Zone is a part of the CSM Library. It is a social flexible working space where all students (1st,2nd 3rd year) can come along and use our space to work in groups or individually. Typically CSM are more dominant within the environment but we do have students from other sitesWe have many different facilities that students can use. They range from using our computes or they can borrow laptops too in our space. We have printing available too which is a common service alongside our scanners and light boxes too. Students are also free to use our space for group work and also for social reasons
My role here is to support students with all these services on a daily basis to ensure all students have an enhanced student experience whilst they’re outside of their studies. I also carry out workshops on a termly basis for students who may require software help, many students from different courses attend in small numbers, also from what I find from the workshop feedback I do have 1st and 2nd year international students who want to go through things slower than they do on their course as its very fast paced and what I have found is that they like asking questions too to clarify things.
Social justice and Inclusivity
To help me decide on my research question with the help of some further reading, I wanted to look at the terminology of how social justice is linked to inclusivity.
Social justice principles refer to values “that favour measures that aim at decreasing or eliminating inequity; promoting inclusiveness of diversity; and establishing environments that are supportive of all people.” The social justice principles include equity, diversity, and. supportive environments.
I felt this was beneficial in my practice I wanted to go further with this and obtain students experiences as I felt this would be valid for me to go that bit further and to hear student voices.
My research question: How can we ensure our 1st year international students are experiencing an inclusive environment?
On a daily basis, I see and support many students, but I felt our 1st year international students can have a different experience as I have seen this through my workshops many are new to the country and also may face other barriers to joining university. I feel we all create a supportive space to using our computers and printers and I’d like to think we create an inclusive environment too but I feel I would like to research this to find out this by asking students about their experience so far as they are fairly new. I would love to make some interventions for them to make a difference and to make their student life easier so they can excel just like home students can flourish..
What is Inclusivity?
After doing some further reading on Inclusivity, I came to know there is so much to it and I felt I wouldn’t be able to tackle everything due to the small-scale project but would try to do the most important to me and what felt important at UAL.
Some key points from some texts I found appealing in my local and CSM library really made me think more about this subject in depth.
The definition below came from one of the books and I thought this was the best definition and related to my area of work and what I wanted to do in this project
Garrod, C. (2023b). Conscious Inclusion. Practical Inspiration Publishing.
Inclusivity in education refers to creating learning environments where every individual feels respected, valued, and supported regardless of their background, identity, abilities, or differences. It’s about fostering an inclusive culture that embraces diversity, promotes equity, and ensures that all students have equal opportunities to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.
Also, I know that UAL is doing a lot to improve the student experience. Recently we were awarded BRONZE overall for the Teaching Excellence award. Silver was given for Student outcomes and Bronze for the student experience
I decided the best way to answer my research question would be to hear from our students and their VOICE about their experiences but also academics would also be important to hear from in regard to this too. The planning process now began.
Planning my Project
The ARP cycle
Since I am more of a visual type of person, the action research cycle (based on McNiff and Whitehead) helped me understand the different parts of the cycle and also I realised I may need to start at any part of the cycle (it didn’t have to be step one).
Mapping my project to the ARP Cycle
Due to the timescale of the project, I understood that it would involve Step 1 – Frame the research question and Step 2 Collect data, how can teaching be changed?
I would love to complete Step 3 – Implement changes. This is something I will consider doing after analysing my data, as I would like to enhance the student experience further at UAL and within the Learning Zone itself.
Ethics form
My draft Ethics form was signed off after the third attempt. I think the tutorials we had with our tutors and peers really helped me think about my research question and question all the possible outcomes or risks I could forsee and what I can do to prevent them too.
Ethics forms can be found on media section of blog. Links are below:
Version 1 : http://mypgcert.myblog.arts.ac.uk/files/2024/01/Ethics-V1.docx
Version 2 : http://mypgcert.myblog.arts.ac.uk/files/2024/01/Ethics-V2-.docx
Final version : http://mypgcert.myblog.arts.ac.uk/files/2024/01/Ethics-final-.docx
Planning the project and Timescales
Miro board and Padlet
Whilst planning my project I created many lists and then I went from this to using post it notes all over my desk. During tutorials we were using Miro boards a lot and although I found Miro quite complicated at first I then decided to put all my post it notes on Miro and actually it felt quite therapeutic after learning how to use it properly!
Below is my list on Padlet and my Miro board