Practitioner Led Action Research

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Practitioner Led Action Research

• Adult Literacy and Numeracy in Scotland
• Kathy Maclachlan and Ralf St.Clair

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ALNIS Adult Literacy and Numeracy in
Scotland.(Scottish Executive 2001).

• Recommendation 16 that the national strategy,
  as it develops, be informed by and responsive to
  research and consultation with learners.
• Rather than one off, stand-alone projects, we
  need an ongoing programme of research and
  consultation with learners to
• Identify gaps in our knowledge
• Develop new and useful concepts
• Develop research methods
• Take into account the reality of adults lives
• Identify weaknesses or contradictions in policy
  and strategy.
• The research programme should provide
  opportunities for practitioners as well as
  professional researchers. (p 37)

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Why practitioner action research?

• There are two essential aims to action
  research to improve and to involve. Action
  research aims at improvement in three areas
  first the improvement of practice second the
  improvement of the understanding of the practice
  by its practitioners and third, the improvement
  of the situation in which the practice takes
  place (Carr and Kemmis, 1986. p165) (original
  emphasis).

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So PLAR..

• enables practitioners, i.e. those actively
  engaged in ALN work, to identify and enquire into
  real problems or issues that they encounter in
  the course of their work,
• develops practitioners capacity to critically
  question their experience and reflect upon their
  actions,
• moves beyond the functional or behaviourist and
  links practice to its underpinning theory in that
  it not only uses theory to question practice but
  it also uses practice to question and inform
  theories,
• is accessible to and usable by other
  practitioners in similar situations.

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Aims of the 1st Project

• To build on, investigate, document and learn from
  good practice in Scotland
• To investigate areas where providers and
  practitioners face challenges in engaging
  learners in quality ALN provision
• To contribute to the development of a culture of
  critical reflection and action research in ALN
  work nationally.
• By
• Preparing the practitioner/researchers to do the
  research, i.e. providing initial training on the
  nature of research, and the practicalities of
  conducting practitioner-led research in the
  field.
• Compiling collective reflections on the process
  of practitioner research that would both enable
  practitioners to support their colleagues to
  engage in similar work, and also to be
  disseminated further afield.

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Structure of the Project

• 10 11 months duration
• 4 x joint workshops looking at ALN theory and
  research methodology
• Local support meetings between workshops
• VLE site through Moodle for ongoing discussion,
  news, support materials and practitioners
  reflective diaries
• The potential accreditation of the research

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The Projects

• Young People and Access to FE
• Health Workers and Literacy
• ALN for Profoundly Deaf Adults
• ALN referrers in an NHS project
• Routes into learning
• Family Literacies

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Findings (Engaging New Adults in Learning)

• Encouraging Adults into learning
• Outreach and relationships
• Integrated learning
• Understanding of lives and responsive provision
• awareness raising
• Interagency working
• Supporting Adults in their learning
• Embedded learning
• metacognition
• Progression routes
• Collaborative learning
• Initial time limited programmes
• Specialist help in some circumstances

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Doing Practitioner Research What We Have learned?

• The practitioners were keen on and committed to
  the research, because of its value in improving
  their practice
• That sustaining it with no concomitant reduction
  in workload is exceptionally difficult.
• That ongoing training and support are crucial,
  and that support gatherings should be more
  frequent than they were, - though this poses even
  more time/workload problems.
• That more front end training should be provided
  in research methodologies and time given for the
  cycle of praxis.
• On-line communication spaces are not an effective
  substitute for face to face contact.
• That it is very difficult to maintain reflective
  journals on top of doing research and peoples
  ordinary jobs.
• That time and effort should be given to the
  continuance of a) these research projects for the
  incorporation of the action/evaluation elements,
  and b) new research projects so that capacity in
  the field can grow.