We are delighted to announce our newly established Special Interest Group – NEARI SIG – which is affiliated to the Educational Studies Association of Ireland (ESAI).
The SIG will focus on:
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strengthening the rigour of action research for accreditation and enhancing institutional standards
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ethical issues, in particular on how current ethical standards in educational institutions may impede or curtail the undertaking of practitioner action research
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continuing the work of NEARI as a foundation for action research discourse
We believe these issues are of key importance in academic programmes that feature action research, practitioner research and reflective practice. We would like to build connections with colleagues in these institutions so that together, we might support those who are leading action research modules in their institutions while strengthening the research-base for action research both nationally and internationally.
The inaugural meeting of the NEARI SIG takes place on January 26th, 2023.
Educational Action Research SIG Annual Report 2023
The Educational Action research SIG with ESAI is organised by the Network for Educational Action Research (NEARI). It is co-convened by: Bernie Sullivan, Bernadette Wrynn, Caitriona McDonagh (co-ordinator), Cornelia Connolly, Máirín Glenn and Mary Roche.
The SIG has three main focus points:
- strengthening the rigour of action research for accreditation and enhancing institutional standards
- ethical issues, in particular on how current ethical standards in educational institutions may impede the undertaking of practitioner action research.
- continuing the work of NEARI as a foundation for action research discourse
The SIG met three times in 2023.
In January, a hybrid meeting that was both face-to-face and online was held in University College Dublin with the theme of Reflections on Educational Action. Thought-provoking presentations were given by Dr. Bernadette Wrynn (Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education in Maynooth University), Dr. Sanja Simel Pranjić (J. J. Strossmayer University of Osijek, Croatia) and Dr. Sarah Peters (Integrated Circles). Further details here.
The second meeting was held in April in Stranmillis University College, Belfast in conjunction with the ESAI Conference 2023. Again this was a hybrid meeting and theme, borrowed from the conference itself, was Education, Change and Democratic societies: New imperatives and creative responses. The inspirational presentations at this meeting were given by Tomás Ó Ruairc (DoE, Dublin) and Dr. Michelle Vaughan (Department of Curriculum and Instruction, Florida Atlantic University, USA). Details of the meeting are available here.
The final meeting of the SIG in 2023 took place in the Froebel Department of Primary and Early Childhood Education in Maynooth University, in September and was also a hybrid meeting. The theme was Developing our Action Research Scholarship through First-, Second- and Third-Person Inquiry and Practice. The thought-provoking guest speakers at this NEARIMeet were Prof David Coghlan (Trinity College, Dublin) and Dr. Mags Amond (Trinity College, Dublin and TeachMeets) and Denise Delaney St. Mary’s University Twickenham in London). You may access notes from the meeting here.
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Plans for 2024:
The SIG plans to continue their work and to attain the objectives outlined above. It hopes to present its work at the special SIG event at the ESAI Conference in Maynooth. It also hopes to develop its membership and convene 2/3 more meetings in 2024. Some questions we hope to work on are:
- How do we put together ethical guidance for educational action researchers in Ireland?
- Should we continue hybrid meetings or have alternate online and face-to-face meetings?
All updates are available at the NEARI site.
Educational Action Research SIG Annual Report 2024
The aims outlined at the outset of this SIG were further developed at 3 meetings during 2024. Our aims are:
- ethical issues, in particular on how current ethical standards in educational institutions may impede the undertaking of practitioner action research.
- strengthening the rigour of action research for accreditation and enhancing institutional standards
- continuing the work of NEARI as a foundation for action research discourse
The Educational Action Research SIG is in the process of achieving these aims. This an outline of work undertaken in 2024:
- On 9th March 2024 Ethics in the current landscape of practitioner research attracted a global audience to an online meeting (available here). Professor Sarah Banks (UK) spoke on Negotiating the ethical space of participatory action research. Dr Mairead Holden and Dr Philip Poulton shared perspectives spanning between Ireland and Australia in school-based research in Developing ethical reflexivity through trialogic spaces. A panel discussion on ethics in action research and practitioner research (available Part 1 here and Part 2 here) followed.
- On 5th October Self-Study as a Movement and Methodology for Inside-Out Educational Change a hybrid meeting was held in Marino Institute of Education. Guest speaker was Professor Kathleen Pithouse-Morgan, (UK with University colleagues from South Africa). Tomás Aylward (MTU Kerry) spoke of his self-study and Helen Hallissey brought critical reflection and humour to the event. Both teachers and PhD candidates sparked conversations among the in-person and online attendees. See further details here.
- The SIG shared updates at meetings from colleagues in other action research groups, journal editors and the ESAI contributed to NEARI as a foundation for action research discourse.
- Dialogue also blossomed at the Educational Studies Association of Ireland (ESAI) Conference 2024 when Dr Bernadette Wrynn (Educational Action Research SIG) summarised our work and shared our ideas with attendees.
- The Educational Action Research stand in the Expo area of the ESAI 2024 Conference attracted many new faces as well as long standing supporters of NEARI.
- Updates on the SIG are communicated at meetings (example here) and all our activities are disseminated freely (with appropriate ethical permissions) to members and others on eari.ie.
- The NEARI SIG engaged in social media activity/ online presence – eari.ie and X and established itself on BlueSky.
- NEARI work was presented at:
- an international roundtable at the Collaborative Action Research Network conference (CARN 2024 ) in Malmo, Sweden
- A Teacher Education Advancement Network (TEAN) webinar in October 2024
- The launch of the Student Teacher Educational Research (STER) 2024 journal in April 2024
- The Scottish Educational Research Association (SERA 2024) Conference in November
In 2025 we plan to deepen our work in promoting educational action research; further develop ideas on ethics for practitioner action researchers and how to enhance communication among members. We will present our work at the ESAI Conference 2025 and at the American Educational Research Association (AERA) 2025 annual meeting and at other events in 2025.
NEARI has also been invited to contribute a chapter in a forthcoming book on teacher education for democracy.
