Join us for this inspiring and thought-provoking discussion. Adam and Joe sit down with three members of the Restorative Community Solutions (RCS) team based in San Francisco: Earl Simms (executive director), Kezia "Zia" Martinis (community engagement lead) and Couper Orona (community engagement operations). RCS is a nonprofit founded in 2022, led by a group of dedicated professionals with a deep history of direct service, dedicated to “support[ing] those experiencing the transition back into society from institutional settings, homelessness, prison, jails, and treatment facilities” through peer support.

[00:02:27] We first learn about each guest and how their life experiences inform their work as well as [00:05:16] learn more about Restorative Community Solutions’s (RCS) mandate. [00:08:35] Adam asks our guests to describe the challenges of doing peer support in a non-profit context. Zia discusses the challenges of representation of all community voices. Earl talks about dynamics of contracting with government agencies in San Francisco with extractive approaches and the risks of policy violence—when policy makers are “10, 000 feet above the problem” they can’t “see the nuances and the different intricacies that are happening on the ground.” Couper ties it back to the importance of a trauma-responsive peer support approach.

Our hosts ask the team to reflect on their work through the angle of action research. They discuss the importance first of bringing that qualitative part that humanizes and works toward accountability, [00:20:02] “mak[ing] sure that people’s solutions are grounded in reality.” RCS’s action research question asks, “What is one thing that San Francisco can do to change your life?” [00:23:34] Earl reflects on how participatory action research came into the methodology of their work, and they describe how co-researchers co-create survey questions, help with focus groups, use different tools to synthesize data, and then formulate recommendations to different organizations. [00:28:47] As Couper argues, there needs to be “more guts” in city government and the way things are done because “there's so much uncaring… so much distance between folks.” [00:30:51] Earl discusses balancing different hats and [00:32:20] Zia emphasizes the importance of paying people a living wage and giving folks the agency to vote on policies that directly affect them: “The stipend that I received was more than I had pretty much made in my lifetime” and “I never knew three years ago that I'd be voting on a commission where I have a say in allocating all that proxy money.” [00:35:48] Adam asks the RCS guests “Where can you take this movement? How can you get involved with policy in such a way where your day to day grind is going to be what gets it there?”

Jump into this episode to benefit from the nuances of their important insights and the rich variety of concrete examples they share from their research experiences.

[00:52:10] Finally the team plugs a few things which we cite below. [00:54:26] RCS is looking for volunteers, “anybody that wants to be boots on the ground or has any kind of compassion towards this work we've done to help support that.” They are looking for lawyers, as well as any students. Just reach out to them! Or, as Couper throws in [00:54:49], “if you have a million dollars laying around or something, that'd be great.”

Thanks Earl, Zia and Couper for sharing your work with us.

You can subscribe to our podcast on most major podcast distribution platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Action Research Podcast, created by Adam Stieglitz, Joe Levitan, Shikha De Walker, Cory Legasic, and Vanessa Gold.

How have you found yourself in the world of action research? Want to be...

Guess what? It’s summer, July 2024, and the team is distracted doing summer things. So we are taking a little break this month before we sit down and get back into recording conversations with our upcoming guests for the episodes ahead. We also realized that we are in our fourth season, and we can now do what seasoned podcasters do: look back and share with you one of our team’s favorite past episodes.

With more than 30 episodes under our belt, this episode stands out to us from our first season that we recorded back on November 5th, 2020, during the height of the pandemic lockdown. And summer is a great time for reflection. With that, we give you, once again, Adam and Joe in Season 1 Episode 6’s discussion on “Reflexivity in Action Research with Dr. Lisa Starr”.

Thanks for tuning in, and now, onto our hosts.

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In this episode reprise, Adam and Joe have a conversation with Dr. Lisa Starr about the role of reflexivity in action research. To understand this complex topic, they discuss two chapters Lisa wrote using reflexive and autoethnographic methods. It just so happens (or was it more than a coincidence?) that Adam is working on the chapter in his dissertation in which he reflexively discusses his positionality, so he asks Lisa to share her expertise (12:34) on how to approach reflexivity in Action Research (15:51). Later in the episode, Joe asks Lisa about the frameworks to reflexively understand one's identity in her chapters (25:11).

If you are interested in the chapters mentioned in our podcast citations are below:

Starr, L.J. & Mitchell C. (2020, accepted for Publication). Traveling in Circles Along Roads Less Traveled in Awe of Open Spaces. In Mitchell, C, Giritli Nygren, K, Moletsane, R. (eds.) Where am I in the Picture? Researcher Positionality in Rural Studies. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press

Starr, L.J. (2019). Locating who (I am) in what (I) do: An autoethnography encounter with relational curriculum. In T. Strong-Wilson, C. Ehret, D. Lewkowich & S. Chang Kredl (Eds.), Making/Unmaking Curriculum through Provoking Curriculum Encounters (pp. 103-115). William Pinar/Routledge for the Studies in Curriculum Theory series. New York, NY: Routledge.

In this episode, Adam and Cory co-host while Joe joins as our guest alongside Dr. Catherine Potvin. We learn about Catherine’s career as a biologist working on climate issues in solidarity with Indigenous communities. Together, Catherine and Joe explore their collaboration doing action research in both culturally grounded health care and education.

First, [2:50] Catherine and Joe center relationship-building with the Emberá community at the heart of their collaborations in Panama: it’s about persistence and long time presence. [5:02] Catherine shares an overview of her history working with Indigenous communities along with the deep shifts and re-orientations in her career: [6:24] “I realized I had everything wrong, like completely everything wrong. [...] I understood that if you want to keep the forest, you need to care for the people.”

Adam and Cory ask [7:50] about the contexts that inform the focus on reforestation and community empowerment and [11:27] the role of social scientists in working alongside biologists in these collaborations. [12:02] Dr. Potvin talks about the notion of reflexivity as “a total social science thing” and the importance of researchers positioning themselves in the work they do. She also talks about how important it has been to look at reforestation from an economics and training perspective, what Joe calls “learning for capacity building”. Their collaboration also helped support [16:20] a community-based collective decision-making process, and Joe names a few examples of its outcomes.

At this point, Joe [19:56] spends some time walking us through an understanding of culturally-grounded education and healthcare: It’s a “phenomenological pragmatist perspective” that asks [20:53] “How do we start from who we are and our experience, and then identify what matters to us?” Potvin [23:02] shares a few anecdotes from her experiences over the years of learning to approach climate science from a more culturally grounded approach, and some of the colonial systemic barriers that students and community members face.

Adam’s last big question [29:45] asks our guests: “To what extent are you identifying or acknowledging economic empowerment for the communities that you're working with in Panama as a way to conserve and preserve the community's Indigenous lifestyles and knowledge?” Potvin discusses [33:37] the need to “find a number of different economical pathways for women, for men, for youth, for elders that will allow them to live a decent life.” Joe brings the reality of “using resources from outside of the community, but also thinking about how to do that in a way that's circular and self-directed.” They both offer examples of projects from recent years.

Wrapping up, Cory and Adam share some takeaways and use the final moments to congratulate (and challenge) Potvin’s upcoming retirement. To which she responds, and we wanted to quote at length…

“You know, in ecology, when a tree falls, that's where the diversity of a forest gets recreated, right? Because there's all these new trees that will take the space of the old big tree, because the old big tree sucks up a lot of resources. And when it disappears, it creates opportunity for new trees, more adapted to the new reality to grow. So I think I see retirement that way, it's supporting and creating opportunities to go further than where I've been.”

Thank you both for sharing your work with us, and congratulations Dr. Potvin on your retirement!.

You can subscribe to our podcast on most major podcast distribution platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Action Research Podcast, created by Adam Stieglitz, Joe Levitan, Shikha Diwakar, Cory Legassic, and Vanessa Gold.

How have you found yourself in the world of action research? Want to be interviewed or share one of your projects? Get in touch with...

Adam and Joe sit down with Dr. Lisa Levinger, an educator with over 30 years of experience at all instructional levels. She also completed her PhD at Northeastern University in May of 2023 doing action research around poverty-induced trauma (PIT) and literacy. She is currently acting as the Dean of Literacy at a Diversity by Design charter school in Queens, New York.

To start, Adam and Joe spend some time getting to know Lisa [02:38] in our lightning round. We learn about a hidden talent, her connection to Adam, her recipe for good action research, and some quick advice for emerging grad action researchers.

Next [07:42], Adam and Joe dive into learning about poverty-induced trauma and how Lisa approaches literacy and action research: the contexts, the challenges and the insights. A key question that drives her work [13:37] is, “How do I teach teachers about poverty-induced trauma?” She describes what collaboration and co-creation looked like during the height of Covid and walks us through the shifts and iterative cycles [16:14] of her research. Levinger’s research focuses on helping teachers grapple with important questions that emerged in the action research process [16:47]:

• How do I think about poverty-induced trauma when I'm doing lesson plans?
• How do I select books that mirror the stories of the students in front of me?
• How do I plan for what I call pit stops—moments of reflection that ask, what's happening right now in your body? Have you ever felt this way before?

Adam [17:35] asks Lisa to outline in more detail her action research design process. She describes the methods in each cycle [18:29] as “an iterative process just like an onion that kept getting peeled away [...] and at the same time, there were all these beautiful layers that just kept being added…” Lisa elaborates her TallTales framework [19:40]—Trauma Aware Literacy Lessons, Teaching and Learning for Equity and Success—and [21:15] how she brought this work into her position as Dean. She follows up by sharing [22:56] the two major findings from this ongoing work: (1) how important it is to engage teachers in learning about PIT, and (2) how to define the TallTale framework specifications.

Finally, Joe [27:20] asks Lisa about the role of reflection and positionality in her research. She offers more advice: “If you're not in the kind of program that's asking you to reflect on your positionality for every course, just grab a journal and do it yourself, and think about who am I in this space, and what am I bringing to this story, and who are the people I'm selecting.” Lisa also circles back to earlier advice on how to keep the momentum going in your research and writing. She has the help of her [30:38] doctoral divas who cheerlead and check in on each other.

Thanks Dr. Levinger for sharing your work with us.

You can subscribe to our podcast on most major podcast distribution platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Action Research Podcast, created by Adam Stieglitz, Joe Levitan, Shikha Diwakar, Cory Legassic, and Vanessa Gold.

How have you found yourself in the world of action research? Want to be interviewed or share one of your projects? Get in touch with us.

Here are citations related to this discussion:

Levinger, L. (2023). For Teachers by Teachers: Cocreating a Literacy Framework with Educators to Serve Students with Poverty-Induced Trauma (Doctoral dissertation, Northeastern University).

Adam and Joe sit down with Dr. Joseph Winberry to talk about information sciences and community-based participatory action research (CBPAR). Dr. Winberry is an Assistant Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science. Much of his teaching and research revolves around critical librarianship, information marginalization, and older adults.

Jumping into our lightning round, [00:45] Dr. Winberry walks us through the choices and experiences that led him to the crossroads of studying CBPAR and older adults.[04:33] Winberry tells us about the important work around “information marginalization” (Gibson & Martin, 2019) that guides his research and [07:22] what action research looks like more broadly in his context.

At this point, our hosts dig in deeper into his dissertation study: a CBPAR project with LGBT older adults that was [09:02] “led by the community and addressing issues that they believe are important.” First, [09:11] he shares insights on what is critical to success in an action research investigation: time, relationships and flexibility. [10:35] He then offers advice to graduate students who are considering action research as their methodology for their thesis or dissertation.

Joe asks Winberry to [12:54] tell us more about what brought him to community-based participatory action research, specifically. We get to hear about how his experience with community organizing and his role at the Office on Aging informed his passion for information sciences and action-oriented research. [20:02] Winberry shares some of the key scholars that shaped his work, and we share some of those references below. [21:33] Like many action research researcher-practitioners, Winberry also [21:30] faced some pushback about doing action research as part of a dissertation and walks us through his responses to those challenges.

Any listeners interested in CBPAR will want to listen [23:29] to Winberry describe the methods and steps of his CBPAR process. The work led to the development of [25:33] a strategic plan, a series of community consultations to validate that plan, and then the establishment of a committee to follow up on that plan—called the Aging Rainbow Coalition or ARC. [31:19] Winberry spends some time sharing how he handled the hurdles of working with the Institutional Review Boards (IRB) for ethics approval and the important role of informal data collection.

As a final discussion, our hosts prompt Winberry to talk about [33:01] positionality and reflexivity in CBPAR. For Winberry, “how I approached the study and how it ultimately looked” was absolutely shaped by his background. What are Winberry’s parting words of encouragement to future action researchers? “Don't be afraid to take risks and don't be afraid to engage the community.” And more.

Thanks Dr. Winberry for reaching out to us and sharing your work.

How have you found yourself in the world of action research? Want to be interviewed or share one of your projects? Get in touch with us.

Here are citations related to this discussion:

Bharat Mehra. Mehra, B. (2021). Social justice design and implementation: Innovative pedagogies to transform LIS education. Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 62(4), 460-476.

Kitzie, V. L., Wagner, T. L., & Vera, A. N. (2020, March). “In the beginning, it was little whispers… now, we’re almost a roar”: Conceptualizing a model for community and self in LGBTQ+ health information practices. In International Conference on Information (pp. 15-31). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Winberry, J. (2018). Shades of Silver. The International Journal of...

In the exciting second part of our discussion on YPAR and arts-based methods, new grad student co-hosts Shikha and Cory continue their conversation with Dr Kristen Goessling, Dr Dana Wright, Dr Amanda Wager and Dr. Marit Dewhurst, researchers and editors of Engaging youth in critical arts pedagogies and creative research for social justice: Opportunities and challenges of arts-based work and research with young people that came out in 2021. First, in our lightning round, we continue learning about our guests as we ask them about their pet peeves in collaboration–which are quite funny and enlightening! [1:15]. We also talk about an outline of common stages or phases in a YPAR project [2:16]. Some highlights include a discussion on relationship building as a design process [6:40] and building group dynamics [9:20] through participatory arts-based methods, like mapping and collage. In their projects, we can really see “PAR as a verb” in terms of supporting adults who work with young people as “PAR-ing” [11:48].

Throughout, our guests emphasize the pedagogical dimensions of YPAR because YPAR insists on sharing and learning skills together and democratizing knowledge production. For example, Amanda draws on theatre-based activities like the ”hot seat” to rehearse data collection methods like interviewing. YPAR challenges adultism with its “misconceptions about young people” and pushes adults to take youth seriously [15:25]. At its heart, “PAR is essentially doing two research projects at once: You are engaging in a process that you are studying because you are studying the praxis and so that you can hone it, refine it, and make it more effective; and you are studying the subject at hand” [18:48]. While navigating these layers, our YPAR guests explore navigating power dynamics [20:35] and participants shifting energies and motivations with and among youth [24:09].

Finally, [31:57] our guests offer advice to novice YPAR researchers on how to push the bar on meaningful participation in working with youth. They each share some encouragement and remind us that, ultimately, “anyone [who] has any designs on working with young people should be prepared that [young people] are the smartest people in the room and they will know if you are authentic or if you are trustworthy […] so it's best to bring your authentic self” [39:37].

Here is the citation for their book on YPAR and arts-based methods:

Goessling, K. P., Wright, D. E., Wager, A. C., & Dewhurst, Marit. (2021). Engaging youth in critical arts pedagogies and creative research for social justice opportunities and challenges of arts-based work and research with young people. Routledge; WorldCat.org. http://public.eblib.com/choice/PublicFullRecord.aspx?p=6469802

Here are the YPAR handbooks mentioned in our conversation

Community Futures, Community Lore: Learn to use youth participatory action research (YPAR), community mapping, public data and cultural organizing to generate solutions for our collective future.

Berkeley YPAR hub: This hub features expansive curriculum and resources to enrich YPAR projects.

Here are other publications by our guests:

Goessling, K. P., Wright, D., Wager, A. C., & Dewhurst, M. (2020). A critical mixtape for the movement: Reflecting on creative and critical youth practices in research. International Journal of Qualitative Studies in Education, 33(1), 1-7.

Goessling, K. P., Wright, D. E., Wager, A. C., & Dewhurst, M. (2021)....

In the first episode led by our new co-hosts(!) Cory and Shikha sit down with Dr Kristen Goessling, Dr Dana Wright, Dr Amanda Wager, and Dr. Marit Dewhurst, researchers and editors of Engaging youth in critical arts pedagogies and creative research for social justice: Opportunities and challenges of arts-based work and research with young people, which came out in 2021. This special two-part series begins with our lightning round to get to know our guests. They give us lots of interesting soundbites for defining Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR)!

Highlights from our discussions in PART 1 include: common assumptions about art-based research rigor and subjectivity; the continuum of arts-based methods; the importance of power-sharing, building trust and centering youth perspectives. The guests emphasize process over product, democratizing research through art, tapping different ways of knowing, and art as freedom for imagination and social change. The heart of their work involves further examining subjective dimensions of research, assessing arts-based methods, and implementing creative techniques to build relationships and share power with youth researchers. It was super interesting, and as co-hosts we learned a lot, so tune in!

Our guests have a lot of important ideas to share, so after listening to this episode, join us in our next episode “Part 2 with Dana, Kristen, Amanda and Marit” where we dig into more of the “what and why” of YPAR.

Here is the citation for their book on YPAR and arts-based methods:

Goessling, K. P., Wright, D. E., Wager, A. C., & Dewhurst, Marit. (2021). Engaging youth in critical arts pedagogies and creative research for social justice opportunities and challenges of arts-based work and research with young people. Routledge; WorldCat.org. http://public.eblib.com/choice/PublicFullRecord.aspx?p=6469802

Welcome to Season 4 of the Action Research Podcast. In this launch episode for Season 4, we find out what the team has been up to during their fall pause. (Hint, it was some time to consider new goals and orientations for our podcast, and bring in more voices!)

Join Joe and Adam who welcome Shikha and Cory to the table as new co-hosts alongside their roles as producers. Now that Adam is exploring life after completing a PhD, Shikha and Cory take on the role of grad students helping ask the questions.[2:06] In this episode, we get to know a bit more about them, and then they turn the tables on Joe and Adam by putting them into the hot seat with questions.

During this conversation, the 4 co-host discuss the role of podcasting in the world of action research. For example, one of the issues with academic publications is that they are well polished descriptions of research designs. While that leads to valuable discussion and analysis, it may not always offer the information that budding researchers and practitioners need and want. So, through this podcast we have the opportunity to lean into the messiness of action research that makes each of our guests relatable and the opportunity to dig into the stories of what doesn’t always make it into published findings. [12:27] As an example, Shikha and Cory also ask Joe and Adam to describe how they have responded to emerging messiness in their own work–a discussion with surprises!

[24:40] Tune in for this and more as Adam and Joe also offer some advice on what they have learned about hosting a podcast. [26:20] Then, listen to the team share what to expect in the rest of the season and, most importantly, we hope you take our invitation at the end to get involved with our team.

How have you found yourself in the world of action research? Want to be interviewed or share one of your projects? Get in touch with us at ActionResearchPod@gmail.com.