Psychology
Action research gets scholars and practitioners together to solve problems.
International travel doesn’t always go smoothly. On the way from Boston to Sydney for the Society of Australasian Social Psychologists summer school, I missed my connection at Los Angeles, through no fault of my own. The airline had promised a night in a hotel, but instead I was handed a blanket and pillow. I can now tick “toss and turn all night in LAX” off my to-do list.
As well as having free-range kangaroos and rather large spiders, the summer school was an inspiring chance to engage with the next generation of researchers and practitioners. It was also a chance to catch up with old friends, including Iain Walker, a professor at the University of Canberra and previously a research scientist for the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO).
I first met Walker at a conference in Melbourne. I was out looking for a place to eat and chanced on a table of other attendees that included a longtime friend, Martha Augoustinos. When she introduced Walker, all I could think to say was “I love your textbook!” at high volume. Not at all embarrassing for either of us.
At the summer school, Walker gave a guest presentation about the question of “impact”, which is all the rage for universities and their political overlords. His message was simple. If you end up working in a university, expect to be asked to show your value, your impact. Indeed, make sure to build it into your plan from the very start, not just for the sake of accountability but to ensure that what you are doing makes a difference.
His recommendations included a call to conduct action research, a term coined by social psychologist Kurt Lewin in 1944. A great deal of contemporary research is conducted through surveys (that’s why you completed the census a few weeks back; you did, didn’t you?), focus groups or analysis of archival documents. Action research involves a collaboration between a researcher and community of practice to solve a particular social problem.
Action research is not the sole property of social psychology. At Victoria University, social geographer Sara Kindon focuses on equity in different strands of her work, many of which involve participatory action research.
In particular, Kindon has collaborated with her students, and with immigrant, refugee and indigenous communities, to understand their experiences in their words and actions and to communicate these to the broader community.
For example, at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, curator Stephanie Gibson worked with Kindon and colleagues to develop The Mixing Room: Stories from young refugees in New Zealand
– a community exhibition about experiences of resettlement developed by young people from refugee backgrounds.
In these endeavours, the research is often both a collaborative process and an outcome in its own right. In this case that outcome is an exhibition.
I haven’t participated in a lot of this kind of research, but when I have, it has produced some of the coolest, most tangible outcomes I’ve been involved with.
My team at Victoria University has worked with young people in an action research project to do with adolescent mental health. They have collaborated with groups of young people to develop stories to be turned into graphic novels (okay, comics) that can be made freely available to services and anyone else interested through the internet.
The young people are the holders of the experiential knowledge, and academics have access to the evidence base of decades of research. Combined, they form an evidencebased and experiential resource.
But that’s not the only product, because the young people are themselves an outcome: they take the experience and knowledge back to their own schools and communities.
I think that’s what Walker means by “impact”: something that also has a life beyond scholarly journals and bookshelves.
They take the experience and knowledge back to their own schools and communities.