Revitalizing Pedagogy, Education, and Praxis: Internationalizing Action Research as "Resources for Action and Hope"

• In Event: International Action Research: Sharing Public Scholarship in Diverse Global Educational Contexts

Abstract

This paper describes theoretical and practical contributions the international Pedagogy, Education and Praxis (PEP) research network is making to action research, pedagogy and education. PEP is a cross-institutional, collaborative international research program involving researchers from Australia, Columbia, Scandinavia, The Caribbean, The UK and The Netherlands. Members share concern about the influences of managerialism, bureaucracy and performativity pervading educational work. PEP research has focused on site-based education development through action research to emphasise that development of practice in education always occurs in actual sites; it is not just an abstract or general process (for example, as mandated by policy).
Research Questions and Theoretical Framework: Since 2005, to help revitalise and remoralise contemporary discussions about education, pedagogy and praxis, the research activity of PEP members has involved theoretical and empirical studies organised around five general research questions:
1. What is educational praxis?
2. How, in different national contexts, is good professional practice/praxis being understood, experienced and practiced by educators?
3. How, in different national contexts, is good professional education (i.e. educational praxis development) being understood, experienced and practiced by educators?
4. How, in different national contexts, are the changing cultural, social, political and material conditions for praxis and praxis development affecting the educational practices of educators?
5. What research approaches facilitate praxis and praxis development in different international contexts?
These questions drive the strategic focus for the PEP research agenda, which draws on the theory of practice architectures (Kemmis et al., 2014) and ecologies of practices (Kemmis et al., 2012).
Outcomes and results: Through regular meetings and its program of international research, PEP has created a communicative space to “act” through their research to understand the nature, traditions and conditions of pedagogy, education and praxis and how these are understood, developed and sustained in different national contexts and educational settings. PEP researchers have shown how practices are shaped by practice architectures, which are the cultural-discursive, material-economic and social-political arrangements, which enable and constrain the enactment of practices.
Scholarly Significance: The scholarly significance is PEP’s theoretical contributions to practice theory. Specifically, development of the theory of practice architectures (Kemmis et al., 2014) and ecologies of practices (Kemmis et al., 2012) has enabled PEP researchers to show empirically the enablements and constraints that influence the enactment of practices in a range of contexts. PEP International researchers have found spaces for reviving and restoring action research and site-based education development as “resources for action and hope.”

References
Kemmis, S., Wilkinson, J., Edwards-Groves, C., Hardy, I., Grootenboer, P. & Bristol, L. (2014) Changing practices, changing education. Singapore: Springer.
Kemmis, S., Edwards-Groves, C., Wilkinson, J. & Hardy, I. (2012). Ecologies of Practices. In P. Hager, A. Lee & A. Reich (Eds.), Learning and Practice, (pp. 33-49). London: Springer.
PEP Pedagogy, Education and Praxis. (2015). http://www.ips.gu.se/samverkan/natverk/pep/.
Smith, T., Edwards-Groves, C., & Brennan Kemmis, R. (2010). Renewing and revitalising educational tradition: Resources for action and hope. Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 18, (1), 1-103.

Author

• Christine Edwards-Groves, Charles Sturt University