SASKATCHEWAN ACTION
RESEARCH NETWORK
FOUR YEARS OF BUILDING,
NOW PARTNERING WITH SIIT
THROUGH 2012-2013
Allan Quigley, Ed.D.
[email protected]
How do you raise the
professionalism of a hugely
diverse field in a time of scarce
resources?
A literacy/Basic Education field that is
• Made up of practitioners with highly diverse training and backgrounds,
•
located over the entire province—including some very remote areas,
• in a time of scarce resources?
A field of practice comprised of . . .
 volunteer tutors & teachers in CBO’s (including ESL).
 Part & full-time instructors in colleges and SIIT--including the North.
 Full & part-time instructors and administrators at SIAST and colleges.
Three ways
(Susan Lytle)
Top Down (e.g., k-12) ................ “Knowledge For”
-Experts: workshops, courses, literature
Bottom Up (e.g., apprentice) ..... “Knowledge with”
- On-the-job & local mentoring/colleagues
Building Across (collaborative) .... “Knowledge in”
- Shared problems; shared learning
- Community of practice & research
Building Top Down:
(Expert Knowledge)
• Expert guest speaker at workshop
• AEEI ideas tested “top-down” (portfolio)
• Guest ideas/guest experts on SARN
Website/Blog and on linked Websites
2)
Building “Bottom Up”
• Individual instructors/tutors “adaptingadopting” evidence-based practices shared
on SARN & linked Websites and/or mentors
• Encouraging hands-on application of new ideas
in the workplace.
• Encouraging individual instructors/tutors to use
new Website resources (self-directed)
3) “Building Across” (Collaborative)
• Sharing questions in workshops and sharing
findings on our SARN & linked Websites
•Engaging mentors with individuals/groups in
face- to-face and/or distance learning
•Building dialogue on SARN Blog/within &
across institutions and systems
ADDING TO THE ALPHABET SOUP
• SOME TERMS USED . . . .
What’s the difference between Research-in-Practice
(RiP), the Saskatchewan Action Research Network
(SARN) and Action Research ... ?
The wider movement is Research-in-Practice,
Action Research is
the research method we mainly use in
Canada, the USA, UK and Australia.
– The Saskatchewan Action Research Network
is the name of our province’s
literacy/basic education
sarn
movement . . . Now
entering our 5th year
Our story
– One workshop in 2003
It could have died then . .
Thanks to Janet Galbraith & Jennifer
Bain at Wascana SIAST . . .
The Funding Years:
Practitioners Trained Since in the movement
• Year one: 2008 – 2009: “Getting Started
• 12 participants at Saskatoon Workshop
• Including 2 working with Aboriginal learners
(Onion Lake & SIIT)
• Training materials developed
• Presentations at conferences (SLN & SABEA)
Year Two: 2009-2010:
“Building a base”
-- 9 participants at Saskatoon Workshop
-- including 3 working with Aboriginal
learners: (Nekaneet, SALN)
-- Reports added to SLN/SABEA Websites
-- Presentations at conferences (SLN, SABEA,
Colleges)
Year Three: 2010-2011
“Creating an identity”
• Named Sask Action Research Network
• 11 trained at Saskatoon Workshop
• Inc. 4 working with Aboriginal learners
(Ft. Q’ area First Nations & Parkland College)
• 5 mentors added
• Reports added to SLN and SABEA Websites
• Presentations at SLN, SABEA, Colleges
conferences
Year Four: 2011-2012:
“Picking up Steam:
-- SERC: 27 Participants at Weyburn campus workshop
inc. 7 working with Aboriginal learners—Pheasant
Rump, Piapot, Ocean Man, Carry-the-Kettle,
Kahkewistahaw
-- Great Plains: 9 (+2 formerly trained) at Rosetown
inc. 3 with Aboriginal learners, Nekaneet
-- SIAST Woodland Campus: 20 trained— inc. 4 working
with Aboriginal learners (La Ronge & Creighton)
WHERE ARE WE TODAY?
• 88 Practitioner-researchers trained.
• Including 23 working with Aboriginal Learners
• 9 Mentors trained for outreach and support
• Two college campuses (Great Plains + SERC)
and two SIAST campuses (Wascana + Woodland)
•SARN Website with active blog in place
•Articles in SIAST newsletter & AESA newsletter
Why Saskatchewan Action
Research Network?
WE ARE RAISING THE LEVELS OF
PRACTITIONER PROFESSIONALISM,
AT A COMPARATIVELY
MINIMAL COST
AND, BY DOING SO, WE ARE
HELPING RAISE LITERACY & BASIC
EDUCATION LEVELS FOR A BETTER
SASKATCHEWAN
FOR THE COMING 2012–2013 YEAR?
•
PROPOSED SASKATCHEWAN ACTION RESEARCH ADVISORY BOARD
ADVISORY BOARD
AEEI*
SABEA
SIIT FINANCIAL
ADMIN
SLN
SALN
DIRECTOR
MENTORS
* Not yet represented
SIIT*
COLLEGES*
WEB MANAGER
THE FUTURE?
THE CHALLENGE OF SUSTAINABILITY
• Have campuses co-sponsor workshops as PD
days 50%-50% for major PD costs
•Build dialogue & resources on Website and Write
Board
•Make this a membership movement?
• Add mentors for more outreach and support
ENGAGING THE PROVINCE
• Create annual RiP Exchange conference
• Bring in annual guest speaker(s)
• Publish in professional/academic journals
• Connect with Webinars & Blog dialogue to
other provinces
WHAT HAVE WE LEARNED?
Here’s but two categories on the Websites:
“Learner retention” & “Attendance”
• Jacqueline Bruce – Onion Lake
Research Question: “If I improve the social
environment of the classroom, will the number
of students who complete the first three weeks
increase?”
• Outcomes: “Student attendance increased by
20% in the Winter 2009 semester and by 30% for
the Fall 2009 semester. This met and exceeded
my hoped for criterion for success. I consider the
project to have been a huge success.”
Kristi Nelson Yarshenko - Nekaneet First Nation
• The research question: “Would an increase in personal
communication between myself and my adult students over a
period of three months improve daily attendance?”
• The action research interventions tested “included: 1) phone calls,
2) e-mails, 3) inquiries with community members about absentee
students, and 4) positive personal conversations when I saw my
adult students in the community.”
• The Outcomes: “After a period of three months with the action
research interventions, the overall student attendance improved
from 38% to 51%. I had hoped that student attendance would
improve by 5% overall, so an improvement of 13% was a wonderful
result.”
Jennifer Bain – SIAST Wascana
• Research Question: “Would using e-mail to build
a sense of community among P-T evening math
Basic Ed students improve retention rates by
10%?”
• Outcomes: “For the January 2009-April 2009
class twelve students completed the class for a
retention/persistence rate of 85% suggesting an
improvement in the retention rate of 50%.
•OTHER MORE SPECIALIZED EXAMPLES . . .
•Naome Soleil (Woodland College): “Can students attain a
minimum of 70% on essay assignments by using a
vocabulary application approach to develop a variety of
sentences?”
•Andrew Quackenbush (SIAST Wascana): “Testing and
determining the size and extent of the vocabulary list that a
level one ABE class can comfortably manage as first time
readers. “
•Connie Jones: (SLN) Would providing literacy discussion
forums in the form of Literacy Cafes across the province
improve collaboration among literacy practitioners by 10%?
HOW DO WE USE ACTION
RESEARCH?
WHAT HAPPENS IN THE SARN
WORKSHOPS?
ACTION RESEARCH IS
A THREE STEP
PROBLEM-SOLVING
PROCESS
Plan
Act
Reflect
Two Basic Approaches with Different
Emphases in Research-in-Practice:
PROBLEM
POSING
1) Action Inquiry
“Adapt & Adopt”
PROBLEM
SOLVING
2) Action Research
Data-based reports
The
ThreeStage
Cycle
Of
Action
Research
-Evaluate
-Go to one
more
cycle?
another
cycle?
1. PLAN
-Problem pose
-Design
-Measure
3. REFLECT
-Implement
-Observe
2. ACT
Figure 1: The Three-Step Cycle of Action Research
Posted reports on the SARN Website ,
organized as follows:
A. Addressing Issues of Dropout, “Lates,” and
Low Attendance
B. Exploring Innovative Teaching Strategies
C. Increasing Learner Community Involvement
D. Focus on Aboriginal Literacy Issues
E. Focus on Adult Learners of English as an
Additional Language Issues
F. Practitioner Professional Development
Two Basic Approaches with Different
Emphases in Research-in-Practice:
PROBLEM
POSING
1) Action Inquiry
“Adapt & Adopt”
PROBLEM
SOLVING
2) Action Research
Data-based reports
HOW DO ACTION INQUIRY CIRCLES
WORK?
• 3-12 practitioners in a circle—face-to-face or
distance (Distribution List? Write Board? Lynk?)
• Specific topic of real concern to everyone
• Typically meet 3-5 times
• Prior to each meeting each member reads some
relevant research and/or
• Brings written notes/data to the discussion
• Recorder keeps notes and summarizes outcomes
OBJECTIVES
•
•
•
•
•
•
READ and then discuss new information
DISCUSS the relevance to your practice
DISCUSS strategies for applying the findings
MAKE PLANS to try out the new strategies
SHARE what happened with the others
HAVE A RECORDER keep notes and write up
a Circle summary (for SARN website )
WHAT KIND OF TOPICS?
• Topics that are bigger and more
general than individual action
research studies ...
Jackie Bruce at Onion Lake First Nation,
commented on the SARN “What Works?” blog:
• “I guess I am a nurturer. Empathy is one of
my strongest skills that I bring to the ABE
field . . . . but I think I’m held back somewhat
by the fact that I’m a non-Aboriginal person
teaching on a First Nation.
• I sometimes question if it is my “place” to be
an activist when I haven’t personally dealt
with the issues that my students are facing.”
TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION
• Should an instructor be
Aboriginal to teach Aboriginal
learners?
• What would you say to Jackie?
TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION
Evelyn Battell (Research-in-Practice in BC) says
every literacy/BE instructor is either:
A “nurturer”
or
A “political advocate”
TOPIC FOR DISCUSSION
• Do you agree with Evelyn?
• Are you a nurturer or an
advocate?
IN CLOSING
HERE’S MY FAVOURITE QUOTE ON TEACHING
Raymond Wlodkowski (2006) is often asked:
“What is teaching, really?”
He replies: “I am not completely sure,” but:
“When it is motivating, when there is a flow
of learning and communication between
instructor and learner, it more than all have
written or said it was.
It is a dimension. Not something one
practices and performs, but something one
enters and lives” (p. 107).
TO CONCLUDE
• We have a solid beginning to build upon for a
stronger field of adult literacy and basic
education.
• I look forward to the new partnership with SIIT
You can contact me at [email protected]