Global Collaborations

Report from Global Collaborations Action Research Community (ARC) Meeting

Submitted by Candace Kaye and Lonnie Rowell

Eleven interested participants joined Lonnie Rowell and Candace Kaye at the Global Collaborations Action Research Community (ARC) inaugural gathering at the 2015 ARNA Conference in Toronto. The gathering introduced the possibilities of action research within the complex ecologies of individual, social, cultural, and political settings in global contexts. Rowell and Kaye introduced ARNA’s intention to support democratic, multi-vocal, multiple perspectives of action research as the network develops collaborations and partnerships based in the global action research community. They then discussed how this intention might help guide efforts to more closely examine a) the impact of action research on the roles of change agents and decision-makers in international settings and b) how fostering collaborative action research can impact how individuals are able to improve their professional practice.

Rowell and Kaye then facilitated a dialogue with the attendees regarding creation of a global collaborations interest group in ARNA with an aim of improving the possibilities for collaborations with remote colleagues. In particular, ideas and approaches for facilitating collaborative projects and partnerships among globally distributed ARNA participants were invited. The participants also shared involvements with previous action research projects involving global collaboration. The group was then invited to continue to participate in facilitating development of the new global collaborations group through the Action Research Community (ARC). An emphasis was placed on using reflection to identify how interested individuals might participate. After the meeting a survey was sent by email to each attendee to better understand their individual interests in global action research collaboration and to explore how they would like to participate in the Global Collaborations ARC.