Meta Theory ~ Action Research
Here is another article that's been languishing, forlornly, for the past decade.
The topic is Action Research, which is tangentially related to Esteban Trev's notion of 'RCA' ~ Recognize, Consider, Act
BARRYKORT.WORDPRESS.COM
A Beginner’s Guide to Action Research
Action Research is the practice of collaborative problem solving in the Education Community. In Action Research, the students (and parents) collaborate with professional educators in solving probl…
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Esteban Trev do you want an phantom rendition that takes the linked article and transmutes it from problem solution to appropriate situational handelings ...
A Practitioner's Guide to Actionable Realizations Acts
Joint situational handling in academic business and communal cultures.
Abstract
Actionable Realizations Acts involves the practice of collaborative situational handling to seek and procure the best alternative realizable in any setting and situation. In Actionable Realizations Acts, the practitioners be them students teacher administrators and or with other stakeholders ( parents investors ) collaborate with professional in appropriately handling situation arising in the course of educating or governing students workers and other participants.
This brief Knol is an introduction to the basic notions and distintion to know and implement with Actionable Realizations Acts practices
Introduction to Actionable Realizations Acts practices
Elsewhere in cyberspace, my correspondents have expressed some interest about Actionable Realizations Acts practices as I had proposed to apply it to specific projects. Let’s begin at the very beginning, with a or the definition of Actionable Realizations Acts practices:
"Actionable Realizations Acts practices is a reflective process of progressive appropriate situation handling led by individuals working with others in teams or as part of a “community of practice” to improve the way one and all address issues and handle situations. Actionable Realizations Acts practices can also be undertaken by larger organizations or institutions, assisted or guided by professional researchers, with the aim of improving individual and collective strategies, practices, and knowledge of the environments within which they practice. ”
The first thing to note is that the individual is both embedded and separate from a “community of practice” and both influences and is influenced by what happens to happen (or not happen) and others there (and elsewhere) who be working or playing cooperatively and collaboratively or with other schemas as such pursue individual's goals that may or may not have to do with the common goals (e.g. improvement of a existing situation). The Actionable Realizations Acts practices process includes all stakeholders and theaters and possible possibilities.
Contrast this with “Ivory Tower” practitioner scientists, where the practitioner observer is distant and aloof from the subject of the practice, intentionally minimizing the degree of contact or interference with the other subjects and activities taking place. A good example is traditional Cultural Anthropology where the practitioner tries to minimize any perturbations of the culture being studied as a result of his or her presence instead of recognize the impacts of one to the others and others to one. The opposite of “hands off” practitioner scientists observer study would be the religious zealot or missionary who actively tries to transform a culture without necessarily understanding or describing it, just the way it is. In actionable Realizations Acts practices the practitioner scientists, and missionary zealot realizes that in practice one would be working cooperatively with the subjects the observer and the instruments employed to achieve a joint goal of better being and doing what best be done with the situation that be and that could be and that better be via recognized situations as such and the stakeolders and the influences each has on themselves and others parts of the situation and interplay taking place for the system being handled.
Now let’s drill down a notch and look at the an alternate definition of actionable Realizations Acts practices.
“Actionable Realizations Acts practices are essentially willful activities through action with a bias for what best and better be done and attained. This usually involves a collaborative activity — involving input from people who are likely to be affected by the research — and those that have little or nothing to gain nor lose from such undertakings and this is not strictly necessary. Actionable Realizations Acts practices is about handeling the situation as such better be done via changing an environment, system, or practice, or maintaining such and changing the individuals and what they do and do not do there, that is learning about this context through changing what best be changed and maintaining what best be maintained and introducing what best be introduced . To make quote of Actionable Realizations Acts practices practitioner’s instigator : “If one wants truly to understand something, realize what to change what to keep and what to add accordingly while doing what best and better be done with such stuff.” This kind of work play dance is more than simply about changing what needs to be changed, this practices are also about improving an environment and the individuals wellbeing there and ensuring sustainability of what best and better be.
As John Elliott says, “the study of a social situation with a view to improving the quality of action within it” (Elliott, p. 69). “
So the “action” part means that the individuals and the system being studied is (hopefully) going to be improved in the process, and this improvement is an express goal. Moreover the “inhabitants” of the system embrace this goal and cooperate and collaborate in the enterprise (or at least don’t resists against it). In medicine, the doctor tries to recruit the cooperation of the patient as much as possible, but if the patient is too weak, the doctor proceeds unilaterally towards bringing about health whilst minimizing discomfort. .
When Barry was studying Systems Theory at Stanford, there was yet another name for this kind of practice. There (and elsewhere in management literature) it’s called Operations Research. In the case of Operations Research, the subject is usually an organization or a business. The business operations are studied with a view toward improving them (or even optimizing them, if possible).
Here is where I will leave this phantom rendition exercise for the time being ...
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Barry Kort It's called "Action Research" because that's what the Education Community decided to call the practice.
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Esteban Trev Just because they chose to call it that does not implicate that I have to call it that... and just because they chose to focus on problem-solutions instead of appropriately handling situations does not implicate that I have to focus on problem-solutions instead of appropriately handling situations especially when the focus on appropriately handling situations be better and handles appropriately the problematique as well as a host of other stuff...
Incidentally did not recognize in your responses the answer to "do you want an phantom rendition that takes the linked article and transmutes it from problem solution to appropriate situational handelings ..."
Barry Kort If you go to the public library intending to find Jerry Pine's book on Teacher Action Research and you ask the librarian for a book on "A Practitioner's Guide to Actionable Realizations Acts" you will invariably come up empty-handed.
Esteban Trev Barry Kort unless the book "A Practitioner's Guide to Actionable Realizations Acts" has been written and published and put in that library
Esteban Trev Barry Kort have sought to do such a feat on many occasions and seem to quickly lose focus as this leads to that and in my mind it seems so simple and done to the point that I do not bother to make it into tangible stuff... sort of like many inventions and product... once created do not seem to have the motivation and drive it takes to commercialize such stuff
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Barry Kort "Do you want a phantom rendition that takes the linked article and transmutes it from problem solution to appropriate situational handlings?" ~ "Esteban Trev
Not particularly, no.
I frankly wouldn't know what to make of such a phantom transmutation.
In a word, I would become bewildered, confused and perplexed by it.
Esteban Trev Barry Kort ok thanks for responding if you wanted or did not want such realization to be done. had it been yes I would had endeavored a bit more in creating and sharing with you and others such a rendition & transmutation, but given you opted not for such stuff will simply leave this here... and just mention that I do consider each better do the shift from problem solution to appropriate situational handlings...
Barry Kort Whenever I fail to solve a problem, I switch to memorializing my insoluble problem with an essay, pithy epigram, song parody, fable, allegory, parable, or comic opera.
Esteban Trev Barry me consider pertinent to do do a phantom rendition of that last succinct response to transpose & transmute, what was given by you to what be prefered by me... that is do consider each better do the shift from problem solution to appropriate situational handlings...
thus what you stated would be made by me into ---Whenever I succeed to handle a situation appropriately, I switch to memorializing such particular situation with an essay, pithy epigram, song parody, fable, allegory, parable, or comic opera---- Me may do that whenever I fail to handle a situation appropriately too... as well as in other situations and instances, be such before during or after encountering such stuff to handle appropriately...
Barry Kort That's not the causal sequence I employ.
I first try to solve a niggling problem. If I fail, I write up the misadventure or memorialize it in a comedic format.
Which brings me around to an observation, Esteban ...
To the best of my knowledge and recollection, I've never seen you crack a joke, emote a smile, or laugh.
Has one slipped by me, undetected?
Esteban Trev Barry oh many a joke and a crack and emotive smiles and laughters have slipped on by undetected by you and many others...
I imagine that the niggling problem has to do with the situation being perceived as a problem to be solved rather than as a situ…See More
Esteban Trev Barry Kort the right answer was "what is the question"?, that is the question ... Not sure why someone will claim that the answer is that there is no answer when some realize that there is an answer ... as to the answer being right or wrong on indeterminate of whatever... depens on the particulars involved...
Esteban Trev Barry sometimes we can laugh at the incongruencies between what is stated and done... yea sometimes the answer is to just laugh at the question which implies that sometimes the answer is not to laugh at the question and maybe do something be it to run away from such stuff or run into such stuff or simply stand and respond accordingly ... sometimes the key be in knowing when to laugh and when to hold them and when to fold them and when to walk and when to run... there be time for ...
Esteban Trev You've got to know when to hold 'em
Know when to fold 'em
Know when to walk away
And know when to run
You never count your money
When you're sittin' at the table
There'll be time enough for countin'
When the dealin's done
Every gambler knows
That the secret to survivin'
Is knowin' what to throw away
And knowin' what to keep
'Cause every hand's a winner
And every hand's a loser
Barry Kort My experience is that more people (by far) will state a problem (for which they have no solution) than will undertake to solve it.
But even among those who conscientiously undertake to solve a problem, the first step is to simply state (or restate) the problem.
Esteban Trev Barry Kort that's the problem which creates all sort of additional situations and problems... which we may alleviate and maybe altogether sideline by focusing on handling the situation at hand as such better and best be handled whilst implementing routines and practices to prevent or mitigate such occurrences from repeating or flurrying again and again and again.
In a way this may be related to the myth of the objective... and Why Greatness Cannot Be Planned see or hear what Kenneth Stanley has to say about this... am presently looking at the following video... where such a person mentions that seeking to get to an objective or to a solution may well keep one from getting to such locations...where as other approaches may get us there and much better and faster ...
for whatever reason you seem to be fixated onto problem-solution even when invited to shift unto situational appropriate handlings... involving situations rather than the situations where there be the stuff you seem to be fixated onto... even when I mention to write about adventures that resulted in success and good stuff you seem to me to revert back unto "... but me want to write about bad adventures that resulted in failure and bad stuff whilst seeking a humorous pun about such tragedies" instead of "...ok will want and desire and write about adventures that resulted in success and stuff that be good and produces wellness seeking to also include a humorous pun about such stuff"
Barry Kort Rather than continuing to solve the intractable problem of trying to understand and make sense of your comments, I did shift to what you call "handling the situation" another way.
I haven't mentioned to you what that other way is (other than in vague generalities), although I reckon you will stumble upon it sooner or later.
Esteban Trev Barry maybe there will be a time and a place to understand and make sense as best and better be done... hope that the shift to "handling the situation" another way involved the better and best way... else you would just be doing the same thing in a different form... and thus such would not involve a real actual shift from what you where doing...
Not sure what you meant by "I haven't mentioned to you what that other way is (other than in vague generalities), although I reckon you will stumble upon it sooner or later"... who knows it may be best to know or not to know... in time we will know and understand or maybe not...
Barry Kort Maybe that time and place will appear someday, and maybe not.
Maybe that time and place will find me, as I have not yet found it within the resources of time and energy available for me to expend on a problem that is evidently (and manifestly) beyond my ken.
Esteban Trev Barry Kort maybe such found you and slipped on by without you realizing such happenances... or with you willfully opting to not recognize such happenings nor delve into such stuff under the influence that such be evidently and manifestly beyond thy ken and not within the resources of time and energy available for you for such stuff.
Esteban Trev Barry Kort Mebbe. And mebbe not. for maybe you do have the evidence to resolve among the alternatives and are simply not handling such as such better and best be handled (and claiming you lack the evidence to resolve among the alternatives as a rationalization to explain why you are not handling such as such better and best be handled ) ... I think you have been given the evidence to resolve among the alternatives, given that I have given such evidence for you to recognize, and employ, and I have observed how you basically ignores such stuff making up claims that do not properly assess the situation at hand... sometimes stating that such be a word salad or impossible cryptic message to decipher ...
Write a reply...
Barry Kort The time has come, Esteban, to put my tedious review before your eyes to see whether you viciously lampoon it or congenially endorse it.
Herewith is my revised perception of what you are up to, you sneaky devil.
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Esteban Trev ---In short, some takes stories as told turns them upside down, downside up right side left and backside forward causing themselves to both laugh uproariously and feel slightly uncomfortable for having become disoriented and quite dizzy, not that they knew which side was which to begin with ... well that does seem to be the general underlying issue with many responses to what be stated by me ...
as someone said to me : "Don't understand what you , but it's wrong". Yikes, they could not understand 'stuff' and somehow managed to determine such was not right, instead of realizing such was right!
BTW in my case I did understand what you just stated, could prove that to be the case, and did recognize consider and handled such accordingly... via this ... and the other stuff posted in the other place you posted a similar if not identical post...
M Ichael Josefowicz Barry Kort You might want to know that I consider everything I have been doing in Africa as Action Research. The work is a collaboration between myself and the village leaders in each of the six villages.
It is a much longer story, but I have learned more about the granular details of life in different villages than I every believed possible. It points to a new possibility. We have collaborated for months and I never left my kitchen table. That is important as my days of traveling are over.
It is action research as there are no end of problems that have to be solved. As soon as one is solved the next one presents it self. Problems is not the best way to describe. Each "problem" solved creates more opportunities. Back in the dot com days,we used to call that "high class" problems.
Barry Kort Besides the late Jerry Pine (who was my neighbor), Susan Awbrey (spouse of Jonny Cache), is also a subject-matter expert and practitioner of Action Research.
M Ichael Josefowicz Barry Kort I've set my task to find a rigorous theoretical framework for Action Research.
I start with defining a self organizing complex system as an evolving energy transmitting network of energy augmenting bounded networks.
Each village is a bounded network. With a small amount of money to install a solar wifi and two computers it augments the energy resident in the people in the village. In one case the 2 computers has grown to 6 computers, an internet TV and a printer. All the functionalities are housed in a rented space with beautiful furniture made be a carpenter in the village.
Once the infrastructure was completed the earned revenue has increased every month for the last four months. Last month he added computer training for village who pay the equivalent of $19 for a three week course. He has also begun a program of giving micro grants instead of looking for micro grants.
The energy transmitting part is that one person received a micro grant to grow his brick manufacturing enterprise. Just yesterday he sold 3500 bricks to someone in a nearby town. One of the graduates of the three week course in computer skills just got a paying job in another location to do data entry.
The money each earn by connecting with people in their new networks brings new energy back to the bounded network of the village.
It is a general theory in that the same lens can be used for education, community development, global political economy and facebook communities.
M Ichael Josefowicz Barry Kort Exactly! The key to that process are the micro loans. I started my work with micro investments. Return is measured by the number of jobs that have been created, increased educational opportunities and capacity building in the form of earning money to reinvest in the enterprise.
The more capital there is for investment, the larger the village micro investment fund grows. The more it grows the more micro loans. The more micro loans the larger the investment funds. Micro loans have an interest rate attached.
The more education the more paying jobs. The more paying jobs the more people see the value of $19 for education.
I think it is interesting in the self similarity of me making micro investments and Joseph in the village now has the capacity to do the same. In my work I coach/mentor Joseph. And now he is coaching/mentoring the people to whom he makes micro loans.
Write a reply...
Barry Kort Over on WordPress, a new comment arrived this morning in my moderation queue for the article on "Action Research." I haven't approved it yet, mainly because I'm still scratching my head trying to figure out what it says and what it means.
Lohr Krigengel of Dunedin Florida (AKA "War&Peace" on WordPress) writes:
"And leading from behind maybe is where the focus might be best at this point in reaching a consensus that will 'make it OK' to not have all the answers and collaborate, rather than denigrate the work of those that do not put breadcrumbs everywhere in uncharted maps."
Can anybody here help me make sense of that comment?
I'm not averse to approving Lohr's comment, but I have no idea how to reply to it since I'm unclear on what he's saying.
cc: Anne-Marie LaMonde, Peter Jones, Noah Oopswrongplanet Henderson
Esteban Trev yes some here can help... basically its a critique of them who choose to denigrate and demean rather than appreciate and seek to understand... and to be clearly put: you display that denigratory behaviour quite a bit, at least what is what seems to show from some of the conversations with me and others you have had which I have read...
Barry Kort I deprecate the practice of intentionally writing incomprehensible prose. It's a rude and inconsiderate practice.
Esteban Trev Barry well some readers take comprehensible prose that be prose that can be comprehended in a comprehensible fashion and perceive such as incomprehensible and then claim the prose is incomprehensible instead of realizing what they have done ... often blaming the prose or the writer for such icomprehensibeness ...
Barry Kort I am not "some reader." And I take vigorous exception to anyone who would characterize me as such.
Are you intentionally characterizing me as such?
Yes or no?
Esteban Trev Barry will restate what I stated
well some readers take comprehensible prose that be prose that can be comprehended in a comprehensible fashion and perceive such as incomprehensible and then claim the prose is incomprehensible instead of realizing what they have done ... often blaming the prose or the writer for such icomprehensibeness ...
You claimed " I am not 'some reader.' And I take vigorous exception to anyone who would characterize me as such". So are you right about what you claimed?
As to "Are you intentionally characterizing me as such? Yes or no"?... well If the shoe fits, wear it... that is " If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck"... unless it is a decoy made to look swim and quack like a duck.
Barry Kort Esteban, I am on the verge of abandoning you.
It's not something that I will do lightly. But it is something I definitely will do.
Yes or no, Mr. Trevino.
Yes or no?
Esteban Trev Barry Kort do what be best done as best be done just ensure that you do do what be best done as best be done... Incidentally I too have been on the verge of simply abandoning many interactions and conversations instead of continuing to seek a shared understanding especially when the evidences depicts the telltale signs and show that the other seek something else... ultimately if you choose to abandon or embrace a dialogue has more to do with you, than with me, though I have a hunch you want to reverse that, so as to rationalize you had no choice but to do what you did... instead of recognize that from the alternatives you picked the one you picked... because you willed to pick that alternative rather than pick some other alternative...
From what you stated in that last response you have already made up a decision ... though who knows you may reconsider and opt to do do what be best done as best be done... and for the record me will seek to do the same thing and do ensure to do what be best done as best be done... be well and do good.