A recent evaluation of a students-as-researchers project in Brisbane, Australia found that the use of participatory action research offers a means by which marginalised students, teachers, and university researchers can work collaboratively towards positive outcomes for the participants and their schools. In discussing the relevant theory and the…

This paper describes the use of a peer research methodology to explore disaffected young people's views on alternative education. This model was adopted in order to try to ensure an equilibrium of power between interviewer and interviewee, allow marginalised young people's voices to be heard and help generate social action. The approach is…

This article describes a participatory action research project undertaken as a partnership between student, teacher and nurse co-researchers at a Canadian alternative high school. A key purpose of this research was to explore and interpret the meaning of this partnership for mental health promoting nursing practices with adolescents. Following a…

Historically the voices of children in research have been silent. They are often seen as victims or beneficiaries of research rather than co-researchers or partners. This is beginning to change with growing awareness that involving children in the design, delivery and evaluation of services can make services more accessible to them and their…

High school dropout rates in many major urban settings in the United States have remained above 50% for more than three decades. This dropout crisis should now be considered evidence of an endemic lack of appreciation for formal education in city locales. United States federal policy initiatives have concentrated the nation on notions of teacher…

This article reports on the outcomes of an action research project on gender and science education carried out in two upper secondary schools in Sweden. The article focuses on how student voices draw on wider societal discourses when they talk about what it means to be natural science students at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The…

This article describes a research project undertaken as part of a Master's degree drawing on the author's recent professional experience as a primary teacher and headteacher. It explores the possibilities and benefits of supporting the development of social research skills with a class of seven- and eight-year-old (Year 3) children in one English…

Research literature on students as researchers demonstrates a spectrum of constructive ways in which students are being actively engaged in school and classroom action inquiries. Any identified tensions lie in the degree to which students themselves are genuinely engaged as action researchers. Increasingly, externally driven agendas for change and…

The notion of "pupil voice" reproduces the binary distinction between adult and child, pupil and teacher and therefore serves to reinforce "conventional" constructions of childhood. The concept of "voice" invokes an essentialist construction of self that is singular, coherent, consistent and rational. It is arguably more useful to reflect on self…

This paper explores the perspectives of teachers who initially observed, and later came to participate in, a pupil voice initiative in a primary school. Such "marginal" points of view are often neglected in discussions of youth participation. The article aims to demonstrate that whilst adult support for pupil voice is crucial in ensuring its…

This study describes three action cycles I identified retrospectively and examines the processes I underwent through the lens of research literature dealing with leadership. I then provide a retrospective account of my reflections on my actions over a four-year period. As the head of the Elementary School Department in a teacher education college,…

This collaborative piece written by a philosopher/action researcher and an action researcher/philosopher explores the use of practical philosophy as a tool in action research. The paper explores the connection to be made between what we refer to, roughly, as "theory" and "practice" (while never losing hold of either). The connection is made around…

This study illustrates the use of analytic memos during the action research process as a space to support preservice teachers' emerging teacher identity and construction of practice through critical reflexivity. The authors reviewed 34 sets of analytic memos written by graduate preservice teachers by asking, "How are preservice teachers using the…

The increasing complexity of the teaching profession calls for engaged professionals in their professional development. This article claims that participative types of research contribute differently to professional development. Its intent is to explore the different contributions action research and collaborative research bring. One action…

This paper engages with some of the specific issues that challenge critical practice. My argument is related to the Carr and Kemmis debate on "staying critical" and to ideas expressed in my current book, "Community Development: A Critical Approach." I refer to critical practice as any practice that has a transformative social justice intention,…