Interiority as the Cutting Edge between Theory and Practice: A First Person Perspective

"The three realms of meaning: practical knowing, theory and interiority provide a framework for understanding the epistemological challenges confronting action researchers. Action researchers have two external horizons: that of practice and that of theory. Practice engages with the world of practical knowing, where the challenges are the successful completion of practical tasks. Theory engages the realm of scholarship as action researchers seek to develop understanding of, for example, the dynamics of organization and change. Interiority involves shifting from what we know to how we know, and is a process of intellectual self-awareness. Interiority goes beyond practical knowing and theory, not by negating them or leaving them behind, but appreciating them and recognizing their limitations. Interiority is the integrating factor that enables action researchers to hold both, to appreciate the value of both and to move from one to the other appropriately. It is a process at the cutting edge of integrating theory, practice and research." (author's abstract

Developing the Scholar-Practitioner

There is a growing interest in the notion of the scholarship of practice and with it that of the scholar-practitioner. Scholar-practitioners are not merely practitioners who do research but rather that they integrate scholarship in their practice and generate actionable knowledge, that is, knowledge that is robust for scholars and actionable for practitioners. In this mode they engage as reflective practitioners, manager-researchers, practitioner-researchers, i.e. who engage in a science of action and who produce useful research. Scholar-practitioners, while not always referred to as such, have existed in medicine for a long time and may be found in fields, such as educational administration, law and other professions. One may also catch it in acting and in actor-director context where eminent practitioners demonstrate their skills and the underlying theory-in use in master classes

Building capacity for learning and change through reflective conversation

"Conversation is central to the process of organizational learning and change. Drawing on the notion of reflective conversation, we describe an action research project, “learning through listening” in Omega, a residential healthcare organization. In this project, service users, staff, members of management committees, trustees, managers, and central office staff participated in listening to each other and in working together towards building capacity for creating their own vision of how the organization could move into the future, according to its values and ethos. In doing so they developed ways of engaging in reflective conversation that enabled progress towards a strategic direction." (author's abstract

Exploiting the Reach to Explore the Richness in Inter-organizational Action Research

"Exploring and exploiting the richness and reach of large scale action research projects is a challenge. This challenge focuses inwards as it addresses critical issues of enacting, managing and coordinating the actions of the project and engaging in the reflective processes of learning-inaction and knowledge generation by multiple actors and groups engaged in the project. It simultaneously focuses outwards as it seeks to exploit both the processes of the action research itself and the dissemination of actionable knowledge to multiple audiences. This article describes and reflects upon the challenges of exploring and exploiting richness and reach arising in the CO-IMPROVE project, a European Union (EU) funded initiative involving action research in complex networks of academics and business. The objectives of CO-IMPROVE included the facilitation of collaborative improvement of operations practice and performance in the extended manufacturing enterprise through action research among both managers and academics." (author's abstract

Action Research in Hospitality and Tourism Research

In the context of tourism and hospitality studies, the potential of action research for generating robust actionable knowledge has not been yet realized. This chapter provides an account of the theory and practice of action research, demonstrates how it may be designed and implemented, and how it may generate actionable knowledge. It provides illustrative examples and shows how this research approach aligns effectively with some of the themes that currently engage the attention of researchers in the fields of tourism and hospitality such as process improvement, sustainability, and community-based tourism development. Thus, it makes a case for more widespread use of action research in the field

Developing Practice in Healthcare: The Contribution of Bildung to Negotiating the Tensions among Practical, Professional and Organisational Knowing

"Action research provides a framework for developing practice in healthcare. While developing practice typically implies a combination of patient centeredness, quality improvement and change, conflicts arise in how concepts such as patient centredness are defined. Developing practice invites attention to positionality and engagement with policy directives, trends in clinical care, and other disciplines each with their own language stratification reflecting particular sets of values and beliefs. Our process of engagement is value-based, requiring attention to different and often conflicting languages or worldviews. We understand practice development as responding to different calls from the system, our individual disciplines, patients and changing discourses in healthcare, each exerting different pressures at different times. This paper describes an action research project aimed at developing nursing practice through engaging with two conflicting philosophies of care. We illustrate the contribution made by a particular understanding of Bildung to engaging with positionality, different voices in healthcare and the context of care in a complex environment. Bildung, as self-cultivation, invites engagement with other as an underpinning for developing practice beginning with first person inquiry. The idea of Bildung drew attention to the local moral world of nursing and the experience of dual citizenship. Dual citizenship reflected engagement with conflicting care philosophies and notions of evidence." (author's abstract

Static, Rotordynamic, and Thermal Characteristics of a Four Pad Spherical-Seat Tilting Pad Journal Bearing with Four Methods of Directed Lubrication

Static, dynamic, and thermal characteristics (measured and predicted) are presented for a 4-pad, spherical-seat, TPJB with 0.5 pivot offset, 0.6 L/D, 101.6 mm nominal diameter, and 0.3 preload in the LBP orientation. One bearing is tested four separate times in the following four different lubrication configurations: (1) flooded single-orifice (SO) at the bearing shell, (2) evacuated leading edge groove (LEG), (3) evacuated spray-bar blocker (SBB), and (4) evacuated spray-bar (SB). The LEG, SBB, and SB are all considered methods of “directed lubrication”. These methods rely on lubrication injected directly to the pad/rotor interface. The same set of pads is used for every test to maintain clearance and preload; each method of lubrication is added as an assembly to the bearing. Test conditions include surface speeds and unit loads up to 85 m/s and 2.9 MPa respectively. Static data includes measured bearing clearances prior to operation (cold) and immediately after operation (hot), rotor-bearing eccentricities and attitude angles, and a new approach to locating the hot center of a bearing. Dynamic data includes: (1) impedance values calculated from measured accelerations, displacements, and excitation forces; and (2) four sets (one set for each bearing configuration) of direct and cross-coupled rotordynamic coefficients derived from measurements and fit to a frequency independent KCM model. Thermal data include measured temperatures from sixteen bearing thermocouples along with inlet, outlet, stator housing, and ambient thermocouples. Twelve of the bearing thermocouples are embedded in the babbitt layer of the pads while the remaining four are oriented at the leading and trailing edge of the loaded pads exposed to the lubricant. Bearing thermocouples provide a circumferential and axial temperature gradient. The pivot stiffness (pad and pivot in series) is measured and incorporated into predictions. Measured static, dynamic, and thermal values are compared to predictions from XL_TPJB, a computer code developed at the Texas A&M University Turbomachinery Lab for predicting bearing performance. Measurements show significant cross-coupled stiffness terms with opposite signs and magnitudes that are 20-50% of the direct terms, a max axial temperature gradient of 9.6 °C, and attitude angles as high as 29°; all of these indicate that the tilt motion of the pad may be impeded by friction between the spherical pivot and the pad. Temperature measurements show directed lubrication, coupled with an evacuated bearing housing, reduces max bearing temperatures up to 13.9 °C for the LEG, 10.2 °C for the SBB, and 12.8 °C for the SB. Although the SB and SBB reduce the max bearing temperature as intended, they can also cause an increase in temperatures at the leading and trailing edges of the loaded pads. The LEG typically reduced temperatures at all locations. Compared to the base case of the flooded SO, directed lubrication reduces the max bearing temperature. Additionally, the dynamics of the system can also be significantly impacted. Using directed lubrication can reduce direct stiffness by up to 18% for the LEG, 25% for the SBB, and 20% for the SB. Similarly, the direct damping can be reduced by up to 24% for the LEG, 45% for the SBB, and 34% for the SB

Unpacking action research and implementation science: Implications for nursing

Aim The aim of this study was to unpack the key concepts of action research and implementation science thereby enabling appropriate use of these methods in nursing. Background A key issue in action research is not so much the methodology employed to gather data/evidence but who decides the research agenda and who benefits from it. Implementation science is a way to ensure that evidence is translated into practice. The question arises as to how action research and implementation may be understood in relation to one another in nursing. Design Discussion Paper Data sources This discussion paper is based on our own experiences and offers an exploration of action research and implementation science with the aim of clarifying what each involves and what synergies, if any, exist between them. Implications for Nursing Using action research to secure the voice of patients in their own care is essential to delivering quality nursing care. Using implementation science frameworks to get research evidence into practice is effective. Familiarity with both these concepts may enable their improved use and have a positive impact on quality of care. Conclusion There is a tension between action researchers and the protagonists of implementation science related to perceived “trade offs” between what constitutes “science” and the necessity of community participation. Nevertheless, the use of an implementation science framework in an action research approach can reduce the research practice time lag and action research provides sound theoretical and philosophical underpinnings that can be used by those in the implementation science field

Action Research and Collaborative Management Research: More than Meets the Eye?

"Action research and collaborative management research emerge from different traditions and each begins from a different foundational position in regard to action and to collaboration. Both are different from the traditional research, evaluative research or practitioner research orientations. From a grounding in a philosophy of practical knowing as social science, this article engages in a comparative theoretical exploration of action research and collaborative management research through a focus on the operations of human knowing which yield a general empirical method. It reviews the origins of each approach and how they differ significantly from each other in the context in which they operate, with consequent differences in how the research is implemented and how the relationship between the parties is structured. The general empirical method provides a critical perspective on assessing the quality of action research and collaborative management research in terms of dimensions of real-life action, the quality of collaboration, the quality of inquiry in action and sustainability. The aim is to develop understanding of how these two approaches relate to one another so as to advance knowledge of the different modalities or expressions that comprise the broad field of action- and collaborativeoriented research as a social science of practical knowing." (author's abstract