Collaborative Research Methodologies

This critical ethnography investigates the pedagogical spaces constituted within a youth-led, participatory theatre production, Surviving in the Cracks (Wager et al., 2009).  The popular theatre production documented the lived experiences of eight street-youth, including their struggles to survive in the face of cuts to public health resources in Vancouver.  As an applied theatre study, this theatre project is defined as a messy and rich site of pedagogical inquiry that is examined through multiple theoretical and methodological frameworks.  It draws on critical feminist pedagogy, critical youth studies and theatre and literacy research with the purpose of revealing how drama and theatre spaces provide “anomalous” (Ellsworth, 2005) learning places, or out-of-the-ordinary learning spaces, that youth and researchers collectively embodied during the applied drama and theatre process and production. 
Analysis of ethnographic data generated before, during, and after the theatrical production of Surviving in the Cracks suggests how drama and theatre with street youth opens up embodied pedagogical spaces.  Two different methods of analysis bring multiple perspectives to this work through exploring how meaning was collectively constructed, how multimodal literacy practices were used in critical ways, how power was negotiated, how desire was manifested through imaginaries, and how safe spaces were generated by this community of youth within selected pedagogical moments of resistance during the theatre process.  Specifically, the script is analyzed with a youth participant, followed by the analysis of particular moments of resistance during performance creation and production. 
This research advances knowledge of how informal learning spaces and youth resistances within education become crucial parts of pedagogy and should be considered as future foundations and expansions of education.  Implications include using multiple methodological lenses in order to work alongside, for and with youth, as well as being able to reach larger audiences of youth, communities, educators, and scholars through different analytical perspectives.  By examining how theatre provides a space for marginalized youth to engage in dialogues about complex social issues, this research contributes to the fields of critical and feminist pedagogy, language and literacy education, drama in education, critical youth studies, and collaborative methodological studies in qualitative research.

Resumen: Este artículo aborda el uso de imágenes en las investigaciones socioantropológicas bajo el marco teórico-metodológico de la performance-investigación. A partir de tres experiencias desarrolladas en diferentes contextos sociopolíticos violentos y/o traumáticos en Argentina (un taller de video con maestros indígenas toba-qom, una videodanza en las ruinas de Villa Epecuén y una instalación performática sobre el movimiento feminista NiUnaMenos) se reflexiona sobre las relaciones entre performance-cámara-corporalidades y se indaga en el potencial poético-epistemológico-político de las imágenes para (re)presentar corporalidades sensi-bles. En diálogo con otros modos de indagación encarnada, el análisis sugiere cómo el uso de imágenes en un abordaje transdisciplinar e intercultural crítico activa procesos de documenta-ción y memoria, contribuye al desarrollo de estrategias participativas-colaborativas, y habilita un espacio para la descolonización de nuestra(s) mirada(s) y la transformación micropolítica. PalabRas clave: imágenes, performance-investigación, investigación-creación colaborativa, prácticas decoloniales, micropolítica. From the eye-body to the embodied-eye. The use of images in performance-research strategies abstRact: This article discusses the use of images in socio-anthropological research and their contribution to the development of performance-research methodological strategies. By bringing three research-creation collaborative experiences developed in different violent and/or traumatic socio-political contexts in Argentina (a video workshop conducted with indigenous toba-qom teachers, a video-dance in the ruins of Villa Epecuén and a performatic installation about the feminist movement NiUnaMenos) it reflects on different relationships between performance-camera-corporalities and explores the poetic-epistemological-political potential of the images to (re)present sensitive corporalities. In dialogue with other embodied research methods, the analysis suggests how the use of images in a cross-disciplinary approach can contribute to the development of participatory-collaborative strategies and enable a space for decolonizing our gaze(s) and micropolitical transformation.

Les décideurs publics ... se familiariseront avec les avantages de l'approche Living Lab et les effets structurants de cette méthodologie à l'échelle d'un territoire. Les investisseurs potentiels dans les projets de Living Lab ... comprendront mieux les modèles d'affaires et les pratiques en termes de gestion de la propriété intellectuelle. Les praticiens en innovation ouverte ... consolideront leur compréhension de ce qui caractérise la méthodologie Living Lab et sauront mieux reconnaître les projets d'innovation qui s'y prêtent. Les porteurs de projets de Living Lab ... découvriront les pratiques d'autres Living Labs et pourront les comparer pour s'en inspirer. Les usagers et citoyens ... pourront s'initier aux concepts et se les approprier de manière à entrer plus facilement en dialogue avec les parties prenantes d'un projet particulier dans lequel ils seraient impliqués.

This article reports on the role and value of social reflexivity in collaborative research in contexts of extreme inequality. Social reflexivity mediates the enablements and constraints generated by the internal and external contextual conditions impinging on the research collaboration. It fosters the ability of participants in a collaborative project to align their interests and collectively extend their agency towards a common purpose. It influences the productivity and quality of learning outcomes of the research collaboration. The article is written by fourteen members of a larger research team, which comprised 18 individuals working within the academic development environment in eight South African universities. The overarching research project investigated the participation of academics in professional development activities, and how contextual, i.e. structural and cultural, and agential conditions, influence this participation. For this sub-study on the experience of the collaboration by fourteen of the researchers, we wrote reflective pieces on our own experience of participating in the project towards the end of the third year of its duration. We discuss the structural and cultural conditions external to and internal to the project, and how the social reflexivity of the participants mediated these conditions. We conclude with the observation that policy injunctions and support from funding agencies for collaborative research, as well as support from participants' home institutions are necessary for the flourishing of collaborative research, but that the commitment by individual participants to participate, learn and share, is also necessary.

This article reports on the role and value of social reflexivity in collaborative research in contexts of extreme inequality. Social reflexivity mediates the enablements and constraints generated by the internal and external contextual conditions impinging on the research collaboration. It fosters the ability of participants in a collaborative project to align their interests and collectively extend their agency towards a common purpose. It influences the productivity and quality of learning outcomes of the research collaboration. The article is written by fourteen members of a larger research team, which comprised 18 individuals working within the academic development environment in eight South African universities. The overarching research project investigated the participation of academics in professional development activities, and how contextual, i.e. structural and cultural, and agential conditions, influence this participation. For this sub-study on the experience of the collaboration by fourteen of the researchers, we wrote reflective pieces on our own experience of participating in the project towards the end of the third year of its duration. We discuss the structural and cultural conditions external to and internal to the project, and how the social reflexivity of the participants mediated these conditions. We conclude with the observation that policy injunctions and support from funding agencies for collaborative research, as well as support from participants' home institutions are necessary for the flourishing of collaborative research, but that the commitment by individual participants to participate, learn and share, is also necessary.

This article reports on the role and value of social reflexivity in collaborative research in contexts of extreme inequality. Social reflexivity mediates the enablements and constraints generated by the internal and external contextual conditions impinging on the research collaboration. It fosters the ability of participants in a collaborative project to align their interests and collectively extend their agency towards a common purpose. It influences the productivity and quality of learning outcomes of the research collaboration. The article is written by fourteen members of a larger research team, which comprised 18 individuals working within the academic development environment in eight South African universities. The overarching research project investigated the participation of academics in professional development activities, and how contextual, i.e. structural and cultural, and agential conditions, influence this participation. For this sub-study on the experience of the collaboration by fourteen of the researchers, we wrote reflective pieces on our own experience of participating in the project towards the end of the third year of its duration. We discuss the structural and cultural conditions external to and internal to the project, and how the social reflexivity of the participants mediated these conditions. We conclude with the observation that policy injunctions and support from funding agencies for collaborative research, as well as support from participants' home institutions are necessary for the flourishing of collaborative research, but that the commitment by individual participants to participate, learn and share, is also necessary.

In this work, I share some reflections about my experience of collaboration with an English teacher in the state education system in Goiânia city, Goiás state, Brazil. The research aimed to investigate the issues and challenges that permeate the collaboration between researchers and teachers. To substantiate the discussion, I seek support in theories that explore: aspects and challenges of regular public education in Brazil; the conditions of teaching and learning foreign languages , especially English, in public schools; policies of foreign language teacher education; the relationship between collaborative research / reflection and teacher education; and, finally, the disparity between universities and schools in the production of pedagogical knowledge. This is a collaborative and emancipatory study as it encourages the collaborative production of knowledge between a researcher and a teacher. Through a questionnaire, three reflection sessions and a field diary, two main aspects were selected for analysis: the initial barriers to collaboration between the participants; and the reflections that participants produced in and through collaborative action. The analysis of these aspects showed that collaborative research can reduce the abyssal lines that separate researchers, as articulators of the theory, and teachers in their practice, making room for an ecology of knowledge in school.

This article reports on the role and value of social reflexivity in collaborative research in contexts of extreme inequality. Social reflexivity mediates the enablements and constraints generated by the internal and external contextual conditions impinging on the research collaboration. It fosters the ability of participants in a collaborative project to align their interests and collectively extend their agency towards a common purpose. It influences the productivity and quality of learning outcomes of the research collaboration. The article is written by fourteen members of a larger research team, which comprised 18 individuals working within the academic development environment in eight South African universities. The overarching research project investigated the participation of academics in professional development activities, and how contextual, i.e. structural and cultural, and agential conditions, influence this participation. For this sub-study on the experience of the collaboration by fourteen of the researchers, we wrote reflective pieces on our own experience of participating in the project towards the end of the third year of its duration. We discuss the structural and cultural conditions external to and internal to the project, and how the social reflexivity of the participants mediated these conditions. We conclude with the observation that policy injunctions and support from funding agencies for collaborative research, as well as support from participants' home institutions are necessary for the flourishing of collaborative research, but that the commitment by individual participants to participate, learn and share, is also necessary.

This article reports on the role and value of social reflexivity in collaborative research in contexts of extreme inequality. Social reflexivity mediates the enablements and constraints generated by the internal and external contextual conditions impinging on the research collaboration. It fosters the ability of participants in a collaborative project to align their interests and collectively extend their agency towards a common purpose. It influences the productivity and quality of learning outcomes of the research collaboration. The article is written by fourteen members of a larger research team, which comprised 18 individuals working within the academic development environment in eight South African universities. The overarching research project investigated the participation of academics in professional development activities, and how contextual, i.e. structural and cultural, and agential conditions, influence this participation. For this sub-study on the experience of the collaboration by fourteen of the researchers, we wrote reflective pieces on our own experience of participating in the project towards the end of the third year of its duration. We discuss the structural and cultural conditions external to and internal to the project, and how the social reflexivity of the participants mediated these conditions. We conclude with the observation that policy injunctions and support from funding agencies for collaborative research, as well as support from participants' home institutions are necessary for the flourishing of collaborative research, but that the commitment by individual participants to participate, learn and share, is also necessary.

This thesis investigates the maritime cultural landscape of Point Pearce Mission/ Burgiyana, in the Yorke Peninsula/Guuranda region of South Australia. The research seeks to understand Indigenous maritime activities within a defined conceptual framework through a case study-based, inductive and interpretive approach. This interpretation perceives the participation of Indigenous peoples in Australia’s maritime industry as an important component of Australian maritime heritage with the potential to shed light on a number of areas including boatbuilding, labouring in the shipping trade—both at sea and on land—and working in the fishing economy. Previous archaeological research has not employed a maritime cultural landscape framework to explore issues of importance to Indigenous communities. The framework, arguably one of the most popular in the maritime archaeology field, is derived from research conducted in Europe and hence has had a Western focus and research agenda. Further, maritime archaeological studies have neglected Indigenous missions as potential sites/landscapes and, similarly, archaeological research at missions has largely ignored maritime aspects.

This study is based upon the collection of 13 oral histories, as well as terrestrial, coastal and underwater archaeological investigations and primary archival research. The data was collated taking into account the 11 thematic facets of the maritime cultural landscape as advocated by Westerdahl (2008, 2011). The latter information was then used to explore the usefulness and suitability of the maritime cultural landscape approach in an Indigenous Australian post-contact context. In particular, an assessment of the maritime cultural landscape was conducted in this research to consider whether it provided the necessary suite of methods (and associated rationale) to accommodate a cohesive recording of areas important to Indigenous Australian communities (i.e. beliefs, knowledges and lived experiences) and whether it provided a useful interpretive structure.

The research reveals that the maritime cultural landscape framework is generally, with qualifications, suitable for the investigation of Indigenous Australian post- contact contexts and is worthwhile in the sense that it can foreground the contribution of Indigenous peoples in Australia’s maritime industry. The aforementioned 11 thematic facets of the maritime cultural landscape are demonstrated in this research to be flexible across contexts, however several issues emerge from this case study. These issues have been broadly grouped into five themes as follows: 1) Colonial archives and local histories often silence Aboriginal peoples; 2) Maritime cultural landscape facets need to encompass non-Western systems of knowledge; 3) Maritime archaeology discourse and underpinning attitudes need to be deconstructed; 4) Maritime archaeology in Australia is generally Eurocentric; and 5) Oral histories are an integral source for exploring Indigenous maritime cultural landscapes. Consequently, it is argued that the maritime cultural landscape approach should be adopted more frequently, taking into account Indigenous themes in maritime archaeology, although the research process should be carefully examined for Eurocentricity. Additionally, the outcomes of the project illustrate that Indigenous maritime cultural landscapes are not only a prominent part of the Australian landscape, but also provoke reconsiderations regarding how we see the relationship between maritime and Indigenous archaeology. The implications of these findings are that the seascape framework is not the only concept available within maritime archaeology for investigating Indigenous contexts. As a result, it is proposed that maritime archaeologists should consider employing a maritime cultural landscape framework within other themes of cultural contact, as well as at missions situated on other waterways and in similar contexts in other countries.