The Action Research Podcast

Hosted by Adam Stieglitz & Joe Levitan

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Jun 2026

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In the first podcast dedicated solely to Action Research, Adam and Joe do a deep dive into the lives, experiences, philosophies, and - of course - investigations of the most well respected action researchers in the field. Throughout our four seasons, come hear about successes and challenges, and learn about what makes Action Research unique. If you are passionate about social change, engage in research, or are a budding scholar, then this is the perfect podcast for you. The Action Research Podcast aims to offer unique and valuable insights for the field through accessible and engaging conversations about the “what” “why” and “how” of Action Research. The Action Research Team: Adam Stieglitz, Co-host Joe Levitan, Co-host Shikha Diwakar, Production manager/Co-host Cory Legassic, Co-producer/Co-host Vanessa Gold, Sound technician and voice-over specialist

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June 15, 202642 min

“Superpowers” and Student-Led Action Research

Today we sat down with Cher Hill and Neva Winters, authors of the article “I Hate the Global Warming Factory! Caring for Tadpoles During the Climate Emergency.” This article is also co-written with Ching-Chiu Lin who could not join us for the recording. The three authors are all researchers at Simon Fraser University. As part of the Eco-Justice and Climate Action mini-series, we explored the role of elementary school students in British Columbia as eco-action heroes and leaders of learning and research. Dive into the insights, perspectives, and surprises that students get into in a pond during a lunchtime program. Learn what children can teach us about love, courage, and climate action.Joe and Blane introduce guests Cher and Neva to discuss the article that brought them together, leading into the origin story, sharing their collaboration with Elder Rick Bailey on the salmon crisis on Coast Salish territories [2:21]. The conversation then follows how an encounter with tadpoles amidst a heat wave and a shrinking pond led to the students springing action, forming an outdoor learning club, a community film festival, and a fundraiser [5:13]. From there, Cher and Neva reflect on teaching kinship with the more-than-human world, the pedagogy of "superpowers" of different species and tadpoles, social-emotional learning, and a shared orientation toward learning as an act of love, inspired by Elder Rick [14:41]. This opens into a candid discussion of the action research methodology: indeterminate PAR cycles, ethics and permissions challenges, and how community synergies continuously reshaped the project's direction [22:08]. The episode closes with future directions, including a new school pollinator garden, and a reminder of the magic that happens when students lead the learning and research [34:47].Thank you Cher and Neva for sharing your work with us.Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to this episode of the Action Research Podcast, created by Adam Stieglitz, Joe Levitan, Shikha Diwakar, Cory Legassic, and Vanessa Gold.Produced by Shikha Diwakar and Vanja Lugonjic.Subscribe to our podcast on most major podcast distribution platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.How have you found yourself in the world of action research? Want to be interviewed or share one of your projects? Get in touch with us.Biographies Cher Hill is an Assistant Professor and teacher educator in the Faculty of Education at Simon Fraser University. She is deeply invested in researching educative experiences that contribute to more connected, thriving, and just communities. Cher is a passionate supporter of relational, participatory, outdoor, and community-based educative initiatives.Neva Whintors is a doctoral student at Simon Fraser University, and an elementary school teacher with over 20 years of experience, having taught kindergarten through Grade 7. Her areas of expertise include outdoor pedagogies, social emotional learning, and action research.Resources:Learn more here: https://www.sfu.ca/research/research-impact/performance-excellence/scholarly-impact-of-the-week/scholarly-impact-stories/2026/the-ripple-effect_sfu-educators-schoolchildren-inspire-care-for-the-environment/Artists to Check Out:Ryan Hughs: https://www.instagram.com/ryansalishart/ Brandon Gabriel: https://www.instagram.com/brandongabrielart/ Photo Credit: https://www.natucate.com/en/blog/travel-guide/canada-british-columbia--This episode is part of our Eco-justice and Climate Action Series. Authors from journal articles in a Special Issue of the Canadian Journal for Action Research hop behind the mic and share the inspirations, process, and findings from their projects. Join Joe Levitan, Shikha Diwakar and special guest host Blane Harvey, as they interview an inspiring group of researchers, educators, organizers, and more, navigating the process of action research.

June 1, 202645 min

Radical Incrementalism in Action

In this episode, we invite authors from the Centre for Sustainability Transitions, Stellenbosch university and collaborators from McGill university to discuss their article “Radical Incrementalism in Action Through Institutional Work: Case Studies of Embedded Research in South Africa”. As part of our special Eco-Justice and Climate Action series, the authors explore the complexities of navigating changemaking from within institutions. Listen in to discover secrets to radical change through slow and steady processes!In this episode, our co-hosts Joe and Blane introduce the team and the article at the center of today’s discussion. They begin by grounding listeners in the broader context of South Africa for those who may be less familiar with its history and contemporary dynamics [2:20], before moving into the deeper motivations and relationships behind their collaboration and the development of the concept of radical incrementalism [4:15]. What does this term mean, and how is it done? Our own curiosity increased as we continued our conversation.– What gave rise to this feeling that they needed another way to think about how to pursue change? Some critical scholars might challenge the idea that incrementalism can actually be radical, perhaps the idea represents an abandonment of the drastic and immediate “change we need” concept? So, we ask the authors to respond to this critique [5:15]. The episode then explores how radical incrementalism is actually done, and the messiness and complexity behind this way of working, including questions of embeddedness, role conflicts, ethical dilemmas, and the importance of political literacy [26:27]. Finally, the conversation closes with reflections on how these ideas are shaping daily practice, and what kinds of changes the guests have observed as a result [37:40]. Thank you Mark, Alboricah, Mlondi, Priscilla, Mapula, and Elaine for sharing your work with us in this episode. Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to this episode of the Action Research Podcast, created by Adam Stieglitz, Joe Levitan, Shikha Diwakar, Cory Legassic, and Vanessa Gold. Produced by Shikha Diwakar and Vanja Lugonjic. Subscribe to our podcast on most major podcast distribution platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.How have you found yourself in the world of action research? Want to be interviewed or share one of your projects? Get in touch with us. Biographies: Mark Swilling is a Distinguished Professor and a former Co-Director of the Centre for Sustainability Transitions at Stellenbosch University, South Africa. He is an international expert in sustainable development, with over thirty years of experience in ‘societal transitions’ (with special reference to urban systems), initially focusing on democratisation and governance during the Apartheid era in South Africa. The primary research focus of his career can be defined as ‘societal transitions,’ more recently within the broader discipline of sustainability science and governance at the global level. His published research was coupled to major institution-building collaborations. This achievement was recognised in 2010 when he was awarded the Aspen Faculty Pioneer Award for success in introducing sustainability into leadership education. Dr. Elaine Huang is currently a Research Associate at the Faculty of Education, McGill University. Her research examines how the social sciences can contribute to just and sustainable futures by advancing ethical collaboration, institutional transformation, and collective learning. She is particularly interested in how researchers engage with the politics, evolving normativity, and uncertainties inherent in real-world change processes to serve the public good. Grounded in reflexive and relational approaches, her work reimagines knowledge production as a generative space for ethical engagement, systemic thinking, and transformative practice—both within and beyond academic institutions.Alboricah Rathupetsane is a PhD Candidate and Junior Researcher at the Centre for Sustainability Transitions in Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Her research sits at the intersection of industrial policy, decarbonisation and infrastructure development within the country’s just transition agenda. Her doctoral work examines the role of infrastructure megaprojects in catalysing industrial revival, specifically focusing on strengthening the participation of local steel firms in South Africa's electricity grid expansion programme.Mlondi Ndovela is a PhD candidate at the Centre for Sustainability Transitions, Stellenbosch University, South Africa. His work focuses on co-developing and applying a non-equilibrium model to understand the broader macroeconomic implications of the energy transition in South Africa. This work draws its influences from systems dynamics/non-linear dynamics, stock-flow consistent approach, complexity economics and laws of thermodynamics.Priscilla Jezi is a part-time PhD Candidate with the Centre for Sustainability Transitions at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. She was a full-time employee at an Energy state-owned enterprise as a specialist in development finance with more than 20 years of experience in energy and finance. Responsible for Sustainable Financing, a lead in sourcing funding for Just Energy Transition Projects. She is Head of Treasury Bank Funding for a state- owned Development Bank. An embedded researcher; her current PhD work focus on the emerging Transition Finance approach, which enables and accelerates energy transitions. Mapula Tshangela is a part-time PhD Candidate with the Centre for Sustainability Transitions at Stellenbosch University in South Africa. She is a full-time senior government official with over 28 years of experience in climate change, green economy, sustainable development, environmental management, and chemistry work. Her research interests include transformative research, sustainability transitions, policy regime shifts, inclusive innovation, and science-policy interface. Her published research includes academic articles and book chapters.--This episode is part of our Eco-justice and Climate Action Series. Authors from journal articles in a Special Issue of the Canadian Journal for Action Research hop behind the mic and share the inspirations, process, and findings from their projects. Join Joe Levitan, Shikha Diwakar and special guest host Blane Harvey, as they interview an inspiring group of researchers, educators, organizers, and more, navigating the process of action research.

May 15, 202643 min

Learning from the Land: Action Research and Climate Education in the North

In this episode in the Eco-Justice and Climate Action Mini Series, we sat down with four members of the Climate Education and Teacher Education (CETE) team, which is based at the University of Northern British Columbia. Authors of “Mapping Climate Change Education: Reflections from an Education Design-Based Research Project from Northern British Columbia, Canada,” the CETE team created this project in response to the 2022 Association of Canadian Deans of Education report titled "Accord on Education for a Sustainable Future," which underscored urgency for climate change education. Join us for another great episode exploring the stories behind this collaborative and exciting action research project!To begin, our hosts Joe and Blane introduce the CETE team and the article that brought them together [00:00]. This leads into the origin story of the initiative and discussion of their team dynamics, which lead to a shared commitment to curriculum reform and a signature pedagogy built around people, place, and land [1:57]. The conversation then explores the co-creation process at the heart of the project, from building a national design team to running iterative workshop series across northern British Columbia, reflecting on how listening to teachers and communities continuously reshaped the project's direction [7:50]. From there, the team reflects on the iterative, cyclic nature of their design-based research, and the challenges of working within research frameworks that don't always honour more-than-human species and Indigenous ways of knowing [17:03]. We move to a discussion about the tension between theory and action, and between local focus and global relevance, focusing on how grounding the work in northern land, language, and Indigenous knowledge has proven to be both their most impactful contribution and a transferable model for others [22:23]. The team closes by sharing where the project stands today, and our hosts wrap up by honouring the messiness of action research as a defining strength of the journey, not a flaw [34:04].Thank you Hartley, Christine, Alexander and Glen for sharing your time and work with us.Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to this episode of the Action Research Podcast, created by Adam Stieglitz, Joe Levitan, Shikha Diwakar, Cory Legassic, and Vanessa Gold.Produced by Shikha Diwakar and Vanja Lugonjic.Subscribe to our podcast on most major podcast distribution platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.How have you found yourself in the world of action research? Want to be interviewed or share one of your projects? Get in touch with us.Resources: CETE Research PageBiographies: Hartley Banack, University of Northern British ColumbiaDr. Hartley Banack is an Associate Professor in the School of Education at UNBC and Principal Investigator for the CETE research program since 2022. Banack is a curriculum theorist, qualitative researcher, and teacher. He has years of experience as an outdoor environmental educator and scholar. His scholarship appears in Teachers and Teaching (Banack and Tembrevilla, 2024), Children’s Geographies (Banack and Berger, 2020), and Critical Education (Banack, 2018). Banack holds a Ph.D., M.A., and B.Ed. in environmental education, all from Simon Fraser University, along with a B.Sc. from Trent University.Christine Ho Younghusband, University of Northern British ColumbiaDr. Christine Ho Younghusband is an Assistant Professor in the School of Education at UNBC. Dr. Ho Younghusband is a founding CETE Co-Investigator. Her research focuses on teacher professional learning, identity development, and mathematics education. She has published on e-portfolios and identity (Younghusband, 2021) and out-of-field teaching (Younghusband, 2017). Dr. Ho Younghusband holds an Ed.D. and M.Ed. from Simon Fraser University, and B.Ed. and B.Sc. from the University of British Columbia.Alexander Lautensach, University of Northern British ColumbiaDr. Alexander Lautensach is an Adjunct Professor in the School of Education at UNBC. Lautensach is a founding CETE Co-Investigator. He holds five degrees in the areas of biology, science education, and philosophy, including a doctorate in environmental ethics education from the University of Otago, New Zealand. Lautensach has written two books on sustainability education and climate change and co-published the first open-access textbook on human security.Glen Thielmann, University of Northern British ColumbiaGlen Thielmann is a Lecturer in the UNBC School of Education. He is a founding member of the CETE Research Team. He is a master Social Studies teacher with leadership in curriculum, instruction, and professional & resource development in B.C. K-12 schools. In 2017, Glen received a Governor General’s History Award for excellence in Teaching. In 2022, Glen received a Teacher Educator Award from the Association of BC Deans of Education.--This episode is part of our Eco-justice and Climate Action Series. Authors from journal articles in a Special Issue of the Canadian Journal for Action Research hop behind the mic and share the inspirations, process, and findings from their projects. Join Joe Levitan, Shikha Diwakar and special guest host Blane Harvey, as they interview an inspiring group of researchers, educators, organizers, and more, navigating the process of action research.

May 1, 202635 min

Rethinking Resilience: Climate Justice and Community Action Across Borders with Céleste Pepin

Welcome to the second interview in our special mini series, Eco-Justice and Climate Action. Today our guest, Céleste Pepin, graduate of the Gender and Social Justice Studies Honours program at McGill University, joins Blane and Joe, to share their work: “Politics of Resilience-Building: Explorations of Community-Based Interventions in Trinidad and Tobago”.An inspiring researcher, Queen Elizabeth Scholar (2023) and student, Celeste shares their insights from working and living in a new environment, the impact of research “trends” like resilience on project planning, and the intersections of action research and feminist methodologies. Join us for an exciting conversation traversing the many aspects of action research and beyond.Céleste first shares how the opportunity to engage in action research came to be during their undergraduate degree, as well as the project beginnings [01:00]. This led to exploring the preparation and challenges of working in an unfamiliar environment [6:57], along with the tensions they encountered between international agency funding and local realities on the ground in Trinidad and Tobago [10:11]. Céleste also reflects on the role of the university and how institutional context shapes the way research is designed and conducted [17:16]. Together, we explore the surprising parallels between climate resiliency efforts in Montreal and Trinidad and Tobago [20:53], leading to a rich discussion about the responsibility of the Global North to learn climate adaptation strategies from the Global South [24:00]. This connects to a broader conversation about the links between feminist popular education and action research as complementary frameworks [26:31], before closing with key takeaways and lessons Céleste is carrying forward [29:41].Thank you Celeste for sharing your time and work with us.Thank you to our listeners for tuning in to this episode of the Action Research Podcast, created by Adam Stieglitz, Joe Levitan, Shikha Diwakar, Cory Legassic, and Vanessa Gold.Produced by Shikha Diwakar and Vanja Lugonjic.Subscribe to our podcast on most major podcast distribution platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts.How have you found yourself in the world of action research? Want to be interviewed or share one of your projects? Get in touch with us.Biography:Céleste Pepin is a graduating Gender and Social Justice Studies Honours student at McGill University. Their research focuses on the use of feminist imperial foreign policies within international armed conflicts and uses decolonial feminist perspectives to analyze the gendered dynamics of war and the legitimization strategies employed by Western states during military interventions in the Global South. By foregrounding decolonial feminist perspectives, they challenge conventional narratives and highlight the complexities of power relations in contemporary geopolitics.Resources: Environmental Organizations in Trinidad and TobagoGreen T&T: an NGO working in ecotourismCANARI: Ensuring that people whose livelihoods depend on the environment have a say in its protection and managementFondes Amandes, reforestation projectERIC, community-based approach to reef management and protection --This episode is part of our Eco-justice and Climate Action Series. Authors from journal articles in a Special Issue of the Canadian Journal for Action Research hop behind the mic and share the inspirations, process, and findings from their projects. Join Joe Levitan, Shikha Diwakar and special guest host Blane Harvey, as they interview an inspiring group of researchers, educators, organizers, and more, navigating the process of action research.

April 15, 202637 min

Little Architects, Big Ideas: Climate Action Through Design-Based Learning

Welcome to the first author interview in our mini series, Eco-Justice and Climate Action, where we aim to explore inspiring projects at the intersection of climate justice and action research. This series highlights work featured in the 2025 special issue of the Canadian Journal for Action Research, guest edited by Dr. Blane Harvey. We are excited to share these thought-provoking contributions with you.In today’s episode, our co-hosts Joe and Shikha are joined by Ipek Türeli, Nathalie Malhamé, and Sarah Nabi who co-authored “Little Architects, Big Ideas: Climate Action Through Design-Based Learning, where big ideas meet small (but mighty) designers. Together, they reflect on their creative and inspiring collaboration in Montreal, Quebec, connecting Ipek’s work at the Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture at McGill University, with Nathalie and Sarah’s fourth grade classes in Royal Vale School. They share their motivations behind the collaboration, surprise findings along the way, and the gratifying experience of exhibiting the students’ work at both institutions.The conversation begins with introductions and the story of how the project came to life [2:00]. This led to exploring deeper connections between architecture, environmental justice, and experiential education [8:09] along with challenges and complexities that our guests Nathalie, Sarah and Ipek encountered and navigated in their project [13:18]. They then reflect on the role and importance of the undergraduate architecture students for the success of the collaboration [17:43]. We ask about the young designer’s work and what it may reveal about different understandings of climate justice. Through these examples, we explore the surprises and tensions that emerged in the final designs [20:37], leading into a rich discussion about why exhibitions became such a powerful space for sharing this work and supporting student learning [25: 08]. For such a rich and impactful project, we were keen to learn the lasting impacts [30:11] before closing with final reflection and even a mic-drop moment!Thank you Ipek, Nathalie, and Sarah for sharing your time and work with us.And thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Action Research Podcast, created by Joe Levitan, Shikha Diwakar, Cory Legassic, Vanessa Gold, and Adam Stieglitz.Produced by Shikha Diwakar and Vanja Lugonjic.Subscribe to our podcast on most major podcast distribution platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts. How have you found yourself in the world of action research? Want to be interviewed or share one of your projects? Get in touch with us.Biographies:Ipek Türeli, PhD, holds the Canada Research Chair in Architectures of Spatial Justice at McGill University, where she is appointed as Associate Professor at the Peter Guo-hua Fu School of Architecture. She is the creative director of Architecture Playshop, a web-based curricular resource to teach critical literacy to young children about climate action through design. This project began as an invited contribution to the Korean Pavilion on the theme of “Future School” at the 2020 Venice Architecture Biennale. In 2023, at the triennial “Golden Cube Awards”, Architecture Playshop was recognized with an Honourable Mention in the AudioVisual Media Category. Dr. Türeli has published a reflective piece about the curriculum development in the open-access architecture publication Platform.Sarah Nabi is an elementary school teacher at Royal Vale School in Montreal, Quebec, with over 20 years of experience. A graduate of Vanier College, Concordia University, and McGill University, she specialized in psychology, art, and special education. She fosters inclusive, culture-rich classrooms through differentiation and project-based learning, leads committees and extracurriculars, and is committed to every student’s success. In Winter 2023, she partnered with McGill’s Architecture Department to implement the Playshop Project at RVS.Nathalie Malhamé is a French teacher and New Teacher Mentor at Royal Vale School in Montreal, where she has taught for over 12 years. She received the Evelyn Eaton Award for her project Global Citizens of Kindness. Active on several school committees, including Governing Board, Staff Council and Truth and Reconciliation, she recently completed a certificate in educational leadership. She holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in sociology and a B.Ed.; She collaborated with the McGill’s Architecture Playshop team in 2023.-- This episode is part of our Eco-justice and Climate Action Series. Authors from journal articles in a Special Issue of the Canadian Journal for Action Research hop behind the mic and share the inspirations, process, and findings from their projects. Join Joe Levitan, Shikha Diwakar and special guest host Blane Harvey, as they interview an inspiring group of researchers, educators, organizers, and more, navigating the process of action research.

April 1, 202624 min

Season 5: From Crisis To Collaboration: Introducing the Special Series

What does it look like when research doesn't just study a crisis, but actively works to respond to it? To answer this question, Action Research Podcast hosts Joe Levitan and Shikha Diwakar invite Blane Harvey to be a special co-host for this exciting mini-series on Eco-Justice and Climate Action, growing out of a 2-part special issue of the Canadian Journal of Action Research (2025), which Blane guest edited.In this first episode, Blane joins Joe and Shikha to unpack the "what," "why," and "how" behind the special issue. This exciting collection brings together researchers, educators, and community collaborators across the globe who use action research to confront climate change and eco-injustice to share and reflect on their work. A thread that runs through all of the articles is that action research is rarely neat. It's iterative, relational, and full of unexpected turns. This series features eight different stories, unpacking that messiness—and the good, bad, and uncertain that comes out of it—from a variety of contexts and perspectives. Expect fun stories, deep reflections, and an expansion of ideas about how action research can be used to work towards climate justice. We invite you to listen in and share the special series with anyone in your network interested in eco-justice and sustainability, action research, or just want to hear from the humans behind collaborative research projects on your way to work or cleaning your kitchen. The introduction opens with how this special double issue came to life, before diving into the core threads and commitments that connect its many contributions [02:10]. Blane shares how the editorial process was shaped by the very values action research is built on [05:11], and makes the case for why action research may be uniquely necessary in responding to the climate crisis [10:40]. The group reflects on the tension between global challenges and local action [13:45], closing with what Blane hopes both readers and listeners carry forward from this collection [17:36].Thank you Blane for kicking off this series, and thank you to our listeners for tuning in to this episode of the Action Research Podcast. The Action Research Podcast was co-created by Joe Levitan, Shikha Diwakar, Cory Legassic, Vanessa Gold, and Adam Stieglitz. Produced by Shikha Diwakar and Vanja Lugonjic. Subscribe to our podcast on most major podcast distribution platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts. How have you found yourself in the world of action research? Want to be interviewed or share one of your projects? Get in touch with us. Resources: CJAR Special Issue Part 1 CJAR Special Issue Part 2 Check out the Leadership and Learning for Sustainability Lab: Website LinkedinBiographies: Dr. Blane Harvey is an Associate Professor and William Dawson Scholar in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University (Canada), where he leads the Leadership and Learning for Sustainability Lab. He is an interdisciplinary scholar whose work spans across the social and natural sciences on the themes of learning, collaboration, environmental change and education for sustainable development. Dr. Harvey’s research investigates how climate change knowledge is produced, validated and communicated, and how facilitated learning and knowledge sharing can advance climate justice and support action on climate change, especially within communities most vulnerable to its impacts. He serves as an Associate Editor for the journal Climate and Development and Subject Editor for the journal FACETS.Dr. Joseph Levitan is an Associate Professor and William Dawson Scholar in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University. His work focuses on community-based participatory methodologies to address community-defined challenges in education and development. Sitting at the intersection of policy and leadership studies, his work focuses on developing processes and evaluating impacts of collaborative work with youth, adults, and community leaders. Dr. Levitan works with communities to identify context-specific challenges, culturally grounded methods to address those challenges, and processes to put those methods into action. Through this work he has co-developed methods such as Culturally Grounded Curriculum Development, the Student Voice Research Framework, and Accidental Ethnography. He currently holds multiple grants to engage in this work in Peru, Panama, India, and Canada.Dr. Shikha Diwakar is a Dalit feminist scholar, educator, and policy analyst working at the intersections of caste equity, anti-colonial pedagogy, and transnational education justice. With over a decade of experience across two continents, she has worked in teaching, higher education research, university administration, and policy advocacy. Her work centers the lived experiences of first-generation Dalit women, using community-based participatory research grounded in relational accountability and Indigenous ethics. Shikha is also the long-time producer of the Action Research Podcast.

September 30, 202455 min

Restorative Community Solutions and participatory action research, with Earl Simms, Kezia “Zia” Martinis and Couper Orona

Join us for this inspiring and thought-provoking discussion. Adam and Joe sit down with three members of the Restorative Community Solutions (RCS) team based in San Francisco: Earl Simms (executive director), Kezia "Zia" Martinis (community engagement lead) and Couper Orona (community engagement operations). RCS is a nonprofit founded in 2022, led by a group of dedicated professionals with a deep history of direct service, dedicated to “support[ing] those experiencing the transition back into society from institutional settings, homelessness, prison, jails, and treatment facilities” through peer support. [00:02:27] We first learn about each guest and how their life experiences inform their work as well as [00:05:16] learn more about Restorative Community Solutions’s (RCS) mandate. [00:08:35] Adam asks our guests to describe the challenges of doing peer support in a non-profit context. Zia discusses the challenges of representation of all community voices. Earl talks about dynamics of contracting with government agencies in San Francisco with extractive approaches and the risks of policy violence—when policy makers are “10, 000 feet above the problem” they can’t “see the nuances and the different intricacies that are happening on the ground.” Couper ties it back to the importance of a trauma-responsive peer support approach.  Our hosts ask the team to reflect on their work through the angle of action research. They discuss the importance first of bringing that qualitative part that humanizes and works toward accountability, [00:20:02] “mak[ing] sure that people’s solutions are grounded in reality.” RCS’s action research question asks, “What is one thing that San Francisco can do to change your life?” [00:23:34] Earl reflects on how participatory action research came into the methodology of their work, and they describe how co-researchers co-create survey questions, help with focus groups, use different tools to synthesize data, and then formulate recommendations to different organizations. [00:28:47] As Couper argues, there needs to be “more guts” in city government and the way things are done because “there's so much uncaring… so much distance between folks.” [00:30:51] Earl discusses balancing different hats and [00:32:20] Zia emphasizes the importance of paying people a living wage and giving folks the agency to vote on policies that directly affect them: “The stipend that I received was more than I had pretty much made in my lifetime” and “I never knew three years ago that I'd be voting on a commission where I have a say in allocating all that proxy money.” [00:35:48]  Adam asks the RCS guests “Where can you take this movement? How can you get involved with policy in such a way where your day to day grind is going to be what gets it there?”   Jump into this episode to benefit from the nuances of their important insights and the rich variety of concrete examples they share from their research experiences. [00:52:10] Finally the team plugs a few things which we cite below. [00:54:26] RCS is looking for volunteers, “anybody that wants to be boots on the ground or has any kind of compassion towards this work we've done to help support that.” They are looking for lawyers, as well as any students. Just reach out to them! Or, as Couper throws in [00:54:49], “if you have a million dollars laying around or something, that'd be great.”Thanks Earl, Zia and Couper for sharing your work with us.You can subscribe to our podcast on most major podcast distribution platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Action Research Podcast, created by Adam Stieglitz, Joe Levitan, Shikha De Walker, Cory Legasic, and Vanessa Gold. How have you found yourself in the world of action research? Want to be interviewed or share one of your projects? Get in touch with us. To support the work of RSC, please contribute here.Here are citations related to this discussion:  Foley, N. (Director). (2019). Couper was here. [Video recording]. Nicole Foley / Intersect. https://www.couperwashere.comHoskins, D. (n.d.). Safety and Justice Challenge. Safety and Justice Challenge. Retrieved September 15, 2024, from https://safetyandjusticechallenge.org/Restorative Community Solutions |Life Coaching & Legal Services | California. (n.d.). Mysite. Retrieved September 14, 2024, from https://www.restorativebayarea.org

July 29, 202438 min

[Reprise] Reflexivity in Action Research, with Dr. Lisa Starr

Guess what? It’s summer, July 2024, and the team is distracted doing summer things. So we are taking a little break this month before we sit down and get back into recording conversations with our upcoming guests for the episodes ahead. We also realized that we are in our fourth season, and we can now do what seasoned podcasters do: look back and share with you one of our team’s favorite past episodes. With more than 30 episodes under our belt, this episode stands out to us from our first season that we recorded back on November 5th, 2020, during the height of the pandemic lockdown. And summer is a great time for reflection. With that, we give you, once again, Adam and Joe in Season 1 Episode 6’s discussion on “Reflexivity in Action Research with Dr. Lisa Starr”.Thanks for tuning in, and now, onto our hosts.—---------------------------------------In this episode reprise, Adam and Joe have a conversation with Dr. Lisa Starr about the role of reflexivity in action research. To understand this complex topic, they discuss two chapters Lisa wrote using reflexive and autoethnographic methods. It just so happens (or was it more than a coincidence?) that Adam is working on the chapter in his dissertation in which he reflexively discusses his positionality, so he asks Lisa to share her expertise (12:34) on how to approach reflexivity in Action Research (15:51). Later in the episode, Joe asks Lisa about the frameworks to reflexively understand one's identity in her chapters (25:11).If you are interested in the chapters mentioned in our podcast citations are below:Starr, L.J. & Mitchell C. (2020, accepted for Publication). Traveling in Circles Along Roads Less Traveled in Awe of Open Spaces. In Mitchell, C, Giritli Nygren, K, Moletsane, R. (eds.) Where am I in the Picture? Researcher Positionality in Rural Studies. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto PressStarr, L.J. (2019). Locating who (I am) in what (I) do: An autoethnography encounter with relational curriculum. In T. Strong-Wilson, C. Ehret, D. Lewkowich & S. Chang Kredl (Eds.), Making/Unmaking Curriculum through Provoking Curriculum Encounters (pp. 103-115). William Pinar/Routledge for the Studies in Curriculum Theory series. New York, NY: Routledge.

June 30, 202438 min

Culturally grounded forest conservation and action research, with Drs. Catherine Potvin and Joseph Levitan

In this episode, Adam and Cory co-host while Joe joins as our guest alongside Dr. Catherine Potvin. We learn about Catherine’s career as a biologist working on climate issues in solidarity with Indigenous communities. Together, Catherine and Joe explore their collaboration doing action research in both culturally grounded health care and education.  First, [2:50] Catherine and Joe center relationship-building with the Emberá community at the heart of their collaborations in Panama: it’s about persistence and long time presence. [5:02] Catherine shares an overview of her history working with Indigenous communities along with the deep shifts and re-orientations in her career: [6:24] “I realized I had everything wrong, like completely everything wrong. [...] I understood that if you want to keep the forest, you need to care for the people.” Adam and Cory ask [7:50] about the contexts that inform the focus on reforestation and community empowerment and [11:27] the role of social scientists in working alongside biologists in these collaborations.  [12:02] Dr. Potvin talks about the notion of reflexivity as “a total social science thing” and the importance of researchers positioning themselves in the work they do. She also talks about how important it has been to look at reforestation from an economics and training perspective, what Joe calls “learning for capacity building”. Their collaboration also helped support [16:20] a community-based collective decision-making process, and Joe names a few examples of its outcomes.  At this point, Joe [19:56] spends some time walking us through an understanding of culturally-grounded education and healthcare: It’s a “phenomenological pragmatist perspective” that asks [20:53] “How do we start from who we are and our experience, and then identify what matters to us?” Potvin [23:02] shares a few anecdotes from her experiences over the years of learning to approach climate science from a more culturally grounded approach, and some of the colonial systemic barriers that students and community members face.  Adam’s last big question [29:45] asks our guests: “To what extent are you identifying or acknowledging economic empowerment for the communities that you're working with in Panama as a way to conserve and preserve the community's Indigenous lifestyles and knowledge?” Potvin discusses [33:37] the need to “find a number of different economical pathways for women, for men, for youth, for elders that will allow them to live a decent life.” Joe brings the reality of “using resources from outside of the community, but also thinking about how to do that in a way that's circular and self-directed.” They both offer examples of projects from recent years.   Wrapping up, Cory and Adam share some takeaways and use the final moments to congratulate (and challenge) Potvin’s upcoming retirement. To which she responds, and we wanted to quote at length…“You know, in ecology, when a tree falls, that's where the diversity of a forest gets recreated, right? Because there's all these new trees that will take the space of the old big tree, because the old big tree sucks up a lot of resources. And when it disappears, it creates opportunity for new trees, more adapted to the new reality to grow. So I think I see retirement that way, it's supporting and creating opportunities to go further than where I've been.” Thank you both for sharing your work with us, and congratulations Dr. Potvin on your retirement!. You can subscribe to our podcast on most major podcast distribution platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Action Research Podcast, created by Adam Stieglitz, Joe Levitan, Shikha Diwakar, Cory Legassic, and Vanessa Gold.  How have you found yourself in the world of action research? Want to be interviewed or share one of your projects? Get in touch with us. BiographiesDr. Catherine Potvin is a tropical forest ecologist and professor at McGill University in the Department of Biology. Her scientific research studies climate change, carbon cycling, and biodiversity in tropical rainforests with an additional focus on community empowerment and climate change policy. She was the first woman to receive the Miroslaw Romanowski Medal from the Royal Society of Canada, in recognition of her "significant contributions to the resolution of scientific aspects of environmental problems". In addition to her scientific research, she works on sustainable development with indigenous communities in Panama and on policy as a former UN climate change negotiator for Panama and leads climate change initiatives in Canada.Dr. Joseph Levitan is an associate professor in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education at McGill University. His work focuses on community-based participatory methodologies to address community-defined challenges in education and development. Sitting at the intersection of policy and leadership studies, his work focuses on developing processes and evaluating impacts of collaborative work with youth, adults, and community leaders. Dr. Levitan works with communities throughout the Americas to identify context-specific challenges, culturally grounded methods to address those challenges, and processes to put those methods into action. Through this work he has co-developed methods such as the Student Voice Research Framework, Culturally Grounded Curriculum Development, and Accidental Ethnography.  He currently holds multiple grants to engage in this work in Peru, Canada, Panama and the United States.

May 31, 202432 min

Poverty-induced trauma, literacy and action research, with Dr. Lisa Levinger

Adam and Joe sit down with Dr. Lisa Levinger, an educator with over 30 years of experience at all instructional levels. She also completed her PhD at Northeastern University in May of 2023 doing action research around poverty-induced trauma (PIT) and literacy. She is currently acting as the Dean of Literacy at a Diversity by Design charter school in Queens, New York. To start, Adam and Joe spend some time getting to know Lisa [02:38] in our lightning round. We learn about a hidden talent, her connection to Adam, her recipe for good action research, and some quick advice for emerging grad action researchers.  Next [07:42], Adam and Joe dive into learning about poverty-induced trauma and how Lisa approaches literacy and action research: the contexts, the challenges and the insights. A key question that drives her work [13:37] is, “How do I teach teachers about poverty-induced trauma?” She describes what collaboration and co-creation looked like during the height of Covid and walks us through the shifts and iterative cycles [16:14] of her research. Levinger’s research focuses on helping teachers grapple with important questions that emerged in the action research process [16:47]:How do I think about poverty-induced trauma when I'm doing lesson plans? How do I select books that mirror the stories of the students in front of me? How do I plan for what I call pit stops—moments of reflection that ask, what's happening right now in your body? Have you ever felt this way before? Adam [17:35] asks Lisa to outline in more detail her action research design process. She describes the methods in each cycle [18:29] as “an iterative process just like an onion that kept getting peeled away [...] and at the same time, there were all these beautiful layers that just kept being added…” Lisa elaborates her TallTales framework [19:40]—Trauma Aware Literacy Lessons, Teaching and Learning for Equity and Success—and [21:15] how she brought this work into her position as Dean. She follows up by sharing [22:56] the two major findings from this ongoing work: (1) how important it is to engage teachers in learning about PIT, and (2) how to define the TallTale framework specifications.  Finally, Joe [27:20] asks Lisa about the role of reflection and positionality in her research.  She offers more advice: “If you're not in the kind of program that's asking you to reflect on your positionality for every course, just grab a journal and do it yourself, and think about who am I in this space, and what am I bringing to this story, and who are the people I'm selecting.” Lisa also circles back to earlier advice on how to keep the momentum going in your research and writing.  She has the help of her [30:38] doctoral divas who cheerlead and check in on each other.  Thanks Dr. Levinger for sharing your work with us. You can subscribe to our podcast on most major podcast distribution platforms, including Spotify and Apple Podcasts. Thanks for tuning in to this episode of the Action Research Podcast, created by Adam Stieglitz, Joe Levitan, Shikha Diwakar, Cory Legassic, and Vanessa Gold.  How have you found yourself in the world of action research? Want to be interviewed or share one of your projects? Get in touch with us. Here are citations related to this discussion:  Levinger, L. (2023). For Teachers by Teachers: Cocreating a Literacy Framework with Educators to Serve Students with Poverty-Induced Trauma (Doctoral dissertation, Northeastern University).

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