From the desk of the editor: Hilary Bradbury-Huang

Considering the past ten and inventing the next ten years for Action Research journal.

The associate editors’ board for ARj met at Cornell University earlier this month to consider what we have accomplished in the past decade with the journal and what we hope to accomplish in the next.  We find ourselves surprised to be already 10 years old as a journal. We plan to formally celebrate in August 2013. In the meantime we’ll use social media to gather suggestions from our readers and Twitter followers on how best to celebrate. The theme for our celebration is “10 for 10.” But ten what you may well ask? And that is where your suggestions come in. Do we want to hear what are the ten favorite articles? Do we want to hear what are the top 10 requests for how ARj might better serve our readership and community?  We are all ears!

So what did we accomplish in Cornell? We got to know one another better. We each shared what were important milestones for us in becoming action researchers.  We also shared what we saw as strengths and obstacles. We crafted a vision and mission statement: Arj exists to “re-enchant knowledge creation for a sustainable world.” Most important, we decided that the development of an online community, tightly linked with the journal and using social media, is key to disseminating the action research perspective to a wider audience. It is also key to developing the next generation of action researchers. And we were happy to have a little fun together, to eat and drink well enough in each others company that we agreed to meet again in a couple of years. By 2014 we will know what we have accomplished in terms of growing our rigor and our vigor as an international community.

I invite you to look at this short video of Mary Brydon Miller’s reflection on the themes of a half days conversation. It shares a taste of our meeting and I hope sparks some thoughts for you on how to engage with us.

Happy Solstice, Happy Holidays

Hilary

Making Change Personal – Deb Dole

Engaging communities really begins with engaging individuals. I have written recently about voice, building capacity, representing communities, and engaging communities. My own dissertation work with adolescent mothers opened my eyes to a new way of engaging people in discussion through photography. I am not an artist. I am not a professional photographer. I AM visually stimulated. I AM a visual learner – figuratively and literally. I think in terms of analogy – usually a visual analogy. When I "see" it in my mind, it then becomes a reality. The possibilities are endless. What does this have to do with making change personal? The process of self-reflection forces one to "see" in context.

 This photograph meant one thing to the teen mom who took it – it captured her sense of being trapped in a corner. It came to symbolize something different for me – there is always a way out. The differing perspectives seemed to reflect where we each were in our experience. I was "out", she was still trapped.
As I reflected on the differing perspectives I began to recognize the importance of seeing. A group of teen mothers were given cameras and answered their own group generated questions through photography, group discussion, journaling and collage building. During that process my role as researcher quickly evolved into facilitator, and learner. It was through their eyes that I began to see myself differently. It was a change that altered the way I practice, the way I communicate, the way I engage.  For that I am grateful.