Although participation is widely discussed in the action research literature, relatively few studies deal with building the participative relationship itself. This article attempts to fill that gap through a ‘first-person action research’ involving a relationship between Jewish researchers and a Palestinian Arab non-governmental organization in Israel that failed to live up to our espoused values of participation. It employs an action science method for joint critical reflecting on this relationship and analyzing the data from the reflection. It presents two ‘theories of action’: one aimed at explaining the paradox of participation and one for dealing with it more effectively. By opening our learning, including our errors, to the scrutiny of other action researchers, we hope to generate actionable knowledge that can contribute to building genuinely participative relationships in action research.

Culturally diverse settings entail distinct challenges that impact students' emotional reaction to clinical work. Understanding the types of emotional work students do in the process of their clinical experience is critical for educators seeking to promote genuinely caring and effective nursing in culturally diverse settings.

ARIELI D., FRIEDMAN V.J. & HIRSCHFELD M.J. (2012) Challenges on the path to cultural safety in nursing education. International Nursing Review59, 187–193 Aim:  The purpose of this study is to identify central challenges to be addressed in cultural safety education. Background:  In recent years, the idea of cultural safety has received increased attention as a way of dealing with diversity in the nursing profession, especially in divided societies. The idea of cultural safety goes beyond recognizing and appreciating difference, to an attempt to grappling with deeper issues like inequality, conflict and histories of oppression. Methods:  The paper is based on formative evaluation, using action research, of an academic nursing programme in Israel, involving Jewish and Arab students. Part of this research dealt with the integration of cultural safety education into the curriculum. Findings:  The study revealed four challenges in cultural safety education: making it safe for minorities to present their culture to the majority group (‘the ambassador's dilemma’), dealing with tendency of groups to deny the existence of conflict (‘the one big happy family fantasy’), making dynamics of oppression discussable (‘the oppressed and the oppressor’) and creating conditions in which people can freely choose their individual and group identities (‘the threat of identity’). Conclusion:  Cultural safety education may be experienced as unsafe for many participants. Better understanding of the challenges of cultural safety education is necessary for making it more effective.

We discuss the challenges of the situation for nursing educators and some strategies for coping with these challenges.

The findings indicate that students from different groups will perceive the same shared reality in significantly different ways. Nurse faculty and administrators need to make efforts to bring perceptions into closer alignment and to minimize the negative impact of external conflicts on feelings of cultural safety.

An action research process enables new teams to put tensions on the table so they can be openly addressed through ongoing reflection, inquiry, learning, evaluation and redesign.

Four main strategies identify this project: (1) a policy of institutional commitment, (2) personal relations with staff, (3) personal tutoring, and (4) cultural safety education. The project has reached success in terms of attraction, retention and students' satisfactions. The project's two main challenges, which need further concern, are: (1) giving support without labelling and (2) supporting without creating dependency. CONCLUSIONS AND INTERNATIONAL POLICY IMPLICATIONS: Appropriate strategies can enable success of minority students. Nevertheless, the amount of support needed for such programs raises two major questions: (1) To what extent should individual nursing departments be expected to bear solutions to this widely experienced problem? (2) How does focusing on one minority affect cultural safety of the overall group?

This paper addresses the role of evaluation in promoting social