Insider Action research as an approach and a method – Exploring institutional encounters from within a birthing context

Abstract

The aim of this paper was to describe the first person perspective of being a peer midwife and a novice researcher initiating collaborative AR in her own organization to develop knowledge about the first encounters between the labouring woman and her care-givers in a hospital birthing context. It was motivated by the author's longstanding professional clinical experience of observing and hearing parents' stories of vulnerability and fear of childbirth, and how staff's attitudes affected the childbirth experience negatively. Data were collected between 2010 and 2013 and included the researcher's log with reflections from clinical work, as well as interviews, participant observation, and research group communications. A reflective interpretative lifeworld research approach

Engaging with care: ethical issues in Participatory Research

“…Those "ethically important moments" where decisions have to be made quickly can have important implications for participants and researchers (Guillemin and Gillam 2004). We identified four key thematic meanings relating to our experience of everyday ethics: ''managing power dynamics on the ground''; ''the importance of rapport for ethical research''; ''challenging dominant narratives through mobilising knowledge''; ''reflecting different perspectives in data interpretation'' (see also Nyman et al 2016). These themes reflect general qualitative research tensions but raise novel ethical dilemmas for researchers-in-residence.…”

“…It required continuously emphasising the nature of the in-residence approach as holding up a mirror to mobilise new knowledge, making a case for the importance of reporting the 'truth' as the participants saw it to enable senior management to understand the challenges facing frontline staff. To be an agent of change, a colleague and a researcher often risks role conflict (Holian and Coghlan, 2013;Nyman et al, 2016); caring to listen to participants' voices and viewpoints was as challenging as it was rewarding.…”

Routine interventions in childbirth before and after initiation of an Action Research project

“…In the process of the study reported in this paper, the course of normal labour was mapped, and actions taken based on the Action Research cycle [12], where one action led to another (Table 1). Many different changes occurred more or less concurrently as the study progressed.…”

A Little Less Conversation, a Little More Action: Participatory Insider Action Research in an Executive Team

“…Studies have demonstrated that all forms of IAR are complex and raise many challenges (MacIntosh et al (MacIntosh et al 2007); Nyman et al (Nyman et al 2016)). Two key challenges have been widely discussed in the literature, namely role duality and power dynamics (Holian and Coghlan (Holian and Coghlan 2013); Jacobs (Jacobs 2010); Smith et al (Smith et al 2010)).…”