Supporting self-organised community research through informal learning

Abstract

The processes by which community-members help to shape local agendas can vary from highly-formalised procedures to very informal learning and sharing activities that engage multiple stakeholders in conversations to construct a better understanding of issues and concerns of community members. Community partners sometimes want to work with universities to build university-community research partnerships to support these activities. This paper looks at two such cases and the framework of ideas that we have used to steer and theorise our participatory research approach. This approach uses informal learning combined with a belief in the value and potential of self-organising processes in community research. The result is a contribution to Community OR that develops long-term engagements rather than brief interventions and produces on-going constructed conversations with community members to help articulate and share knowledge about social experiences and expectations. The paper emphasises the need for Community OR researchers to focus not only on the technologies they are producing but also on the processes they create to support the development of the communities they are working with. We present a framework that uses a combination of self-organisation and informal learning theories to support the analysis and development of this process approach

Stakeholder engagement in gender and climate change policy processes: Lessons from the climate change, agriculture and food security research program

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Opettajaopiskelijoiden käsityksiä oppimisesta erilaisissa oppimisympäristöissä

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“…Σε Ευρωπαϊκό επίπεδο, τα κράτη-μέλη πρέπει να εφαρμόσουν στην πράξη, πολύ τυπικές οδηγίες σε πολύ άτυπες διαδικασίες μάθησης και δραστηριοτήτων. Αυτό είναι συχνά προβληματικό και δημιουργεί εμπόδια στα ενδιαφερόμενα μέλη για τη μη-τυπική μάθηση (Herron & Mendiwelso-Bendek, 2018). Στην περίπτωση της μη-τυπικής μάθησης, υπάρχουν μεγάλα κενά όσον αφορά την πιστοποίηση των χώρων αυτών ως προς τα μαθησιακά τους αποτελέσματα, την πιστοποίηση των ατόμων που εκτελούν μαθησιακά προγράμματα σε αυτούς τους χώρους και των υποδομών που είναι απαραίτητες για αυτές τις δραστηριότητες λόγω της εφαρμογής της νομοθεσίας.…”