Danielle Zandee explores everything SAP researchers always wanted to know about action-research methods but were afraid to consider in their own work. The author argues and demonstrates how action research by joining practitioners in their real-time strategic efforts can be fruitful for developing innovative insights and impactful research. In turbulent times and unsettling settings, action research appears to be a risky but highly promising road for advancing strategy as practice. The author describes the main characteristics and modalities of action research and summarizes how action research has been discussed and applied in strategy as practice. To help strategy as practice researchers to engage with practitioners in their research, this contribution puts forth a framework providing a set of core questions for developing relevant and rigorous research designs and conducting issue-driven inquiry whilst staying connected with SAP research interests and requirements. Overall, the proposed action research framework provides SAP researchers with an ambitious agenda to study and impact strategic practice close to where it happens in the daily work of strategists. Yet, Danielle Zandee also recognizes that while action research can be extremely rewarding in terms of the subjective and reflexive research experience, it is typically very time-consuming and complex. Finally, some guidance on how to gradually adopt action research as methodology within the SAP domain, is provided.

At its most basic, the application of reflective practice in teaching involves scrutiny of the practical theories and values that shape teachers’ daily activities. This is a complex process in which teachers undertake various forms of reflection. The purpose of this is to increase teachers’ comprehension of the teaching–learning process, increase their personal and professional efficacy, and formally investigate various classroom problems. The complexity of reflective practice requires that teachers engage in the formation of routines, practices, and structures that facilitate individual or collective reflection on their experiences when teaching, support for which can be provided by a range of tools. To discuss these issues in greater detail, this chapter is organised as follows. First, it explains what reflective practice means and what it involves. This includes elucidation of concepts such as reflection, critical reflection, and reflexivity. This is followed by a summary and endorsement of the theoretical framework for reflective practice developed by Farrell. Then, several tools that teachers are advised to adopt to reflexively examine and enhance their teaching are outlined. The chapter ends with a brief discussion of the concept of teachers as researchers and exemplifies teacher-led research in terms of action research and classroom ethnography.

The chapter explains the legal and political strategy of DWE, showing how the movement managed to organise and win a referendum to expropriate corporate landlords. It shows how the movement employs popular anger as a source of energy to transform the system towards the common good. It explains the concept of legal fiction and shows how it can influence reality. It also explains the methodology and challenges of action research.

This final chapter revisits all the issues discussed in the textbook in light of their applicability to the real classroom, that is, the relationship between research and practice. It argues for the importance of considering the usefulness of research if and when a researcher hopes to influence classroom teaching via their research. The chapter begins with a description as to how research in general is connected to our daily lives (e.g., medicine, engineering, education). It then overviews the research examining the impact of research on educational practices including second language teaching. Practical and epistemological obstacles to bridging the research–practice gap from practitioners’ and researchers’ sides are discussed. The chapter proposes a variety of actions that practitioners and researchers can take in order to foster a bidirectional, constructive, productive, equitable, and mutually beneficial relationship. The chapter ends with a series of activities designed to ensure the learning outcomes from the textbook.

Chapter 21 concludes with a discussion of the ways in which professional development opportunities can contribute to bridging the gap between theory and practice in language learning. The authors present individual and collaborative practices, as well as internal and external experiences that educators may seek out to deepen their conceptual understanding and practical skills.

Recognizing the pervasive influence of modern digital technologies, this chapter argues for the supremacy of strategy work in terms of giving shape and effect to the associated agenda for strategic, organizational and technological change. The chapter focuses on the theory and practice of action research as a Mode 2 approach to knowledge production as managers co-inquire into the practice of strategizing. The discussion speaks directly to the practice of action research in government organizations, of enhancing strategy work and its related outcomes, and the broader outcomes of co-inquiry. The chapter affirms the central role of action research in knowledge production and emphasizes how the practice of action research is itself being transformed by enabling digital technologies during the current COVID-19 pandemic. The contention throughout is that good practice informs research and good research informs practice.

In this chapter, we extend the learnings from Chapter 4 to expand your knowledge and skills on reflective practice for building effective and dynamic relationships for partnerships. You will understand how further elements of the TWINE Model of Partnership inform your reflective practice in partnership work. You will also come to learn about tools of reflective practice and how these tools can be useful in helping you to build meaningful relationships that contribute to partnerships with families and communities. This chapter will invite you to challenge yourself by asking key questions that will help you to become a reflective practitioner who builds dynamic relationships with children, families and communities.

Feedback in its actual forms has gained momentum because many developments in teaching and learning in schools and in the foreign-language classroom in particular have facililtated the implementation of a feedback culture. In the last decades, education in schools has become more and more learner-oriented. On this basis, formative feedback practices have become more and more important and specified in order to help teachers and learners to overcome the concentration on the person of the teacher and on drill-based forms of instruction. Today, feedback is no longer a one-way road, but also reaches teachers and is complemented by various other forms of feedback. This general positive development was further promoted by the changes in foreign-language instruction from the Grammar-Translation-Method to Intercultural Communication, with the aim of coming as close to real-life settings as possible.

Research is a fundamental catalyst for change in our food systems, playing a key role in diagnosing problems, setting empirical targets and pathways, and developing and scaling solutions on the ground. Unlocking the transformative functions of research will require radical changes in the research agenda and the way knowledge is produced and disseminated. Research must be context-sensitive, inclusive, built on long-term strategic engagements, responsive and adaptive to emerging needs, and packaged in accessible formats. In some cases, participatory, action-oriented research with a systems approach can be combined with reductionist, technology-driven approaches to support the behavioural changes required for systems transformation. Additional efforts can unlock and incentivise the transformative attributes of research, including relevant theories of change, strategic partnerships, nested scales approaches, and a creative leadership style.

The development of the sociological imagination is central to undergraduate training in sociology. Undergraduate research experiences (UREs) are one powerful pedagogical approach to helping students critically observe and analyze the complexity of social life. This chapter (1) explores the roots of UREs insociology; (2) examines the literature on infusing and scaffolding course-based undergraduate research experiences (CUREs), attending to successful models implementing CUREs in several types of sociology courses, across the curriculum, and as an integrated departmental approach; (3) details benefits and challenges of implementing CUREs from various stakeholder perspectives, and (4) shares thoughts on the path forward to further infuse undergraduate research in the sociology curriculum.

Early childhood education has become a prominent field focused on promoting the physical, social-emotional, and intellectual development in young children. Around the world, teacher educators seek ways for candidates to hone key pedagogical practices such as planning, assessment, and reflection inherent in inquiry-based instruction. Undergraduate research embedded in the training of future early childhood educators offers knowledge and skills in solving daily professional problems. Using action research, teacher candidates consult with community leaders, families of young children, and colleagues to implement evidence-based practices toward a common goal. The author shares examples and areas for undergraduate research in early childhood education.

The Italian university system comprises 97 institutions (67 state universities, 19 legally recognized private universities, and 11 online universities). Italian universities display divergent characteristics by mission, structure, size, and location. There are different vocations (generalist vs. specialist, research-oriented vs. teaching-oriented), which involve different structures and performances that are difficult to compare. In the last decade, practices and experiences related to the engagement through partnership model have matured, focusing on the participation of students as partners in the development of research, both campus-based but especially community- and work-based. An overview of the national literature on these experiences highlights how they fall within the framework of collaborative action-research and the promotion of dialogue between universities and society, which has been particularly encouraged since 2009 by numerous European documents aimed at encouraging “a new partnership for the modernization of universities” and collaboration between universities and organizations.