Keynote speakers

Friday - Keynote: A Never-Ending Story? Action Research and Doctoral Studies

Gaby Weiner, Eva Nyström & Lena Granstedt

In an effort to raise the research profile of action research in Sweden, it was suggested as a potential research approach to students enrolled on the new practitioner-oriented ('praxisnära') doctoral programme entitled 'Educational Work'. This presentation reflects on the experience of doing action research for doctoral studies from the perspective of both the supervisor and two of the students, on or near completion, who took up the challenge. It will be argued that while action research was an attractive proposition for practitioners undertaking doctoral research in education and indeed attracted attention right across the university, it also generated a range of unanticipated difficulties and challenges that were only partly resolved.

Gaby Weiner was professor of teacher education and research at Umeå University in Sweden (1998-2005) and before that, professor of educational research (1992-8) at South Bank University, London. She has written and edited a number of publications on social justice, gender, race and ethnicity including: Feminisms in Education (1994); Equal Opportunities in Colleges and Universities (1995, with M. Farish, J. McPake & J. Powney); Closing the Gender Gap: Postwar Educational and Social Change (1999, with M. Arnot & M. David), and most recently Kids in Cyberspace: Teaching Antiracism using the Internet in Britain, Spain and Sweden (2005, with C. Gaine). She has also been responsible for two book series: Gender and Education (with R. Deem) and Feminist Educational Thinking (with L. Yates and K. Weiler). She is currently finishing off her work at Umeå University, completing a book on the uses of auto/biography to educational research, and is also honorary professor at Edinburgh and Manchester Metropolitan Universities.

Eva Nyström was a teacher in upper secondary school for about twelve years; teaching science and mathematics. In 2002 she started her studies for a doctoral degree jointly funded by The National Graduate School of Gender Studies and the Faculty of Education, Umeå University. Her research interest involves action research, gender studies and science education. Specifically, her focus is on how gender and other cultural notions are made and manifests in teaching and learning science in school. Her doctoral thesis Taking and Talking positions (2007) deals with processes of power relations in the science classroom and is based on an action research project involving science and mathematics teachers in the Swedish upper secondary school.

Lena Granstedt was a teacher of Swedish as a second-language 1991-2002. Since 2002 she is a doctoral student of Educational work at Umeå University. The preliminary title of her dissertation is: Action Research to develop strategies for the multicultural school in Sweden. She has published the following article: Granstedt, Lena (2005) "Tensions and Possibilities in Using Action Research to Explore Multicultural and Anti-Racist Issues in Education in Sweden" in G. Weiner (Ed) Social Inclusion and Exclusion, and Social Justice in Education. Linz: Akademienverbund - Pädagogische Hochschule des Bundes OÖ. http://www.phlinz.at/typo3/fileadmin/paedak_upload/technik/si_buch.pdf

Saturday - Keynote: Working for Social Justice through Action Research in Pre-service Teacher Education

Kenneth Zeichner

The address will discuss work in the US and elsewhere where teacher educators have attempted to use action research as a counter hegemonic practice.

Kenneth Zeichner is Hoefs-Basom Professor of Teacher Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, USA. He has published widely on issues related to teacher education and learning to teach in North America, South America, Europe, and Australia.

Sunday - Keynote: Participatory Practice in a Non Participatory World : Some lessons from Sweden and the UK

Jane Springett

Engaging in Action research requires a fundamental shift in how we view the world and what we value. However such perspectives are often at odds with current institutional practices and dominant mind sets. Nowhere is this more evident than in the area of health and social care. Reflecting on my experiences of working across boundaries in health and social care both in the UK and Sweden I will examine the lessons learnt and the implications both positive and negative for engagement in Action Research in such contexts.

Jane Springett is Professor of Health Promotion and Public Health in the School of Applied Social and Community Studies at Liverpool John Moores University. Internationally known within the field of health promotion for her work on promoting participatory evaluation, she head up the Institute for Health at LJMU for several years which worked with local communities and agencies on issues of regeneration and health. Since 2003 she has been visiting professor at Kristianstad University Sweden where she has led the establishment of a interdisciplinary research unit aimed at supporting the development of local health and social care within North East Skane. Funded jointly by the County Council and the University it is founded on action research principles and works in partnership with six local authorities.