EDITORS: TERI MARCOS, LINDA PURRINGTON, & CLOTILDE LOMELI AGRUEL

This is the Fall 2021 newsletter of one of the Action Research Communities (ARCs) of the Action Research Network of the Americas (ARNA). Our ARC is Supporting the Teaching of Action Research (STAR-c). A group of professors who teach action research have met between ARNA conferences over the last few years to think about strategies, issues, and resources to support the teaching of action research. We created a website (star-arna-arc.org) as a forum for our Learning Circle discussions (onlinelearningcircles.org) around our own teaching of action research. The website provides resources to help support the teaching of action research including supportive topics, syllabi, examples of how action research fits in different programs, and both teacher and student resources.

While we enjoyed seeing many of you at the ARNA Conference in Puerto Vallarta we want to extend the discussion and invite all of you to join the STAR community. We invite your contributions to the ARNA-STAR Newsletter. Please submit short essays on any issue in the teaching of action research, your feedback on what you would like to see in the newsletter, or books, conferences, or resources you would like us to add. Please send your submissions to the STAR-ARC website and an editor will be in touch. We have also launched a blog to encourage more discussion around topics. Please join us at: https://actionresearchteaching.home.blog/

STAR-c members meet monthly via a virtual gathering and have discussed some of the challenges we have encountered during the COVID-19 season (2019-2021) while fully supporting our action research students to gather and report data during COVID closures. We want to extend our own key-learnings to our readers as well as include what others who are teaching action research are reporting in the literature. This edition features three articles whose authors investigated the current literature that supports action research approaches to teaching, learning, and researching, particularly during a global pandemic. We additionally share our best thinking and strategies that have supported both our own action research projects and our teaching of action research during the private and public facility closures that occurred during the pandemic. You will find Christine Lechner's article of interest as she reports on Action Research Communities for Language Learners in Europe. Linda Purrington applies provides a view of Tools for Navigating Action Research Challenges and Adaptive Change. Teri Marcos provides us an overview of strategies to support action researchers during the challenges of a global pandemic. And, Geitza Robelledo shares strategies for the importance of using Mindfulness as action researchers.

Action Research Communities for Language Learners

By Angela Gallagher-Brett (UK), Larisa Kasumagić-Kafedžić (Bosnia-Herzogovina), Christine Lechner (Austria), Tita Mihiau (Romania), Brynhildur Anna Ragnarsdottír (Iceland)

Training and Consultancy Programme for Action Research Communities for Language Teachers, www.ecml.at/actionresearch

Context & Process

During 2020 the Action Research Communities for Language Teachers team held action-research online workshops that should have been face2face. This was a surprise for everyone!

Firstly, prior to the pandemic for many teachers in most parts of Europe, teaching online was completely new. And, secondly, the idea of online seminars, workshops and conferences – whilst not being entirely new - was something that educationalists needed to become accustomed to. Digital literacy skills have not been fully integrated into teacher education programs in most European countries, which made it more challenging for teachers to adapt to a virtual learning and teaching emergency situations and it was the emergency remote teaching that was particularly difficult. It is not the same as planned online learning

What we Thought Was Going to Happen

We had two applications for Training and Consultancy workshops on action research for 2020, from Denmark and Lithuania. In addition, a team colleague organised a seminar series for German teachers in Romania to precede the official TaC workshops.

We believed we were going to do the same as we had done in the past: hold 2-day face2face workshops with three groups of teachers in three different European countries. We thought that team members would travel to the countries, get to know the local organizers the day before the event, find out about the local context and work on the final details for the workshop together. We thought we would meet participants in their local settings, get a feel for CPD cultures, have informal coffee breaks together and chat. We thought we would give an introduction to action research in a lively and personal way providing insights into our own experiences and practice. We thought we would try out exercises working with flip-charts and sitting in groups together and conclude with some concrete plans for mini-action research projects on typical aspects of the language classroom that participants would carry out in small groups at their schools.

As it happened, in the end and after months of planning, re-planning, postponing, hoping and finally re-planning to go online, tandem teams held online workshops.

For the teams it meant a re-think about how to deliver content online, how to re-orientate from groups in the corners of a seminar-room to breakout rooms and how to put our hands-on activities for reflection into a digital format.

Some Things Were Surprisingly Easy

The shift from presenting standing in front of a projector to delivering input online was surprisingly simple. At the heart of our action research project is the ARC Spiral that leads teachers into action research. This is a hyperlinked online tool and we found out that demonstrating online tools online makes so much more sense than talking about what is online in a room.

For the teachers participating presenting posters of their classroom situations and their experiences in connection to language education, as well as presenting the concepts of their AR projects towards the end of the training, also proved to be quite successful as it enabled the group presentation on a time line in Padlet where everyone had a chance to see an array of different ideas, experience and approaches which diversified and enriched the learning space and stimulated a more meaningful reflection.

Other Things Did Not Quite Work Out As Planned

We found that some of the digitalized activities will need more thought in future. It is not just a question of transfer and the time slots allotted will need rethinking. One example was an activity to get participants thinking about action research. Over time and in many different settings we had developed a matching activity including a set of statements comparing action research to classical empirical research where participants are asked to match statements cut into strips and discuss the implications in small groups. This activity had always worked well leading to interesting in-depth discussions. Transferring the activity to an online format using an appropriate program was very simple. However, the online-matching activity was also very simple and remained superficial as no thought-provoking discussions followed. We need to understand more about whey this happened for upcoming workshop. Such incidences may well be related to the difficulties “reading the room” during an online workshop. It may well be that the time allotted for the activity was not long enough to start discussions; had we been in the room with the teachers we would have walked around and noticed how discussions were progressing. Or we might have completely misunderstood the culture around discussion within a culture we do not understand well. Both assumptions point to the especial necessities of running online workshops in other countries, we need to speak in detail to local organizers and to try to check steps with participants during the progress of the workshop.

In Focus: Three Different Experiences Taking Action Research Online

Romania

For the teachers in the workshop run prior to the TaCs, the special thing about the project was that it was carried out exclusively online and it was possible to have speakers from Austria and Germany.

Action research had been a topic for the Centre for Continuous Teacher Education, but it is still a new concept for most teachers in schools. Through our online seminar, we were able to reach German teachers all over the country, who were interested in the theory of action research and also really wanted to put theory into practice in their own classrooms.

With this in mind, the workshop was divided into three stages:

1. A short introduction to the topic of action research by presenting the ARC project and the website where all the tools are also available;
2. A thematic input "Movement in the classroom" which could be used as an opportunity to take the first steps into an action research project;
3. A short feedback session in which the group shared the projects with the other participants and reflected on the success and further progress.

Through the format, the teachers involved were able to apply the newly gained insights and knowledge in their classrooms and also took away stimuli for the future.

For most participants, carrying out the AR project online was a real challenge, but a challenge that gave them a completely different perspective on their own teaching. The lively exchange, the successful projects and the thoughtful comments of the participants suggest that it was not only a successful seminar, but an experience participants would consider to be essential for all teachers at this difficult time.

Denmark

The Training and Consultancy was held divided into a pre-workshop and a main workshop. The pre-workshop lasted for two hours and was followed three weeks later by the main workshop run on two afternoons.

Participants were highly engaged during the sessions and brought in some very interesting points during discussions in the breakout rooms. For example, it was noted that due to geographic distances and the economic situation in their schools, on-line workshops made it possible for them to attend. The school would not have been able to cover the cost of a replacement for them for the workshop and travel days.

They also mentioned that discussions in breakout rooms gave them opportunities for good and deep conversations. Teachers who live far apart found sparring partners during the workshop and discovered a new way to work together, saving time and travel. Of course they missed meeting in person, but did we not all during these difficult months.

For many teachers it was an enormous step to transfer their teaching into the virtual world - a real challenge. Many European teachers work in small schools and are a part of a small teacher body, not all schools are technically well equipped - and some may not have had the necessary facilities at home, before the pandemic. The workshop became a showcase and a model for how to organise a classroom practice in cyberspace.

Moreover, the workshops made it possible for teachers from all school levels, kindergarten, elementary, secondary school and university to meet on common ground, as colleagues. The workshop gave them an opportunity to present and introduce their practice, what they are dealing with from one day to another. They got questions and feedback from people from a different background, different context, which probably would not have been the case if they had met in a real-life situation.

Lithuania

Getting started was a challenge. Everything was so new for everyone and we experienced collective amazement and disbelief that “the new future” would actually work. We held a taster session at the end of the Summer Term, which was followed by a pre-workshop in the Autumn & an extra Q&A session. The main workshop took place on two afternoons in November 2020 with the follow-up including presentations by participants at the beginning of February. We were so impressed by the level of engagement in difficult times.

Some of our participants had limited access to suitable devices, some had small children popping into the room and sitting on their knees during workshops and even whilst they were holding their own presentations.

For these teachers, teaching online was a big surprise and completely new and we were worried that they might simply give up as the situation was so difficult. They did not give up, they did some amazing things showing teachers embracing action research as a way to support each other in tough times.

Examples in Practice

Project 1: Giving feedback online

This project was carried out by four language teachers from the same senior high school. action research focus was looking at issues around new, effective ways to give/get feedback suitable for online learning/teaching. They started by identifying aspects of their online teaching that they wanted to improve.

• The quality of giving/getting feedback while working online in Microsoft TEAMS by helping students learn and achieve better results.

• Adapting the methods they use in normal face-to-face lessons.

After intensive discussions they were able to formulate their question:

Looking for new effective ways to give/get feedback suitable for online learning/teaching.

At this stage the teachers met on a regular basis (online) and one of their first steps was to work through the ARC Spiral and to identify the action research tools they all felt might be useful.

From this point on, the projects in different classrooms developed in various ways. The teachers found personal preferences for specific tools, which they applied and which in turn, led to individual findings. However, there was some common ground in that all the teachers discovered the benefits of talking to students about their learning and they discovered how much this was appreciated by learners.

The overall project was so successful that they were invited to talk about action research at their school and at other schools.

They will continue to work as a Professional Learning Community and all four intend to follow up action research in some way although the paths will lead in diverse directions.

Project 2: Enhancing writing - online

As lessons in Lithuania went online during the Autumn of 2020, another participant started to look in depth at this issue: How to make online essay writing an attractive activity for students. She also used the ARC Spiral to identify relevant action research tools and then explored with students how they approached their writing in English. She was surprised to find a lack of planning and lack of revising and editing of essays. She set out to engage in more critical conversations with other teachers to learn from them and to provide more individualized feedback to students and regular opportunities for reflection. She also introduced a weekly diary where students chose their own topics to write about. She reported that:

• Students find reflection at the end of each lesson (see what they have learned) helpful as well as reflection at the beginning of the following lesson (consolidation).

• Individual interviews with students provided useful insights on how they approach writing.

• Students enjoyed choosing topics to write about in their diaries.

She concluded that she had spent too much time previously on academic progress and not enough on the emotional aspects of writing and that the quality of the teacher-student dialogue is critically important.

Reports of the teachers’ action research projects are available here: https://padlet.com/ECML/ARCSuccessStories

Going Forward

Overall Learning For The ARC-Team

We found out that it is possible to hold extra sessions online to introduce and conclude the workshops. Holding a pre-workshop session to explain the context and give an overview seemed like a really effective way to get to know the teachers’ interests. Keeping contact with participants and meeting up again after a couple of months is quite simple and will be continued in post-pandemic times.

Ongoing Activities and Outlook

We are currently planning an online workshop in Sweden to be held between October and the end of 2021. This year the decision was made early on by the local organizers that the trainings would run online due to uncertainties caused by the pandemic. The early decision has made planning more straightforward; a pre-workshop and a follow-up session are included in the schedule. Our hopes are that the clear structure will help us to support teachers through action research.

Half-way House And Open Questions For The Future

We are now exactly half way through our four-year “Training and Consultancy” project on action research for language teachers. The project will run until the end of 2023, so far we have experienced jolts, encouraging surprises and learning opportunities.

For the next two years the hope is that we will be holding face-to-face action-research workshops in different European countries. We assume that situations will have changed since the pre-pandemic days.

• Will it really be possible to hold in-person workshops?

• How will it all work?

• Will people be prepared to go back to spending time and money traveling to venues?

• How will we remember what has been learnt?

• Will we take time to reflect upon the experiences from the pandemic? Will we integrate social and emotional aspects of learning when we return to in-person teaching?

Looking back on the two years, the team has knitted closer together through the virtual exchange, intensive planning online to prepare for online learning.

Publications by project team members

Recherche-action. Babylonia (2) 2019, Edited by M. Jacquin, C. Lechner and M. Picenoni. Comano: Fondatione Lingue e Cultura.

Gallagher-Brett, A. 2019. “Supporting and empowering language teachers through action research communities.” In Innovative Language Teaching and Learning: New Trends in Language Teaching at University, edited by N. Becerra-Gonzalez, H. Magedera, and A. Reimao, 29-36. Dublin: Research-publishing.net.

Gallagher-Brett A. and Lechner C. (2020), „ARC: action research communities for language teachers”, in Dikilitaş K., Mede E., Atay D. (eds.) Pedagogical and instructional perspectives in language education, The context of higher education, Peter Lang, Frankfurt, pp. 55-76

Kasumagić- Kafedžić, L., Teaching Interculturalism at Sophia University in Tokyo: Japanese Students' Insights and Reflections on Effective Teaching methods, Critical Pedagogy and Intercultural Learning Principles, Sophia University Studies in Education, No. 51, March 2017

Kasumagić- Kafedžić, L, Social and moral responsibilities of foreign language teachers in post conflict, fragile and fragmented Bosnia and Herzegovina (book chapter), in Universities and Conflict: The Role of Higher Education in Peacebuilding and Resistance, edited by Juliet Miliocan, Series: Routledge Studies in Peace and Conflict Resolution, Routledge, 2018

Lechner, C., & Scaretti-Zanin, R. (2021). Impulse für den Einstieg in die Aktionsforschung: Das ARC Training and Consultancy-Projekt . In: Zanin, R., Rauch F., Schuster A. , Lechner C., Stadler-Altmann, U., Drumbl,, J. (eds), Herausforderung Sprache in Kindergarten, Schule und Universität. Beiträge zu Aktionsforschung, Lesson Study und Learning Study. Praesens Verlag. 222-234

Project base publications

Tools for Navigating Action Research Challenges and Adaptive Change

By Linda Purrington

Growth Mindset, Question Thinking, and Pause Practices

Having served as an educational leader for forty years in K-12 and higher education, I navigated several local crises and challenges that caused me to reflect deeply about leading during turbulent and uncertain times. Perhaps the most important learning that resulted was not specific to any one event, but the understanding that crises and challenges continue to present themselves and the key to surviving and thriving is by building individual, group, and organizational capacity for adaptive change. Waves of challenges keep on coming and we may have little if any control over the shape they take. What we can take charge of is how we respond and adapt and how we respond and adapt is guided by our beliefs, assumptions, and values. Our willingness to continuously revisit and challenge those beliefs, assumptions, and values opens new possibilities and new and better ways of being. Mindset matters.

https://www.thinkingcollaborative.com/product-page/adaptive-schools-desktop-guide

Garmston & Wellman (2009) call mindset the lens through which we view the world. “Our personal and organizational maps for this new world are in many ways incomplete. “There are no preprogrammed global positioning technologies to plot future voyages and alert us to turns ahead. What we most need to develop are the mental, emotional, and social tools for finding way in these shifting landscapes. We also need new lenses to see the world not as a reflection of ourselves but as image of the many possibilities within the human landscape” (p. 1).

Garmston and Wellman wrote these words pre pandemic, but they still ring true today. COVID 19, a global pandemic in modern times, has magnified the importance of educational leaders becoming more knowledgeable and skillful in leading adaptive change. “Adaptation is the work of leaders at all levels of the school and professional community and inquiry is an essential tool of adaptation. Adaptation is not limited to external events. Adaptive schools help all players to learn how to cope with the psychological transition related to change” (p. 20).

Action Research is a means for studying and leading adaptive change, which is why we made it a powerful strand of courses spanning two years in our educational leadership doctoral program at Pepperdine University. We began our action research learning by introducing Dweck’s research findings related to mindset. Concurrently, we introduced Marilee Adam’s (2009) work related to discovering the power of question thinking and Kevin Cashman’s (2012) concept of stepping back to lead forward, the pause principle, to grow self, others, and cultures of innovation. Our intent was for students as action researchers to adopt a growth mindset and to intentionally pause and regularly engage in continuous and purposeful question thinking throughout their action research journey. Students interacted in Learning Circles and utilized blogs and journals as a means for ongoing recording and sharing of their reflective sense-making.

https://sites.dartmouth.edu/learning/2017/05/18/understanding-the-growth-mindset/

Fixed Versus Growth Mindset

Carol Dweck (2008) has engaged in decades of research on achievement and success and the power of mindset. Dweck writes about two types of mindsets, fixed and growth, and how mindset guides our lives. “Believing that your qualities are carved in stone—the fixed mindset—creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over” (p. 6). “Growth mindset is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can cultivate through your efforts” (p. 7). Based on twenty years of her research, Dweck claims “the views you adopt for yourself profoundly affect the way you lead your life. It can determine whether you become the person you want to be and whether you accomplish the things you value” (p. 6).

https://inquiryinstitute.com/books

The Power of Question Thinking

Marilee Adams (2009) is known for her work related to the power of question thinking and core message “that real change always begins with a change in thinking—and most specifically in the questions we ask ourselves” (p. 5). Adams contrasts two mindsets, judger and learner. “Learners make thoughtful choices, are solution focused, and win-win oriented. Judgers react automatically, are blame focused, and win-lose oriented” (p. 39). Adams suggests that we are all recovering judgers, but that we can counter by practicing a Learner mindset and engaging in questioning thinking. The ten tools of question thinking (p. 159) include:

Tool 1: Empower Your Observer

Tool 2: Use the Choice Map as a Guide

Tool 3: Put the Power of Questions to Work

Tool 4: Distinguish Learner and Judger Mindsets

Tool 5: Make Friends with Judger

Tool 6: Question Assumptions

Tool 7: Take Advantage of Switching Questions

Tool 8: Create Learner Teams

Tool 9: Create Breakthroughs with Q-Storming

Tool 10: Ask the Top Twelve Questions for Success

https://www.bkconnection.com/bkblog/kevin-cashman/excerpt-seven-pause-principles-kevin-cashman

Step Back to Lead Forward: The Pause Principle

Ken Cashman (2012) states, “Managers assert drive and control to get things done; leaders pause to discover new ways of being and achieving” (p. 4). Cashman describes “growth as an inside out and outside in process of transformation beginning with inner self-growth and moving to growing others and growing cultures of innovation” (p. 20). Cashman identifies seven pause practices that support the meta-pause principle: Step back to lead forward:

Pause Practice 1: Be on Purpose

Pause Practice 2: Question and Listen

Pause Practice 3: Risk Experimentation

Pause Practice 4: Reflect and Synthesize

Pause Practice 5: Consider Inside-Out and Outside-In Dynamics

Pause Practice 6: Foster Generativity

Pause Practice 7: Be Authentic (pp. 32-35).

In thinking about the challenges experienced by educational leaders conducting action research during COVID 19, I suggest that a growth mindset, question thinking, and pause practices are relevant. A growth mindset allows one to be open to new ways of thinking, doing, and being. It allows us to look at challenges with new lenses and to reframe problems as opportunities. Question thinking, the strategy of Q-storming, helps us to approach challenges as learners and creative thinkers. Engaging in pause practices promotes more thoughtful and purposeful actions and supports psychological transition related to change.

References

Adams, M. (2009). Change your questions change your life: 10 powerful tools for life and work. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

Cashman, K. (2012). The pause principle: Step back to lead forward. San Francisco, CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc.

Dweck, C.S. (2008). Mindset: How we can learn to fulfill our potential. New York, NY: Ballentine Books.

Garmston, R.J. & Wellman, B.M. (2009). The adaptive school: A sourcebook for developing collaborative groups. Norwood, MA: Christopher-Gordon Publishers, Inc.

Linda Purrington, Ed.D

Three Strategies to Support the Teaching of Action Research During a Global Pandemic

By Teri Marcos

Supports During COVID-19 Facility Closures

Inasmuch as COVID-19 imposed an unprecedented physical impact on the world, a psychological and sociological phenomenon occurred, as well, as humans who formerly felt relatively safe from influenza type diseases (the Spanish Flu pandemic 100 years prior notwithstanding) were gripped for the first time with the often debilitating fear they would contract the virus along with its variety of scourges, including death. Having no human immunity to this new strain of flu people sheltered in place while glued to the news outlets they most often trusted. Media consistently reported data for cases and deaths which climbed quickly in most nations.

Governments and decision makers at national, municipal, and local levels extended mandates to which their constituents were required to comply. Everyone, generally without exception, sheltered in place for a time and eventually masked-up and socially distanced, to slow the spread while awaiting a vaccine. We eventually succeeded over 18-months, and facilities began to reopen with mask and social distance mandates remaining in place.

18-Months

Important questions arose as humans grappled with priorities. Personal questions such as 'What mattered most? What would happen if COVID struck a household? What plan could be implemented if the worst case happened? What will tomorrow hold if we survive today?' At the professional level many companies and organizations foundered, or worse, folded. Universities were included in these failures. For those universities that survived many graduate students who were enrolled asked questions related to their research projects. How do we collect data with facilities closures? Are these the data we are seeking? What comparisons can be made between what we would pursue as data pre/post COVID?

Those of us who facilitate and teach action research were bombarded with questions by our adult learners. What occurred during these 18-months (and now beyond) with the action researchers we call our students (learning)? What occurred for facilitators who support action research (teaching)? And, most importantly, what was gained amidst the challenges of COVID-19 in both teaching and learning while meeting the expectations of a course outline for an action research course?

This professor of action research engaged three strategies that contributed first to my professional learning during the COVID-19 crisis, and secondly fueled my considerably more important role to extend my key-learnings and strategies to others.

1. As we were isolated by mandates such as shelter in place during COVID-19, engaging a 'care for self approach' much like we are reminded to do if oxygen masks drop while in flight on an airplane, was helpful. "Secure yours first, and help others secondly," are the instructions we both hear from the stewards and read in the literature placed in the seat back pocket prior to every takeoff. Both steps are equally important to our survival should oxygen be necessary while in flight. This professor's oxygen became those technologies I purposefully intentioned to fervently de-isolate and connect with my online community. My action research students were encouraged to do the same (but they were already doing this as a natural human response to isolation. It helped us to talk about it).

2. Social-Emotional Learning (SEL) strategies were exercised for self and extended to others. The Gallup Organization, and many others, have researched SEL while reporting their findings for decades. Hope, thriving, and well-being are just three indicators (of many) that predict SEL health. Hope has been found to reduce the impact of toxic stress while building resilience against adverse experiences. Engaging hopeful, positive, loving conversations with students can alleviate their anxiety and fears while building confidence that they can do the work. Hope can be learned, thus it can be taught. Encouragement to perform is the opposite of pressure to perform and both elicit the same outcome...performance. I encouraged myself every day while making an agreement with myself to extend extra encouragement to my AR students. My belief in them contributed to their belief in self.

3. While action research itself is not a meta-analysis of literature, an intentional search and sharing of key-findings discovered within the literature encouraged a meta-analytic approach to assist action researchers. I found myself reading more, searching more, from the foundational grounding of consumer of research as I assisted my AR students to additionally wear the dual hats of both consumer and producer. This was particularly important as facilities remained closed and shelter in place orders remained in effect.

19 & 20 Months

Facility re-openings continue at this writing yet not without the accompaniment of ongoing fears and concerns for many. While the Delta variant of COVID-19, and surely others to come, accompanied fresh fears of contraction, and it was found to be more highly contagious, but far less deadly, than COVID-19, we who teach action research within Institutes of Higher Education may find those strategies being engaged through a variety of multi-disciplinary and interagency literature are helpful. I found many yet would highlight one in particular from the medical profession.

The February, 2021, Journal of Nursing Management reported findings from an action research study that provided targeted psychological support to frontline nurses involved in the management of COVID‐19 (Chen, et.al. 2021). Although the setting of this action research study lies in the field of medicine, specifically frontline nurses, its reported findings are broadly applicable to a variety of fields, particularly education and that of supporting the teaching of action research.

The aim of the study was to develop and implement a targeted psychological support scheme for frontline nurses involved in the management of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) and the background noted that nurses play a vital role in managing the ongoing COVID‐19 pandemic, while confronting enormous challenges and psychological problems. The method engaged an action research design to develop and provide a targeted psychological support scheme to 1,496 frontline nurses. Data regarding nurses’ feedback were collected from WeChat group chat, letters and comments on theme lectures. Subsequently, qualitative content analysis was conducted using MAXQDA (a powerful computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software which helps researchers and analysts gain insights from written or text documents such as submissions or open text questions in a survey). The results described a targeted psychological support scheme that was formed via three action cycles according to nurses’ needs. Frontline nurses received psychological assistance from a research team, which offered (1) a sense of belonging, (2) a sense of professional value and pride, and (3) a sense of being protected and confident. The conclusion noted that the researchers successfully provided targeted psychological support to nurses, and nurses were motivated and became more confident when their needs were addressed. The article provided implications for nursing management as nurses having various types of psychological needs, which could be addressed by targeted support. The authors suggested that nurse managers should identify nurses’ needs in real time and provide appropriate support through multidisciplinary collaboration to improve their confidence and enhance their resilience (Shao‐Hua Chen, Jun‐E Liu, Xiao‐Yu Bai, Peng Yue, and Shi‐Xiang Luo, 2021).

Key-Learnings and Application

Through the COVID-19 season the term 'frontline' became paramount to our learning. It meant that those who were working and serving directly with victims of COVID-19 stood first in the degree of separation between the virus and those it perpetrated. Educators also stand first in the degree of separation between the effects of the virus (facility closures and re-openings) and delivery of services to students (teaching and learning). The action researchers enrolled in our courses while earning their graduate degrees benefited from the creative mindsets of their peers and professors who together brought their best thinking and strategies forward to conduct action research during a global pandemic. How did we both psychologically and intellectually support our students during COVID-19 as professors of action research? How did we strategize alongside our students to best assist their confidence as action researchers? We remained a simple one degree of separation from the challenges they faced amidst the challenges the virus posed as they identified their action research topics, described their purpose, and created research questions to merit the need to know. We engaged social media, online learning circles, the plethora of available literature, and particularly tapped the leadership skills of relationship building through virtual meetings in support of action research. Facilities may have been closed, but people were not.

The Act of Coming To Know

Research has been defined as the 'act of coming to know.' Finding a way to support our action researchers during a global pandemic was challenging as we moved from the former physicality of the work setting while conducting action research to a more virtuality of conducting action research. We empathized with our populations sampled, we described their current situation, identified outcomes, ideated, prototyped, and tested our applied innovation. The act of coming to know was done differently, less physically, more virtually. But the 'act of coming to know', they certainly did.

Reference

Chen, S., Liu, J., Bai, X., Yue, P., Luo, S. (2021). Providing targeted psychological support to frontline nurses involved in the management of COVID‐19: An action research. The journal of nursing management. Feb 8 : doi: 10.1111/jonm.13255

Teri Marcos, Ed.D

A Mindfulness Action Research Proposal Considering Teachers Emotional Intelligence Under the COVID-19 Pandemic

By Geitza Rebolledo (PhD)

Introduction

The COVID 19 Pandemic gave rise to an educational situation that evolved globally and has affected the emotional lives of the world population. Teachers are one of the groups most deeply affected. In Venezuela, like in many other countries, teachers in the public sector were asked by the government to work remotely using their own technology, mostly cell phones, without any general training on this type of Education. (ARNA Newsletter 2020). Teachers from countries with robust online education programs like the UK and the USA had an infrastructure in place and some educational expertise to cope with the Pandemic Education situation. However, despite varying levels of resources and levels of expertise, the Pandemic has challenged all teachers.

Across the world, educators were faced with unique challenges and tremendous pressure. All teachers with or without technological expertise had to quickly adapt to remote learning while balancing the impacts of the pandemic on their personal lives. As Ferren (2021) pointed out in the past year, educators have been overwhelmed with stress, trauma, and burnout. Although those in the education sector have engaged in a great deal of discussion about the best way to provide social and emotional support to students during and after the pandemic, it is essential that the social and emotional needs of educators are also taken into consideration, particularly considering that Teachers are the one to give support to students.

The Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning known as CASEL and the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence published resources and recommendations to help educators process the stress of remote learning and adjust to the “new normal.” Now that the transition back to the classroom has begun, there are some examples of relief funds, for example, the American Rescue Plan which provides funds to public K-12 districts, and schools to help prioritize social and emotional support for educators. However, there is the question are these recommendations implemented in the schools?

Teachers Emotional Intelligence Under Pandemic

At the end of March,2020 a team at the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence, along with the Collaborative for Social Emotional and Academic Learning, known as CASEL, launched a survey to unpack the emotional lives of teachers during the COVID-19 crisis.

Among different aspects of the Emotional intelligence of teachers identified that are affected by the pandemic situation was teacher confidence. Many teachers found the shift to remote education challenged their ability to teach. Teachers’ reactions to such a changed school environment and their ability to adapt had serious impacts on their mental health. Stressful situations resulted in anxiety, frustration, and emotional difficulties as the teachers worked to maintain health and continue teaching. In some cases, these forces so undermined their confidence in their ability to be effective, that many educators decided to leave teaching

In addition to loss of teacher confidence, other problems have been identified:

· Lack of flexibility to support students performance and behaviors in remote classes

· Problems with perception of students psychological problems from remote classes

· Problems with evaluation and support of students families

· Lack of support by school and district administration.

Only 3 percent of teachers felt that administrators were addressing their social and emotional needs during remote learning. Nearly half of public school teachers who quit their jobs after February 2020 did so because of the pandemic, citing longer hours and working an average of 52 hours per week, having to navigate the remote environment, and experiencing technical problems. The majority of those who left their position took other jobs with less or about equal pay, and 3 in 10 took jobs with no health insurance or retirement benefits.

Hence there is a need for a comprehensive adult social emotional training available that would provide all educators with opportunities to learn how to more effectively balance the common social and emotional stressors they now face in their profession.

Among different aspects the report conclude that teachers seem to lack training on social emotional learning.

Mindfulness

Kabat-Zinn (2021) describes mindfulness as involving different aspects related to emotions. Emotions like anxiety and fear, especially when prolonged, disrupt concentration and interfere with thinking. Chronic stress, especially when poorly managed, can result in the persistent activation of the sympathetic nervous system and the release of stress hormones like Cortisol. Prolonged release of stress hormones and other neurochemicals impacts brain structures associated with executive functioning and memory, diminishing our ability to be effective educators and undermining student learning.

Pecore (2020) suggested the importance of teaching mindfulness as a means to develop resiliency and to deal with immediate and important life problems. Mindfulness is particularly valuable in helping students cope in times of crises like the challenges of the pandemic.

There are certain characteristics in order to promote Mindfulness. For example:

· Mindfulness is a relational process, it necessitates promoting an ethical environment. We also need to be aware of the indirect effects of our values. The inquiry process in mindfulness programs guides participants, demanding first-hand awareness, acknowledging the relational nature of the experience to emotional patterns, and informing a new way of perceiving experience (Williams, M.J. Kabat- Zinn J. (2013)).

Explore how social emotional learning and mindfulness have been used by students could help us focus on ways to use the same process with teachers working in pandemic circumstances. Creating mindfulness spaces where honest reflection, is acknowledged, and there is a serious commitment to take necessary steps to alleviate emotional suffering could help teachers be more successful. The inclusion of compassion and mindfulness-based approaches together with Action Research methods may provide a platform from which to address teachers trauma and related aspects of COVID Pandemic effects in teachers.

Action Research Methodology and Mindfulness Under COVID 19 Pandemic

Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) has taken a leadership role in identification of the issues of social emotional learning for students. They use polls to help students develop the ability to understand themselves, build healthy relationships and make good decisions. CASEL collaborates with leaders and partners with districts and states to help schools best support children to be as healthy and successful as they can be. Students define social and emotional learning (SEL) as a process through which students acquire and apply the knowledge, skills and attitudes to develop healthy identities, manage emotions and achieve personal and collective goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain supportive relationships, and make responsible and caring decisions. This approach could be taken with a teachers Action Research Study.

To start a study considering Action Research and Mindfulness one should begin by questioning the teaching situation that has evolved during the Pandemic in order to understand the social and emotional challenges that teacher faces. This can be done by modeling the process that CASEL used to survey students but instead focus on teachers. Once challenges have been identified, an action plan can be created to find ways to address these problems.

Some questions that might be included in such a survey:

1. What are the Pedagogical assumptions that have arisen in Teaching under Pandemic?

2. What are the characteristics of the new context of teaching?

3. What are the social emotional issues faced by teachers and what skills can be identified in order to cope with the teaching under Pandemic?

4. What are the factors that contribute to high levels of stress?

In what ways can Mindfulness offer a possible way to deal with socioemotional aspects of the teaching under pandemic?

One could propose to develop a teachers’ network based on Focus Groups to provide information in order to reach agreements democratically for an AR work based on Mindfulness.

Also individual participation should be considered through the Reflexive Diaries development (Elliott 2007) of the participants. This in order to give voice to the teachers considering their understanding of their own situation and to value their interpretations and feelings through the project progress.

A spiral Action Research Plan, based on Mindfulness should evolve from shared Teacher meetings, their group reflections and their AR Diaries.

Bibliography

Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning, “CASEL CASES: Let’s Listen to Our Young People: What Support Do They Need?”, YouTube, April 17, 2020, available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hA8x-4zZP6Y.

Elliott, J. ( 2007 ) Reflecting where the action is: The selected works of John Elliott. London. Routledge.

Ferren M. (2021) Social and Emotional Supports for Educators During and After the Pandemic.Americanprogress.org/article. The Center for American Progress. July/20,2021.

Kabat-Zinn, J., (2021) Mindfulness for Beginners. Audiobook Available on YouTube, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OI56S0hceAo

Pecore, J. (2020), Curriculum and Teaching Dialogue; 22(1/2):163-166,335,

Williams, J.. Kabat- Zinn, J. (2013) Mindfulness Diverse Perspectives on its meaning. Origin and Apllications.UK & USA Routledge