action research design

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Action Research: What it is, Stages & Examples

The best way to get things accomplished is to do it yourself. This statement is utilized in corporations, community projects, and national governments. These organizations are relying on action research to cope with their continuously changing and unstable environments as they function in a more interdependent world.

In practical educational contexts, this involves using systematic inquiry and reflective practice to address real-world challenges, improve teaching and learning, enhance student engagement, and drive positive changes within the educational system.

This post outlines the definition of action research, its stages, and some examples.

Content Index

What is action research?

Stages of action research, the steps to conducting action research, examples of action research, advantages and disadvantages of action research.

Action research is a strategy that tries to find realistic solutions to organizations’ difficulties and issues. It is similar to applied research.

Action research refers basically learning by doing. First, a problem is identified, then some actions are taken to address it, then how well the efforts worked are measured, and if the results are not satisfactory, the steps are applied again.

It can be put into three different groups:

• Positivist: This type of research is also called “classical action research.” It considers research a social experiment. This research is used to test theories in the actual world.
• Interpretive: This kind of research is called “contemporary action research.” It thinks that business reality is socially made, and when doing this research, it focuses on the details of local and organizational factors.
• Critical: This action research cycle takes a critical reflection approach to corporate systems and tries to enhance them.

All research is about learning new things. Collaborative action research contributes knowledge based on investigations in particular and frequently useful circumstances. It starts with identifying a problem. After that, the research process is followed by the below stages:

Stage 1: Plan

For an action research project to go well, the researcher needs to plan it well. After coming up with an educational research topic or question after a research study, the first step is to develop an action plan to guide the research process. The research design aims to address the study’s question. The research strategy outlines what to undertake, when, and how.

Stage 2: Act

The next step is implementing the plan and gathering data. At this point, the researcher must select how to collect and organize research data . The researcher also needs to examine all tools and equipment before collecting data to ensure they are relevant, valid, and comprehensive.

Stage 3: Observe

Data observation is vital to any investigation. The action researcher needs to review the project’s goals and expectations before data observation. This is the final step before drawing conclusions and taking action.

Different kinds of graphs, charts, and networks can be used to represent the data. It assists in making judgments or progressing to the next stage of observing.

Stage 4: Reflect

This step involves applying a prospective solution and observing the results. It’s essential to see if the possible solution found through research can really solve the problem being studied.

The researcher must explore alternative ideas when the action research project’s solutions fail to solve the problem.

Action research is a systematic approach researchers, educators, and practitioners use to identify and address problems or challenges within a specific context. It involves a cyclical process of planning, implementing, reflecting, and adjusting actions based on the data collected. Here are the general steps involved in conducting an action research process:

Identify the action research question or problem

Clearly define the issue or problem you want to address through your research. It should be specific, actionable, and relevant to your working context.

Review existing knowledge

Conduct a literature review to understand what research has already been done on the topic. This will help you gain insights, identify gaps, and inform your research design.

Plan the research

Develop a research plan outlining your study’s objectives, methods, data collection tools, and timeline. Determine the scope of your research and the participants or stakeholders involved.

Collect data

Implement your research plan by collecting relevant data. This can involve various methods such as surveys, interviews, observations, document analysis, or focus groups. Ensure that your data collection methods align with your research objectives and allow you to gather the necessary information.

Analyze the data

Once you have collected the data, analyze it using appropriate qualitative or quantitative techniques. Look for patterns, themes, or trends in the data that can help you understand the problem better.

Reflect on the findings

Reflect on the analyzed data and interpret the results in the context of your research question. Consider the implications and possible solutions that emerge from the data analysis. This reflection phase is crucial for generating insights and understanding the underlying factors contributing to the problem.

Develop an action plan

Based on your analysis and reflection, develop an action plan that outlines the steps you will take to address the identified problem. The plan should be specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART goals). Consider involving relevant stakeholders in planning to ensure their buy-in and support.

Implement the action plan

Put your action plan into practice by implementing the identified strategies or interventions. This may involve making changes to existing practices, introducing new approaches, or testing alternative solutions. Document the implementation process and any modifications made along the way.

Evaluate and monitor progress

Continuously monitor and evaluate the impact of your actions. Collect additional data, assess the effectiveness of the interventions, and measure progress towards your goals. This evaluation will help you determine if your actions have the desired effects and inform any necessary adjustments.

Reflect and iterate

Reflect on the outcomes of your actions and the evaluation results. Consider what worked well, what did not, and why. Use this information to refine your approach, make necessary adjustments, and plan for the next cycle of action research if needed.

Remember that participatory action research is an iterative process, and multiple cycles may be required to achieve significant improvements or solutions to the identified problem. Each cycle builds on the insights gained from the previous one, fostering continuous learning and improvement.

Explore Insightfully Contextual Inquiry in Qualitative Research

Here are two real-life examples of action research.

Action research initiatives are frequently situation-specific. Still, other researchers can adapt the techniques. The example is from a researcher’s (Franklin, 1994) report about a project encouraging nature tourism in the Caribbean.

In 1991, this was launched to study how nature tourism may be implemented on the four Windward Islands in the Caribbean: St. Lucia, Grenada, Dominica, and St. Vincent.

For environmental protection, a government-led action study determined that the consultation process needs to involve numerous stakeholders, including commercial enterprises.

First, two researchers undertook the study and held search conferences on each island. The search conferences resulted in suggestions and action plans for local community nature tourism sub-projects.

Several islands formed advisory groups and launched national awareness and community projects. Regional project meetings were held to discuss experiences, self-evaluations, and strategies. Creating a documentary about a local initiative helped build community. And the study was a success, leading to a number of changes in the area.

Lau and Hayward (1997) employed action research to analyze Internet-based collaborative work groups.

Over two years, the researchers facilitated three action research problem -solving cycles with 15 teachers, project personnel, and 25 health practitioners from diverse areas. The goal was to see how Internet-based communications might affect their virtual workgroup.

First, expectations were defined, technology was provided, and a bespoke workgroup system was developed. Participants suggested shorter, more dispersed training sessions with project-specific instructions.

The second phase saw the system’s complete deployment. The final cycle witnessed system stability and virtual group formation. The key lesson was that the learning curve was poorly misjudged, with frustrations only marginally met by phone-based technical help. According to the researchers, the absence of high-quality online material about community healthcare was harmful.

Role clarity, connection building, knowledge sharing, resource assistance, and experiential learning are vital for virtual group growth. More study is required on how group support systems might assist groups in engaging with their external environment and boost group members’ learning. 

Action research has both good and bad points.

• It is very flexible, so researchers can change their analyses to fit their needs and make individual changes.
• It offers a quick and easy way to solve problems that have been going on for a long time instead of complicated, long-term solutions based on complex facts.
• If It is done right, it can be very powerful because it can lead to social change and give people the tools to make that change in ways that are important to their communities.

Disadvantages

• These studies have a hard time being generalized and are hard to repeat because they are so flexible. Because the researcher has the power to draw conclusions, they are often not thought to be theoretically sound.
• Setting up an action study in an ethical way can be hard. People may feel like they have to take part or take part in a certain way.
• It is prone to research errors like selection bias , social desirability bias, and other cognitive biases.

LEARN ABOUT: Self-Selection Bias

This post discusses how action research generates knowledge, its steps, and real-life examples. It is very applicable to the field of research and has a high level of relevance. We can only state that the purpose of this research is to comprehend an issue and find a solution to it.

At QuestionPro, we give researchers tools for collecting data, like our survey software, and a library of insights for any long-term study. Go to the Insight Hub if you want to see a demo or learn more about it.

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Frequently Asked Questions(FAQ’s)

Action research is a systematic approach to inquiry that involves identifying a problem or challenge in a practical context, implementing interventions or changes, collecting and analyzing data, and using the findings to inform decision-making and drive positive change.

Action research can be conducted by various individuals or groups, including teachers, administrators, researchers, and educational practitioners. It is often carried out by those directly involved in the educational setting where the research takes place.

The steps of action research typically include identifying a problem, reviewing relevant literature, designing interventions or changes, collecting and analyzing data, reflecting on findings, and implementing improvements based on the results.

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Qualitative study design: Action research

• Qualitative study design
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Action research / Participatory Action Research

These methods focus on the emancipation, collaboration and empowerment of the participants. This methodology is appropriate for collaborative research with groups, especially marginalised groups, where there is more flexibility in how the research is conducted and considers feedback from the participants. 

Has three primary characteristics:  

Action oriented, participants are actively involved in the research.

involvement by participants in the research, collaborative process between participant and researcher - empowerment of participants. The participants have more of a say in what is being researched and how they want the research to be conducted.

cycle is iterative so that it is flexible and responsive to a changing situation.  

• Questionnaires
• Oral recordings
• Focus groups,
• Photovoice (use of images or video to capture the local environment / community and to share with others)
• Informal conversations 

Produces knowledge from marginalised people's point of view and can lead to more personalised interventions.  

Provides a voice for people to speak about their issues and the ability to improve their own lives. People take an active role in implementing any actions arising from the research. 

Transforms social reality by linking theory and practice.  

Limitations

Open ended questions are mainly used, and these can be misinterpreted by researcher – data needs to be cross-checked with other sources.

Data ownership between researcher and research participants needs to be negotiated and clearly stated from the beginning of the project.

Ethical considerations with privacy and confidentiality.

This method is not considered scientific as it is more fluid in its gathering of information and is considered an unconventional research method – thus it may not attract much funding.

Example questions

• What is the cultural significance of yarning amongst Aboriginal people? 

Macro Question:

• “What would it take to improve the stability of young people’s living situations?” 

Micro Questions: 

• “What can we do to better engage with accommodation service providers?” 
• “What can we do to improve the service knowledge of young people?” 
• “What can we do to measure stability outcomes for our clients?” 

(Department of Social Services) 

Example studies

• Miller, A., Massey, P. D., Judd, J., Kelly, J., Durrheim, D. N., Clough, A. R., . . . Saggers, S. (2015). Using a participatory action research framework to listen to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia about pandemic influenza.  Rural and Remote Health , 15(3), 2923-2923.  
• Spinney, A. (2013). Safe from the Start? An Action Research Project on Early Intervention Materials for Children Affected by Domestic and Family Violence. Children & Society, 27(5), 397-405. doi:10.1111/j.1099-0860.2012.00454.x 
• Department of Social Services. (2019).  On PAR  - Using participatory action research to improve early intervention. 
• Liamputtong, P. (2013). Qualitative research methods (4th ed.). South Melbourne: Oxford  University Press. 
• Mills, J., & Birks, M. (2014). Qualitative Methodology: A Practical Guide. Retrieved from https://methods.sagepub.com/book/qualitative-methodology-a-practical-guide doi:10.4135/9781473920163   
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• Last Updated: Jul 3, 2024 11:46 AM
• URL: https://deakin.libguides.com/qualitative-study-designs

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Action research

A type of applied research designed to find the most effective way to bring about a desired social change or to solve a practical problem, usually in collaboration with those being researched.

SAGE Research Methods Videos

How do you define action research.

Professor David Coghlan explains action research as an approach that crosses many academic disciplines yet has a shared focus on taking action to address a problem. He describes the difference between this approach and empirical scientific approaches, particularly highlighting the challenge of getting action research to be taken seriously by academic journals

Dr. Nataliya Ivankova defines action research as using systematic research principles to address an issue in everyday life. She delineates the six steps of action research, and illustrates the concept using an anti-diabetes project in an urban area.

This is just one segment in a whole series about action research. You can find the rest of the series in our SAGE database, Research Methods:

Videos covering research methods and statistics

Further Reading

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• Last Updated: May 7, 2024 9:51 AM

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9 Research Design: Action Research

• Published: July 2023
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Action research is an exciting research design that leads to social and systems change. In this chapter, the authors describe action research, including how it differs from other approaches, along with a detailed explanation of the action research process, including planning, implementing, observing, reflecting, and sharing results. The authors highlight a case study delineating the iterative process within the school counseling field to provide readers with knowledge of the action research process. Additionally, authors share examples of current school counseling research to bring action research to life. School counselors and SCEs will understand how to utilize action research across the educational ecosystems to ignite change.

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Chapter 7: Action Research

Darshini Ayton

Learning outcomes

Upon completion of this chapter, you should be able to:

• Explain the purpose of an action research approach.
• Explain the action research cycle.
• Describe action research characteristics.

What is action research?

The key concept in action research is change or action .

Action research (also known as ‘participatory action research’) aligns well with the practice of health and social care because researchers and practitioners in this discipline work with people and communities in holistic and relational ways to understand the history, culture and context of the setting. Action research aims to understand the setting and improve it through change or action. 1 This method has its roots in activism and advocacy and is focused on solutions. It is practical and deals with real-world problems and issues. Action research often undergoes phases in seeking to understand the problem, plan a solution, implement the solution and then reflect on or evaluate the solution, cyclically and iteratively. Action research is used in the practice of health and social care because it has two fundamental aims: to improve and to involve. This chapter outlines how this is evident, using examples from the research literature (see Table 7.1.).

Action research as involvement

Action research is a collaborative process between researchers and community members. This process is a core component of action research and represents a significant shift from typical research methods. Through action research, those who are being researched become the researchers, with close consideration given to power dynamics. The research participants become partners in the research and are involved in identifying and prioritising the research area, designing and undertaking data collection, conducting data analysis, and interpreting and disseminating the results. 1 The research partners may be provided with support and training to enable them to undertake these activities and to promote empowerment and capacity building (see examples following). Patient and public involvement in research and healthcare improvement (known in Australia as ‘consumer and community involvement’), has led to action research gaining popularity as a research design that captures the ‘living knowledge’ with, for and by people and communities throughout the research journey.

As an example, in the project Relationships Matter for Youth ‘Aging Out’ of Care, 2 Doucet and colleagues aimed to examine relationships that matter to young people in care and how these relationships can be nurtured and supported over time. The project is a collaborative participatory action research study incorporating photovoice (see Chapter 17 for more information on photovoice). Eight young people, formerly in care and from diverse backgrounds, were recruited to the study. The lead researcher highlighted their own lived experience of the child welfare system and a consciousness of the power dynamics at play. The lead researcher created processes within the project to ensure the youth co-researchers were empowered to share their experiences and that the research team members were working with the youth co-researchers and not for them. These processes included three months of weekly facilitated group discussions, shared meals before project commencement and group outings and community engagement during the project to encourage connection, bonding and trust. The youth co-researchers were provided with photography training and digital cameras. Data collection included the youth co-researchers submitting 6–7 photographs with responses to the following questions for photo contextualisation:

• What does this photograph mean to you? Why is this photo, in particular, most significant to you?
• How do you see this photo as a reflection of the issue of supportive long-term relationships – and one that is relevant to you as a former youth in care in your community?
• What is the relationship between the content of the photo and how you perceive the community or the world around you? What recommendation for change in your community is associated with this photo? 2(para22)

The photographs were showcased at an exhibition that was open to the community; those in attendance included policymakers, advocates and community representatives. The change documented through this project was one of social transformation for the community and self-transformation and healing for the individuals.

Action research as improvement

Action research can be practitioner-led, whereby the study investigates problems identified by the practitioner with the goal of understanding and improving practice over time. Improvement can be both social improvement and healthcare improvement. Healthcare improvement, in particular quality (of healthcare) improvement, has been the focus of clinical practice, research, education and advocacy for more than 30 years. The two main frameworks guiding healthcare and quality improvement efforts are the Plan, Do, Study, Act (PDSA) cycle and Learning Health Systems. 3 Both of these frameworks lend themselves to action research. For example, the PDSA cycle is guided by three overarching questions:

• What are we trying to accomplish?
• How will we know that a change is an improvement?
• What change can we make that will result in improvement? 4(Figure1)

Learning Health Systems is another approach to quality improvement that has gained popularity over the past decade. Data collected by health services (e.g. patient data, health records, laboratory results) are used for knowledge creation in continuous and rapid cycles of study, feedback and practice change. 5 A Learning Health Systems framework incorporates systems science, data science, research methods for real-world contexts, implementation science, participatory research and quality improvement approaches.

Van Heerden and colleagues adopted an action research study to transform the practice and environment of neonatal care in the maternity section of a district hospital in South Africa. The study Strategies to sustain a quality improvement initiative in neonatal resuscitation 6 was conducted in three cycles. Cycle 1 was a situation analysis that explored and described the existing practices and factors influencing neonatal resuscitation and mortality in the hospital through administering questionnaires with nurses (n=69); a focus group with nine doctors; and an analysis of hospital records. A nominal group discussion (structured group discussion including prioritisation) was conducted with 10 managers and staff, followed by a reflective meeting with the project’s steering committee. Cycle 2 developed and implemented strategies to sustain a quality improvement initiative. The strategies addressed training, equipment and stock, staff attitudes, staff shortages, transport transfer for critically ill neonates, and protocols. Cycle 3 was an evaluation of change and sustainability after the implementation of strategies (Cycle 2) and involved the analysis of hospital record data, repeat questionnaire with nurses (n=40), focus group discussion with 10 doctors, steering committee and management members, followed by reflective meetings with the steering committee. Qualitative data was analysed through open coding, and quantitative data was analysed descriptively. The neonatal mortality rate declined (yet still needed to improve) and the implementation strategies facilitated change that led to improvement and practice transformation.

Action research as a methodology or an approach

There is debate as to whether action research is a methodology or an approach, since several different research methods and methodologies can be used. For example, multiple forms of data collection can be utilized, including quantitative data from surveys or medical records, to inform the identification and understanding of the problem and evaluation of the solution. Action research can also draw on descriptive qualitative research, quantitative cross-sectional studies, case studies (see Chapter 8 ), ethnography ( Chapter 9 ) and grounded theory ( Chapter 10 ). Action research can therefore take a purely qualitative approach, or can take a mixed-methods approach. See Table 7.1. for examples of action research studies.

Advantages and disadvantages of action research

Action research addresses practical problems, drawing on principles of empowerment, capacity-building and participation. The research problem to be addressed is typically identified by the community, and the solutions are for the community. The research participants are collaborators in the research process. The examples presented in this chapter demonstrate how the research collaborators and co-researchers received training and support to lead elements of the project. Another advantage of action research is that it is a continuous cycle of development. Hence, the approach is iterative and the full solution can take multiple cycles and iterations to develop and sustain. 7,8

Since action research is fundamentally about relationships and integrating research into the real world, studies can take years to result in a solution. It is important to be able to adapt and be flexible in response to community and stakeholder needs and contexts. The research can therefore be constrained by what is practical and also ethical within the setting. This may limit the scope and scale of the research and compromise its rigour. Action research can also create unanticipated work for community members and participants because they are not usually involved in research in this way, and thus training may be required, as well as remuneration for time and experience. 7,8

Action research is a research design in which researchers and community members work together to identify problems, design and implement solutions and evaluate the impact of these solutions. Change or action is a core component of this research design.

• Baum F, MacDougall C, Smith D. Participatory action research. J Epidemiol Community Health .  2006;60(10):854-857. doi:10.1136/jech.2004.028662
• Doucet M, Pratt H, Dzhenganin M, Read J. Nothing About Us Without Us: Using Participatory Action Research (PAR) and arts-based methods as empowerment and social justice tools in doing research with youth ‘aging out’ of care. Child Abuse Negl . 2022;130:105358. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.105358
• Taylor J, Coates E, Wessels B, Mountain G, Hawley MS. Implementing solutions to improve and expand telehealth adoption: participatory action research in four community healthcare settings. BMC Health Serv Res . 2015;15:529. doi:10.1186/s12913-015-1195-3
• Taylor MJ, McNicholas C, Nicolay C, Darzi A, Bell D, Reed JE. Systematic review of the application of the plan-do-study-act method to improve quality in healthcare. BMJ Qual Saf .  2014;23(4):290-298. doi:10.1136/bmjqs-2013-001862
• Menear M, Blanchette MA, Demers-Payette O, Roy D. A framework for value-creating learning health systems. Health Res Policy Syst . 2019;17(1):79. doi:10.1186/s12961-019-0477-3
• Van Heerden C, Maree C, Janse Van Rensburg ES. Strategies to sustain a quality improvement initiative in neonatal resuscitation. Afr J Prim Health Care Fam Med . 2016;8(2):a958. doi:10.4102/phcfm.v8i2.958
• Liamputtong P. Qualitative Research Methods . 5th ed. Oxford University Press; 2020.
• Liamputtong P, Ezzy D. Qualitative Research Methods: A Health Focus . Oxford University Press; 1999.
• Middleton TRF, Schinke RJ, Lefebvre D, Habra B, Coholic D, Giffin C. Critically examining a community-based participatory action research project with forced migrant youth. Sport Soc . 2021;25(2):418-433. doi:10.1080/17430437.2022.2017619

Qualitative Research – a practical guide for health and social care researchers and practitioners Copyright © 2023 by Darshini Ayton is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License , except where otherwise noted.

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Action Research

Action research can be defined as “an approach in which the action researcher and a client collaborate in the diagnosis of the problem and in the development of a solution based on the diagnosis” [1] . In other words, one of the main characteristic traits of action research relates to collaboration between researcher and member of organisation in order to solve organizational problems.

Action study assumes social world to be constantly changing, both, researcher and research being one part of that change. [2] Generally, action researches can be divided into three categories: positivist, interpretive and critical.

Positivist approach to action research , also known as ‘classical action research’ perceives research as a social experiment. Accordingly, action research is accepted as a method to test hypotheses in a real world environment.

Interpretive action research , also known as ‘contemporary action research’ perceives business reality as socially constructed and focuses on specifications of local and organisational factors when conducting the action research.

Critical action research is a specific type of action research that adopts critical approach towards business processes and aims for improvements.

The following features of action research need to be taken into account when considering its suitability for any given study:

• It is applied in order to improve specific practices.  Action research is based on action, evaluation and critical analysis of practices based on collected data in order to introduce improvements in relevant practices.
• This type of research is facilitated by participation and collaboration of number of individuals with a common purpose
• Such a research focuses on specific situations and their context

Advantages of Action Research

• High level of practical relevance of the business research;
• Can be used with quantitative, as well as, qualitative data;
• Possibility to gain in-depth knowledge about the problem.

Disadvantages of Action Research

• Difficulties in distinguishing between action and research and ensure the application of both;
• Delays in completion of action research due to a wide range of reasons are not rare occurrences
• Lack of repeatability and rigour

It is important to make a clear distinction between action research and consulting. Specifically, action research is greater than consulting in a way that action research includes both action and research, whereas business activities of consulting are limited action without the research.

Action Research Spiral

Action study is a participatory study consisting of spiral of following self-reflective cycles:

• Planning in order to initiate change
• Implementing the change (acting) and observing the process of implementation and consequences
• Reflecting on processes of change and re-planning
• Acting and observing

Kemmis and McTaggart (2000) do acknowledge that individual stages specified in Action Research Spiral model may overlap, and initial plan developed for the research may become obselete in short duration of time due to a range of factors.

The main advantage of Action Research Spiral model relates to the opportunity of analysing the phenomenon in a greater depth each time, consequently resulting in grater level of understanding of the problem.

Disadvantages of Action Research Spiral model include its assumption each process takes long time to be completed which may not always be the case.

My e-book,  The Ultimate Guide to Writing a Dissertation in Business Studies: a step by step assistance  offers practical assistance to complete a dissertation with minimum or no stress. The e-book covers all stages of writing a dissertation starting from the selection to the research area to submitting the completed version of the work within the deadline.

References 

[1] Bryman, A. & Bell, E. (2011) “Business Research Methods” 3 rd  edition, Oxford University Press

[2] Collis, J. & Hussey, R. (2003) “Business Research. A Practical Guide for Undergraduate and Graduate Students” 2nd edition, Palgrave Macmillan

the encyclopaedia of pedagogy and informal education

What is action research and how do we do it?

In this article, we explore the development of some different traditions of action research and provide an introductory guide to the literature., contents : what is action research ·  origins · the decline and rediscovery of action research · undertaking action research · conclusion · further reading · how to cite this article . see, also: research for practice ., what is action research.

In the literature, discussion of action research tends to fall into two distinctive camps. The British tradition – especially that linked to education – tends to view action research as research-oriented toward the enhancement of direct practice. For example, Carr and Kemmis provide a classic definition:

Action research is simply a form of self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own practices, their understanding of these practices, and the situations in which the practices are carried out (Carr and Kemmis 1986: 162).

Many people are drawn to this understanding of action research because it is firmly located in the realm of the practitioner – it is tied to self-reflection. As a way of working it is very close to the notion of reflective practice coined by Donald Schön (1983).

The second tradition, perhaps more widely approached within the social welfare field – and most certainly the broader understanding in the USA is of action research as ‘the systematic collection of information that is designed to bring about social change’ (Bogdan and Biklen 1992: 223). Bogdan and Biklen continue by saying that its practitioners marshal evidence or data to expose unjust practices or environmental dangers and recommend actions for change. In many respects, for them, it is linked into traditions of citizen’s action and community organizing. The practitioner is actively involved in the cause for which the research is conducted. For others, it is such commitment is a necessary part of being a practitioner or member of a community of practice. Thus, various projects designed to enhance practice within youth work, for example, such as the detached work reported on by Goetschius and Tash (1967) could be talked of as action research.

Kurt Lewin is generally credited as the person who coined the term ‘action research’:

The research needed for social practice can best be characterized as research for social management or social engineering. It is a type of action-research, a comparative research on the conditions and effects of various forms of social action, and research leading to social action. Research that produces nothing but books will not suffice (Lewin 1946, reproduced in Lewin 1948: 202-3)

His approach involves a spiral of steps, ‘each of which is composed of a circle of planning, action and fact-finding about the result of the action’ ( ibid. : 206). The basic cycle involves the following:

This is how Lewin describes the initial cycle:

The first step then is to examine the idea carefully in the light of the means available. Frequently more fact-finding about the situation is required. If this first period of planning is successful, two items emerge: namely, “an overall plan” of how to reach the objective and secondly, a decision in regard to the first step of action. Usually this planning has also somewhat modified the original idea. ( ibid. : 205)

The next step is ‘composed of a circle of planning, executing, and reconnaissance or fact-finding for the purpose of evaluating the results of the second step, and preparing the rational basis for planning the third step, and for perhaps modifying again the overall plan’ ( ibid. : 206). What we can see here is an approach to research that is oriented to problem-solving in social and organizational settings, and that has a form that parallels Dewey’s conception of learning from experience.

The approach, as presented, does take a fairly sequential form – and it is open to a literal interpretation. Following it can lead to practice that is ‘correct’ rather than ‘good’ – as we will see. It can also be argued that the model itself places insufficient emphasis on analysis at key points. Elliott (1991: 70), for example, believed that the basic model allows those who use it to assume that the ‘general idea’ can be fixed in advance, ‘that “reconnaissance” is merely fact-finding, and that “implementation” is a fairly straightforward process’. As might be expected there was some questioning as to whether this was ‘real’ research. There were questions around action research’s partisan nature – the fact that it served particular causes.

The decline and rediscovery of action research

Action research did suffer a decline in favour during the 1960s because of its association with radical political activism (Stringer 2007: 9). There were, and are, questions concerning its rigour, and the training of those undertaking it. However, as Bogdan and Biklen (1992: 223) point out, research is a frame of mind – ‘a perspective that people take toward objects and activities’. Once we have satisfied ourselves that the collection of information is systematic and that any interpretations made have a proper regard for satisfying truth claims, then much of the critique aimed at action research disappears. In some of Lewin’s earlier work on action research (e.g. Lewin and Grabbe 1945), there was a tension between providing a rational basis for change through research, and the recognition that individuals are constrained in their ability to change by their cultural and social perceptions, and the systems of which they are a part. Having ‘correct knowledge’ does not of itself lead to change, attention also needs to be paid to the ‘matrix of cultural and psychic forces’ through which the subject is constituted (Winter 1987: 48).

Subsequently, action research has gained a significant foothold both within the realm of community-based, and participatory action research; and as a form of practice-oriented to the improvement of educative encounters (e.g. Carr and Kemmis 1986).

Exhibit 1: Stringer on community-based action research

A fundamental premise of community-based action research is that it commences with an interest in the problems of a group, a community, or an organization. Its purpose is to assist people in extending their understanding of their situation and thus resolving problems that confront them….

Community-based action research is always enacted through an explicit set of social values. In modern, democratic social contexts, it is seen as a process of inquiry that has the following characteristics:

• It is democratic , enabling the participation of all people.

• It is equitable , acknowledging people’s equality of worth.

• It is liberating , providing freedom from oppressive, debilitating conditions.

• It is life enhancing , enabling the expression of people’s full human potential.

(Stringer 1999: 9-10)

Undertaking action research

As Thomas (2017: 154) put it, the central aim is change, ‘and the emphasis is on problem-solving in whatever way is appropriate’. It can be seen as a conversation rather more than a technique (McNiff et. al. ). It is about people ‘thinking for themselves and making their own choices, asking themselves what they should do and accepting the consequences of their own actions’ (Thomas 2009: 113).

The action research process works through three basic phases:

Look -building a picture and gathering information. When evaluating we define and describe the problem to be investigated and the context in which it is set. We also describe what all the participants (educators, group members, managers etc.) have been doing.

Think – interpreting and explaining. When evaluating we analyse and interpret the situation. We reflect on what participants have been doing. We look at areas of success and any deficiencies, issues or problems.

Act – resolving issues and problems. In evaluation we judge the worth, effectiveness, appropriateness, and outcomes of those activities. We act to formulate solutions to any problems. (Stringer 1999: 18; 43-44;160)

The use of action research to deepen and develop classroom practice has grown into a strong tradition of practice (one of the first examples being the work of Stephen Corey in 1949). For some, there is an insistence that action research must be collaborative and entail groupwork.

Action research is a form of collective self-reflective enquiry undertaken by participants in social situations in order to improve the rationality and justice of their own social or educational practices, as well as their understanding of those practices and the situations in which the practices are carried out… The approach is only action research when it is collaborative, though it is important to realise that action research of the group is achieved through the critically examined action of individual group members. (Kemmis and McTaggart 1988: 5-6)

Just why it must be collective is open to some question and debate (Webb 1996), but there is an important point here concerning the commitments and orientations of those involved in action research.

One of the legacies Kurt Lewin left us is the ‘action research spiral’ – and with it there is the danger that action research becomes little more than a procedure. It is a mistake, according to McTaggart (1996: 248) to think that following the action research spiral constitutes ‘doing action research’. He continues, ‘Action research is not a ‘method’ or a ‘procedure’ for research but a series of commitments to observe and problematize through practice a series of principles for conducting social enquiry’. It is his argument that Lewin has been misunderstood or, rather, misused. When set in historical context, while Lewin does talk about action research as a method, he is stressing a contrast between this form of interpretative practice and more traditional empirical-analytic research. The notion of a spiral may be a useful teaching device – but it is all too easy to slip into using it as the template for practice (McTaggart 1996: 249).

Further reading

This select, annotated bibliography has been designed to give a flavour of the possibilities of action research and includes some useful guides to practice. As ever, if you have suggestions about areas or specific texts for inclusion, I’d like to hear from you.

Explorations of action research

Atweh, B., Kemmis, S. and Weeks, P. (eds.) (1998) Action Research in Practice: Partnership for Social Justice in Education, London: Routledge. Presents a collection of stories from action research projects in schools and a university. The book begins with theme chapters discussing action research, social justice and partnerships in research. The case study chapters cover topics such as: school environment – how to make a school a healthier place to be; parents – how to involve them more in decision-making; students as action researchers; gender – how to promote gender equity in schools; writing up action research projects.

Carr, W. and Kemmis, S. (1986) Becoming Critical. Education, knowledge and action research , Lewes: Falmer. Influential book that provides a good account of ‘action research’ in education. Chapters on teachers, researchers and curriculum; the natural scientific view of educational theory and practice; the interpretative view of educational theory and practice; theory and practice – redefining the problem; a critical approach to theory and practice; towards a critical educational science; action research as critical education science; educational research, educational reform and the role of the profession.

Carson, T. R. and Sumara, D. J. (ed.) (1997) Action Research as a Living Practice , New York: Peter Lang. 140 pages. Book draws on a wide range of sources to develop an understanding of action research. Explores action research as a lived practice, ‘that asks the researcher to not only investigate the subject at hand but, as well, to provide some account of the way in which the investigation both shapes and is shaped by the investigator.

Dadds, M. (1995) Passionate Enquiry and School Development. A story about action research , London: Falmer. 192 + ix pages. Examines three action research studies undertaken by a teacher and how they related to work in school – how she did the research, the problems she experienced, her feelings, the impact on her feelings and ideas, and some of the outcomes. In his introduction, John Elliot comments that the book is ‘the most readable, thoughtful, and detailed study of the potential of action-research in professional education that I have read’.

Ghaye, T. and Wakefield, P. (eds.) CARN Critical Conversations. Book one: the role of the self in action , Bournemouth: Hyde Publications. 146 + xiii pages. Collection of five pieces from the Classroom Action Research Network. Chapters on: dialectical forms; graduate medical education – research’s outer limits; democratic education; managing action research; writing up.

McNiff, J. (1993) Teaching as Learning: An Action Research Approach , London: Routledge. Argues that educational knowledge is created by individual teachers as they attempt to express their own values in their professional lives. Sets out familiar action research model: identifying a problem, devising, implementing and evaluating a solution and modifying practice. Includes advice on how working in this way can aid the professional development of action researcher and practitioner.

Quigley, B. A. and Kuhne, G. W. (eds.) (1997) Creating Practical Knowledge Through Action Research, San Fransisco: Jossey Bass. Guide to action research that outlines the action research process, provides a project planner, and presents examples to show how action research can yield improvements in six different settings, including a hospital, a university and a literacy education program.

Plummer, G. and Edwards, G. (eds.) CARN Critical Conversations. Book two: dimensions of action research – people, practice and power , Bournemouth: Hyde Publications. 142 + xvii pages. Collection of five pieces from the Classroom Action Research Network. Chapters on: exchanging letters and collaborative research; diary writing; personal and professional learning – on teaching and self-knowledge; anti-racist approaches; psychodynamic group theory in action research.

Whyte, W. F. (ed.) (1991) Participatory Action Research , Newbury Park: Sage. 247 pages. Chapters explore the development of participatory action research and its relation with action science and examine its usages in various agricultural and industrial settings

Zuber-Skerritt, O. (ed.) (1996) New Directions in Action Research , London; Falmer Press. 266 + xii pages. A useful collection that explores principles and procedures for critical action research; problems and suggested solutions; and postmodernism and critical action research.

Action research guides

Coghlan, D. and Brannick, D. (2000) Doing Action Research in your own Organization, London: Sage. 128 pages. Popular introduction. Part one covers the basics of action research including the action research cycle, the role of the ‘insider’ action researcher and the complexities of undertaking action research within your own organisation. Part two looks at the implementation of the action research project (including managing internal politics and the ethics and politics of action research). New edition due late 2004.

Elliot, J. (1991) Action Research for Educational Change , Buckingham: Open University Press. 163 + x pages Collection of various articles written by Elliot in which he develops his own particular interpretation of action research as a form of teacher professional development. In some ways close to a form of ‘reflective practice’. Chapter 6, ‘A practical guide to action research’ – builds a staged model on Lewin’s work and on developments by writers such as Kemmis.

Johnson, A. P. (2007) A short guide to action research 3e. Allyn and Bacon. Popular step by step guide for master’s work.

Macintyre, C. (2002) The Art of the Action Research in the Classroom , London: David Fulton. 138 pages. Includes sections on action research, the role of literature, formulating a research question, gathering data, analysing data and writing a dissertation. Useful and readable guide for students.

McNiff, J., Whitehead, J., Lomax, P. (2003) You and Your Action Research Project , London: Routledge. Practical guidance on doing an action research project.Takes the practitioner-researcher through the various stages of a project. Each section of the book is supported by case studies

Stringer, E. T. (2007) Action Research: A handbook for practitioners 3e , Newbury Park, ca.: Sage. 304 pages. Sets community-based action research in context and develops a model. Chapters on information gathering, interpretation, resolving issues; legitimacy etc. See, also Stringer’s (2003) Action Research in Education , Prentice-Hall.

Winter, R. (1989) Learning From Experience. Principles and practice in action research , Lewes: Falmer Press. 200 + 10 pages. Introduces the idea of action research; the basic process; theoretical issues; and provides six principles for the conduct of action research. Includes examples of action research. Further chapters on from principles to practice; the learner’s experience; and research topics and personal interests.

Action research in informal education

Usher, R., Bryant, I. and Johnston, R. (1997) Adult Education and the Postmodern Challenge. Learning beyond the limits , London: Routledge. 248 + xvi pages. Has some interesting chapters that relate to action research: on reflective practice; changing paradigms and traditions of research; new approaches to research; writing and learning about research.

Other references

Bogdan, R. and Biklen, S. K. (1992) Qualitative Research For Education , Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Goetschius, G. and Tash, J. (1967) Working with the Unattached , London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.

McTaggart, R. (1996) ‘Issues for participatory action researchers’ in O. Zuber-Skerritt (ed.) New Directions in Action Research , London: Falmer Press.

McNiff, J., Lomax, P. and Whitehead, J. (2003) You and Your Action Research Project 2e. London: Routledge.

Thomas, G. (2017). How to do your Research Project. A guide for students in education and applied social sciences . 3e. London: Sage.

Acknowledgements : spiral by Michèle C. | flickr ccbyncnd2 licence

How to cite this article : Smith, M. K. (1996; 2001, 2007, 2017) What is action research and how do we do it?’, The encyclopedia of pedagogy and informal education. [ https://infed.org/mobi/action-research/ . Retrieved: insert date] .

© Mark K. Smith 1996; 2001, 2007, 2017

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What is Action Research?

Considerations, creating a plan of action.

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Action research is a qualitative method that focuses on solving problems in social systems, such as schools and other organizations. The emphasis is on solving the presenting problem by generating knowledge and taking action within the social system in which the problem is located. The goal is to generate shared knowledge of how to address the problem by bridging the theory-practice gap (Bourner & Brook, 2019). A general definition of action research is the following: “Action research brings together action and reflection, as well as theory and practice, in participation with others, in the pursuit of practical solutions to issues of pressing concern” (Bradbury, 2015, p. 1). Johnson (2019) defines action research in the field of education as “the process of studying a school, classroom, or teacher-learning situation with the purpose of understanding and improving the quality of actions or instruction” (p.255).

Origins of Action Research

Kurt Lewin is typically credited with being the primary developer of Action Research in the 1940s. Lewin stated that action research can “transform…unrelated individuals, frequently opposed in their outlook and their interests, into cooperative teams, not on the basis of sweetness but on the basis of readiness to face difficulties realistically, to apply honest fact-finding, and to work together to overcome them” (1946, p.211).

Sample Action Research Topics

Some sample action research topics might be the following:

• Examining how classroom teachers perceive and implement new strategies in the classroom--How is the strategy being used? How do students respond to the strategy? How does the strategy inform and change classroom practices? Does the new skill improve test scores? Do classroom teachers perceive the strategy as effective for student learning?
• Examining how students are learning a particular content or objectives--What seems to be effective in enhancing student learning? What skills need to be reinforced? How do students respond to the new content? What is the ability of students to understand the new content?
• Examining how education stakeholders (administrator, parents, teachers, students, etc.) make decisions as members of the school’s improvement team--How are different stakeholders encouraged to participate? How is power distributed? How is equity demonstrated? How is each voice valued? How are priorities and initiatives determined? How does the team evaluate its processes to determine effectiveness?
• Examining the actions that school staff take to create an inclusive and welcoming school climate--Who makes and implements the actions taken to create the school climate? Do members of the school community (teachers, staff, students) view the school climate as inclusive? Do members of the school community feel welcome in the school? How are members of the school community encouraged to become involved in school activities? What actions can school staff take to help others feel a part of the school community?
• Examining the perceptions of teachers with regard to the learning strategies that are more effective with special populations, such as special education students, English Language Learners, etc.—What strategies are perceived to be more effective? How do teachers plan instructionally for unique learners such as special education students or English Language Learners? How do teachers deal with the challenges presented by unique learners such as special education students or English Language Learners? What supports do teachers need (e.g., professional development, training, coaching) to more effectively deliver instruction to unique learners such as special education students or English Language Learners?

Remember—The goal of action research is to find out how individuals perceive and act in a situation so the researcher can develop a plan of action to improve the educational organization. While these topics listed here can be explored using other research designs, action research is the design to use if the outcome is to develop a plan of action for addressing and improving upon a situation in the educational organization.

Considerations for Determining Whether to Use Action Research in an Applied Dissertation

• When considering action research, first determine the problem and the change that needs to occur as a result of addressing the problem (i.e., research problem and research purpose). Remember, the goal of action research is to change how individuals address a particular problem or situation in a way that results in improved practices.
• If the study will be conducted at a school site or educational organization, you may need site permission. Determine whether site permission will be given to conduct the study.
• Consider the individuals who will be part of the data collection (e.g., teachers, administrators, parents, other school staff, etc.). Will there be a representative sample willing to participate in the research?
• If students will be part of the study, does parent consent and student assent need to be obtained?
• As you develop your data collection plan, also consider the timeline for data collection. Is it feasible? For example, if you will be collecting data in a school, consider winter and summer breaks, school events, testing schedules, etc.
• As you develop your data collection plan, consult with your dissertation chair, Subject Matter Expert, NU Academic Success Center, and the NU IRB for resources and guidance.
• Action research is not an experimental design, so you are not trying to accept or reject a hypothesis. There are no independent or dependent variables. It is not generalizable to a larger setting. The goal is to understand what is occurring in the educational setting so that a plan of action can be developed for improved practices.

Considerations for Action Research

Below are some things to consider when developing your applied dissertation proposal using Action Research (adapted from Johnson, 2019):

• Research Topic and Research Problem -- Decide the topic to be studied and then identify the problem by defining the issue in the learning environment. Use references from current peer-reviewed literature for support.
• Purpose of the Study —What need to be different or improved as a result of the study?
• Research Questions —The questions developed should focus on “how” or “what” and explore individuals’ experiences, beliefs, and perceptions.
• Theoretical Framework -- What are the existing theories (theoretical framework) or concepts (conceptual framework) that can be used to support the research. How does existing theory link to what is happening in the educational environment with regard to the topic? What theories have been used to support similar topics in previous research?
• Literature Review -- Examine the literature, focusing on peer-reviewed studies published in journal within the last five years, with the exception of seminal works. What about the topic has already been explored and examined? What were the findings, implications, and limitations of previous research? What is missing from the literature on the topic?  How will your proposed research address the gap in the literature?
• Data Collection —Who will be part of the sample for data collection? What data will be collected from the individuals in the study (e.g., semi-structured interviews, surveys, etc.)? What are the educational artifacts and documents that need to be collected (e.g., teacher less plans, student portfolios, student grades, etc.)? How will they be collected and during what timeframe? (Note--A list of sample data collection methods appears under the heading of “Sample Instrumentation.”)
• Data Analysis —Determine how the data will be analyzed. Some types of analyses that are frequently used for action research include thematic analysis and content analysis.
• Implications —What conclusions can be drawn based upon the findings? How do the findings relate to the existing literature and inform theory in the field of education?
• Recommendations for Practice--Create a Plan of Action— This is a critical step in action research. A plan of action is created based upon the data analysis, findings, and implications. In the Applied Dissertation, this Plan of Action is included with the Recommendations for Practice. The includes specific steps that individuals should take to change practices; recommendations for how those changes will occur (e.g., professional development, training, school improvement planning, committees to develop guidelines and policies, curriculum review committee, etc.); and methods to evaluate the plan’s effectiveness.
• Recommendations for Research —What should future research focus on? What type of studies need to be conducted to build upon or further explore your findings.
• Professional Presentation or Defense —This is where the findings will be presented in a professional presentation or defense as the culmination of your research.

Adapted from Johnson (2019).

Considerations for Sampling and Data Collection

Below are some tips for sampling, sample size, data collection, and instrumentation for Action Research:

Sampling and Sample Size

Action research uses non-probability sampling. This is most commonly means a purposive sampling method that includes specific inclusion and exclusion criteria. However, convenience sampling can also be used (e.g., a teacher’s classroom).

Critical Concepts in Data Collection

Triangulation- - Dosemagen and Schwalbach (2019) discussed the importance of triangulation in Action Research which enhances the trustworthiness by providing multiple sources of data to analyze and confirm evidence for findings.

Trustworthiness —Trustworthiness assures that research findings are fulfill four critical elements—credibility, dependability, transferability, and confirmability. Reflect on the following: Are there multiple sources of data? How have you ensured credibility, dependability, transferability, and confirmability? Have the assumptions, limitations, and delimitations of the study been identified and explained? Was the sample a representative sample for the study? Did any individuals leave the study before it ended? How have you controlled researcher biases and beliefs? Are you drawing conclusions that are not supported by data? Have all possible themes been considered? Have you identified other studies with similar results?

Sample Instrumentation

Below are some of the possible methods for collecting action research data:

• Pre- and Post-Surveys for students and/or staff
• Staff Perception Surveys and Questionnaires
• Semi-Structured Interviews
• Focus Groups
• Observations
• Document analysis
• Student work samples
• Classroom artifacts, such as teacher lesson plans, rubrics, checklists, etc.
• Attendance records
• Discipline data
• Journals from students and/or staff
• Portfolios from students and/or staff

A benefit of Action Research is its potential to influence educational practice. Many educators are, by nature of the profession, reflective, inquisitive, and action-oriented. The ultimate outcome of Action Research is to create a plan of action using the research findings to inform future educational practice. A Plan of Action is not meant to be a one-size fits all plan. Instead, it is mean to include specific data-driven and research-based recommendations that result from a detailed analysis of the data, the study findings, and implications of the Action Research study. An effective Plan of Action includes an evaluation component and opportunities for professional educator reflection that allows for authentic discussion aimed at continuous improvement.

When developing a Plan of Action, the following should be considered:

• How can this situation be approached differently in the future?
• What should change in terms of practice?
• What are the specific steps that individuals should take to change practices?
• What is needed to implement the changes being recommended (professional development, training, materials, resources, planning committees, school improvement planning, etc.)?
• How will the effectiveness of the implemented changes be evaluated?
• How will opportunities for professional educator reflection be built into the Action Plan?

Sample Action Research Studies

Anderson, A. J. (2020). A qualitative systematic review of youth participatory action research implementation in U.S. high schools. A merican Journal of Community Psychology, 65 (1/2), 242–257. https://onlinelibrary-wiley-com.proxy1.ncu.edu/doi/epdf/10.1002/ajcp.12389

Ayvaz, Ü., & Durmuş, S.(2021). Fostering mathematical creativity with problem posing activities: An action research with gifted students. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 40. https://proxy1.ncu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edselp&AN=S1871187121000614&site=eds-live

Bellino, M. J. (2018). Closing information gaps in Kakuma Refugee Camp: A youth participatory action research study. American Journal of Community Psychology, 62 (3/4), 492–507. https://proxy1.ncu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ofs&AN=133626988&site=eds-live

Beneyto, M., Castillo, J., Collet-Sabé, J., & Tort, A. (2019). Can schools become an inclusive space shared by all families? Learnings and debates from an action research project in Catalonia. Educational Action Research, 27 (2), 210–226. https://proxy1.ncu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=135671904&site=eds-live

Bilican, K., Senler, B., & Karısan, D. (2021). Fostering teacher educators’ professional development through collaborative action research. International Journal of Progressive Education, 17 (2), 459–472. https://proxy1.ncu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=149828364&site=eds-live

Black, G. L. (2021). Implementing action research in a teacher preparation program: Opportunities and limitations. Canadian Journal of Action Research, 21 (2), 47–71. https://proxy1.ncu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=149682611&site=eds-live

Bozkuş, K., & Bayrak, C. (2019). The Application of the dynamic teacher professional development through experimental action research. International Electronic Journal of Elementary Education, 11 (4), 335–352. https://proxy1.ncu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=135580911&site=eds-live

Christ, T. W. (2018). Mixed methods action research in special education: An overview of a grant-funded model demonstration project. Research in the Schools, 25( 2), 77–88. https://proxy1.ncu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=135047248&site=eds-live

Jakhelln, R., & Pörn, M. (2019). Challenges in supporting and assessing bachelor’s theses based on action research in initial teacher education. Educational Action Research, 27 (5), 726–741. https://proxy1.ncu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=140234116&site=eds-live

Klima Ronen, I. (2020). Action research as a methodology for professional development in leading an educational process. Studies in Educational Evaluation, 64 . https://proxy1.ncu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edselp&AN=S0191491X19302159&site=eds-live

Messiou, K. (2019). Collaborative action research: facilitating inclusion in schools. Educational Action Research, 27 (2), 197–209. https://proxy1.ncu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ehh&AN=135671898&site=eds-live

Mitchell, D. E. (2018). Say it loud: An action research project examining the afrivisual and africology, Looking for alternative African American community college teaching strategies. Journal of Pan African Studies, 12 (4), 364–487. https://proxy1.ncu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ofs&AN=133155045&site=eds-live

Pentón Herrera, L. J. (2018). Action research as a tool for professional development in the K-12 ELT classroom. TESL Canada Journal, 35 (2), 128–139. https://proxy1.ncu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ofs&AN=135033158&site=eds-live

Rodriguez, R., Macias, R. L., Perez-Garcia, R., Landeros, G., & Martinez, A. (2018). Action research at the intersection of structural and family violence in an immigrant Latino community: a youth-led study. Journal of Family Violence, 33 (8), 587–596. https://proxy1.ncu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ccm&AN=132323375&site=eds-live

Vaughan, M., Boerum, C., & Whitehead, L. (2019). Action research in doctoral coursework: Perceptions of independent research experiences. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 13 . https://proxy1.ncu.edu/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsdoj&AN=edsdoj.17aa0c2976c44a0991e69b2a7b4f321&site=eds-live

Sample Journals for Action Research

Educational Action Research

Canadian Journal of Action Research

Sample Resource Videos

Call-Cummings, M. (2017). Researching racism in schools using participatory action research [Video]. Sage Research Methods  http://proxy1.ncu.edu/login?URL=https://methods.sagepub.com/video/researching-racism-in-schools-using-participatory-action-research

Fine, M. (2016). Michelle Fine discusses community based participatory action research [Video]. Sage Knowledge. http://proxy1.ncu.edu/login?URL=https://sk-sagepub-com.proxy1.ncu.edu/video/michelle-fine-discusses-community-based-participatory-action-research

Getz, C., Yamamura, E., & Tillapaugh. (2017). Action Research in Education. [Video]. You Tube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2tso4klYu8

Bradbury, H. (Ed.). (2015). The handbook of action research (3rd edition). Sage.

Bradbury, H., Lewis, R. & Embury, D.C. (2019). Education action research: With and for the next generation. In C.A. Mertler (Ed.), The Wiley handbook of action research in education (1st edition). John Wiley and Sons. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nu/reader.action?docID=5683581&ppg=205

Bourner, T., & Brook, C. (2019). Comparing and contrasting action research and action learning. In C.A. Mertler (Ed.), The Wiley handbook of action research in education (1st edition). John Wiley and Sons. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nu/reader.action?docID=5683581&ppg=205

Bradbury, H. (2015). The Sage handbook of action research . Sage. https://www-doi-org.proxy1.ncu.edu/10.4135/9781473921290

Dosemagen, D.M. & Schwalback, E.M. (2019). Legitimacy of and value in action research. In C.A. Mertler (Ed.), The Wiley handbook of action research in education (1st edition). John Wiley and Sons. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nu/reader.action?docID=5683581&ppg=205

Johnson, A. (2019). Action research for teacher professional development. In C.A. Mertler (Ed.), The Wiley handbook of action research in education (1st edition). John Wiley and Sons. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nu/reader.action?docID=5683581&ppg=205

Lewin, K. (1946). Action research and minority problems. In G.W. Lewin (Ed.), Resolving social conflicts: Selected papers on group dynamics (compiled in 1948). Harper and Row.

Mertler, C. A. (Ed.). (2019). The Wiley handbook of action research in education. John Wiley and Sons. https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/nu/detail.action?docID=5683581

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An Introduction to Action Research

Action Research is an important part of Human-Computer Interaction research and design. Yet, it’s one of those curiously academic fields that most of us haven’t encountered in the “wider world”. Action Research is underpinned by the idea that no (technological) development has any value without action.

This is a simple enough principle; theory without practice does not make any difference to the world around us. Once something is in practice (or action is being taken) then we can see what changes it has wrought.

What does an Action Researcher Do?

Action Researchers tend to work for clients to deliver a service that expands the overall body of knowledge; whilst offering insight which can be applied in practical terms on a project. Action Research is not solely concerned with technological fields but for the purposes of this article, we shall act like it is.

So for example, an Action Researcher, might be involved with a religious organization looking to ensure that more if its congregation attend sessions of worship. They might try an automated system to reach out to that congregation. The action research will try and predict the effects of such an action or to measure their impact following the introduction of such technology.

The Roots of Action Research

Action Research appeared as an academic discipline in the 1940s. The field originated with the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in London. Action Research emerged here specifically to deal with psychological issues relating to World War II.

Action Research is a truly multi-disciplinary approach; it combines information systems, clinical psychology, sociology and even bilingual education. Rather uniquely for an academic discipline; practitioners are involved with two outcomes – a direct improvement in circumstances for those being studied and developing human knowledge as a whole.

So for example; if a city were to commission a study on the differences between rich people and poor people’s access to the Internet. That is not Action Research. It would become Action Research if the study were also to deliver a report on how to address any inequalities and that report was then to be put into action (in fact the ideal Action Research here would also follow up this action to see if it succeeded or not).

Action researchers thus have “two masters”; the subject(s) of their research and the broader research community. It is often seen to be much more difficult to appease the demands of the research community than to deliver results for the subject of the research.

This may be because as a discipline; research tends to involve observing and interviewing the subjects and seeing how actions affect their reports of their experience. This is harder to deliver a “control” that will satisfy standard scientific methodologies. After all, it’s going to be impossible to deliver results for a subject(s) that has been isolated from the actions identified in your research.

Want to Find Out More?

If you want to know how Action Research affects Human Computer Interaction and User Interface work; you should check out Action Research: Its Nature and Relationship to Human-Computer Interaction by Ned Kock.

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• What Is a Research Design | Types, Guide & Examples

What Is a Research Design | Types, Guide & Examples

Published on June 7, 2021 by Shona McCombes . Revised on November 20, 2023 by Pritha Bhandari.

A research design is a strategy for answering your   research question  using empirical data. Creating a research design means making decisions about:

• Your overall research objectives and approach
• Whether you’ll rely on primary research or secondary research
• Your sampling methods or criteria for selecting subjects
• Your data collection methods
• The procedures you’ll follow to collect data
• Your data analysis methods

A well-planned research design helps ensure that your methods match your research objectives and that you use the right kind of analysis for your data.

Table of contents

Step 1: consider your aims and approach, step 2: choose a type of research design, step 3: identify your population and sampling method, step 4: choose your data collection methods, step 5: plan your data collection procedures, step 6: decide on your data analysis strategies, other interesting articles, frequently asked questions about research design.

• Introduction

Before you can start designing your research, you should already have a clear idea of the research question you want to investigate.

There are many different ways you could go about answering this question. Your research design choices should be driven by your aims and priorities—start by thinking carefully about what you want to achieve.

The first choice you need to make is whether you’ll take a qualitative or quantitative approach.

Qualitative research designs tend to be more flexible and inductive , allowing you to adjust your approach based on what you find throughout the research process.

Quantitative research designs tend to be more fixed and deductive , with variables and hypotheses clearly defined in advance of data collection.

It’s also possible to use a mixed-methods design that integrates aspects of both approaches. By combining qualitative and quantitative insights, you can gain a more complete picture of the problem you’re studying and strengthen the credibility of your conclusions.

Practical and ethical considerations when designing research

As well as scientific considerations, you need to think practically when designing your research. If your research involves people or animals, you also need to consider research ethics .

• How much time do you have to collect data and write up the research?
• Will you be able to gain access to the data you need (e.g., by travelling to a specific location or contacting specific people)?
• Do you have the necessary research skills (e.g., statistical analysis or interview techniques)?
• Will you need ethical approval ?

At each stage of the research design process, make sure that your choices are practically feasible.

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

Within both qualitative and quantitative approaches, there are several types of research design to choose from. Each type provides a framework for the overall shape of your research.

Types of quantitative research designs

Quantitative designs can be split into four main types.

• Experimental and   quasi-experimental designs allow you to test cause-and-effect relationships
• Descriptive and correlational designs allow you to measure variables and describe relationships between them.

With descriptive and correlational designs, you can get a clear picture of characteristics, trends and relationships as they exist in the real world. However, you can’t draw conclusions about cause and effect (because correlation doesn’t imply causation ).

Experiments are the strongest way to test cause-and-effect relationships without the risk of other variables influencing the results. However, their controlled conditions may not always reflect how things work in the real world. They’re often also more difficult and expensive to implement.

Types of qualitative research designs

Qualitative designs are less strictly defined. This approach is about gaining a rich, detailed understanding of a specific context or phenomenon, and you can often be more creative and flexible in designing your research.

The table below shows some common types of qualitative design. They often have similar approaches in terms of data collection, but focus on different aspects when analyzing the data.

Your research design should clearly define who or what your research will focus on, and how you’ll go about choosing your participants or subjects.

In research, a population is the entire group that you want to draw conclusions about, while a sample is the smaller group of individuals you’ll actually collect data from.

Defining the population

A population can be made up of anything you want to study—plants, animals, organizations, texts, countries, etc. In the social sciences, it most often refers to a group of people.

For example, will you focus on people from a specific demographic, region or background? Are you interested in people with a certain job or medical condition, or users of a particular product?

The more precisely you define your population, the easier it will be to gather a representative sample.

• Sampling methods

Even with a narrowly defined population, it’s rarely possible to collect data from every individual. Instead, you’ll collect data from a sample.

To select a sample, there are two main approaches: probability sampling and non-probability sampling . The sampling method you use affects how confidently you can generalize your results to the population as a whole.

Probability sampling is the most statistically valid option, but it’s often difficult to achieve unless you’re dealing with a very small and accessible population.

For practical reasons, many studies use non-probability sampling, but it’s important to be aware of the limitations and carefully consider potential biases. You should always make an effort to gather a sample that’s as representative as possible of the population.

Case selection in qualitative research

In some types of qualitative designs, sampling may not be relevant.

For example, in an ethnography or a case study , your aim is to deeply understand a specific context, not to generalize to a population. Instead of sampling, you may simply aim to collect as much data as possible about the context you are studying.

In these types of design, you still have to carefully consider your choice of case or community. You should have a clear rationale for why this particular case is suitable for answering your research question .

For example, you might choose a case study that reveals an unusual or neglected aspect of your research problem, or you might choose several very similar or very different cases in order to compare them.

Data collection methods are ways of directly measuring variables and gathering information. They allow you to gain first-hand knowledge and original insights into your research problem.

You can choose just one data collection method, or use several methods in the same study.

Survey methods

Surveys allow you to collect data about opinions, behaviors, experiences, and characteristics by asking people directly. There are two main survey methods to choose from: questionnaires and interviews .

Observation methods

Observational studies allow you to collect data unobtrusively, observing characteristics, behaviors or social interactions without relying on self-reporting.

Observations may be conducted in real time, taking notes as you observe, or you might make audiovisual recordings for later analysis. They can be qualitative or quantitative.

Other methods of data collection

There are many other ways you might collect data depending on your field and topic.

If you’re not sure which methods will work best for your research design, try reading some papers in your field to see what kinds of data collection methods they used.

Secondary data

If you don’t have the time or resources to collect data from the population you’re interested in, you can also choose to use secondary data that other researchers already collected—for example, datasets from government surveys or previous studies on your topic.

With this raw data, you can do your own analysis to answer new research questions that weren’t addressed by the original study.

Using secondary data can expand the scope of your research, as you may be able to access much larger and more varied samples than you could collect yourself.

However, it also means you don’t have any control over which variables to measure or how to measure them, so the conclusions you can draw may be limited.

As well as deciding on your methods, you need to plan exactly how you’ll use these methods to collect data that’s consistent, accurate, and unbiased.

Planning systematic procedures is especially important in quantitative research, where you need to precisely define your variables and ensure your measurements are high in reliability and validity.

Operationalization

Some variables, like height or age, are easily measured. But often you’ll be dealing with more abstract concepts, like satisfaction, anxiety, or competence. Operationalization means turning these fuzzy ideas into measurable indicators.

If you’re using observations , which events or actions will you count?

If you’re using surveys , which questions will you ask and what range of responses will be offered?

You may also choose to use or adapt existing materials designed to measure the concept you’re interested in—for example, questionnaires or inventories whose reliability and validity has already been established.

Reliability and validity

Reliability means your results can be consistently reproduced, while validity means that you’re actually measuring the concept you’re interested in.

For valid and reliable results, your measurement materials should be thoroughly researched and carefully designed. Plan your procedures to make sure you carry out the same steps in the same way for each participant.

If you’re developing a new questionnaire or other instrument to measure a specific concept, running a pilot study allows you to check its validity and reliability in advance.

Sampling procedures

As well as choosing an appropriate sampling method , you need a concrete plan for how you’ll actually contact and recruit your selected sample.

That means making decisions about things like:

• How many participants do you need for an adequate sample size?
• What inclusion and exclusion criteria will you use to identify eligible participants?
• How will you contact your sample—by mail, online, by phone, or in person?

If you’re using a probability sampling method , it’s important that everyone who is randomly selected actually participates in the study. How will you ensure a high response rate?

If you’re using a non-probability method , how will you avoid research bias and ensure a representative sample?

Data management

It’s also important to create a data management plan for organizing and storing your data.

Will you need to transcribe interviews or perform data entry for observations? You should anonymize and safeguard any sensitive data, and make sure it’s backed up regularly.

Keeping your data well-organized will save time when it comes to analyzing it. It can also help other researchers validate and add to your findings (high replicability ).

On its own, raw data can’t answer your research question. The last step of designing your research is planning how you’ll analyze the data.

Quantitative data analysis

In quantitative research, you’ll most likely use some form of statistical analysis . With statistics, you can summarize your sample data, make estimates, and test hypotheses.

Using descriptive statistics , you can summarize your sample data in terms of:

• The distribution of the data (e.g., the frequency of each score on a test)
• The central tendency of the data (e.g., the mean to describe the average score)
• The variability of the data (e.g., the standard deviation to describe how spread out the scores are)

The specific calculations you can do depend on the level of measurement of your variables.

Using inferential statistics , you can:

• Make estimates about the population based on your sample data.
• Test hypotheses about a relationship between variables.

Regression and correlation tests look for associations between two or more variables, while comparison tests (such as t tests and ANOVAs ) look for differences in the outcomes of different groups.

Your choice of statistical test depends on various aspects of your research design, including the types of variables you’re dealing with and the distribution of your data.

Qualitative data analysis

In qualitative research, your data will usually be very dense with information and ideas. Instead of summing it up in numbers, you’ll need to comb through the data in detail, interpret its meanings, identify patterns, and extract the parts that are most relevant to your research question.

Two of the most common approaches to doing this are thematic analysis and discourse analysis .

There are many other ways of analyzing qualitative data depending on the aims of your research. To get a sense of potential approaches, try reading some qualitative research papers in your field.

If you want to know more about the research process , methodology , research bias , or statistics , make sure to check out some of our other articles with explanations and examples.

• Simple random sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
• Likert scales
• Reproducibility

 Statistics

• Null hypothesis
• Statistical power
• Probability distribution
• Effect size
• Poisson distribution

Research bias

• Optimism bias
• Cognitive bias
• Implicit bias
• Hawthorne effect
• Anchoring bias
• Explicit bias

A research design is a strategy for answering your   research question . It defines your overall approach and determines how you will collect and analyze data.

A well-planned research design helps ensure that your methods match your research aims, that you collect high-quality data, and that you use the right kind of analysis to answer your questions, utilizing credible sources . This allows you to draw valid , trustworthy conclusions.

Quantitative research designs can be divided into two main categories:

• Correlational and descriptive designs are used to investigate characteristics, averages, trends, and associations between variables.
• Experimental and quasi-experimental designs are used to test causal relationships .

Qualitative research designs tend to be more flexible. Common types of qualitative design include case study , ethnography , and grounded theory designs.

The priorities of a research design can vary depending on the field, but you usually have to specify:

• Your research questions and/or hypotheses
• Your overall approach (e.g., qualitative or quantitative )
• The type of design you’re using (e.g., a survey , experiment , or case study )
• Your data collection methods (e.g., questionnaires , observations)
• Your data collection procedures (e.g., operationalization , timing and data management)
• Your data analysis methods (e.g., statistical tests  or thematic analysis )

A sample is a subset of individuals from a larger population . Sampling means selecting the group that you will actually collect data from in your research. For example, if you are researching the opinions of students in your university, you could survey a sample of 100 students.

In statistics, sampling allows you to test a hypothesis about the characteristics of a population.

Operationalization means turning abstract conceptual ideas into measurable observations.

For example, the concept of social anxiety isn’t directly observable, but it can be operationally defined in terms of self-rating scores, behavioral avoidance of crowded places, or physical anxiety symptoms in social situations.

Before collecting data , it’s important to consider how you will operationalize the variables that you want to measure.

A research project is an academic, scientific, or professional undertaking to answer a research question . Research projects can take many forms, such as qualitative or quantitative , descriptive , longitudinal , experimental , or correlational . What kind of research approach you choose will depend on your topic.

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Youth Participatory Action Research for Equitable Urban Design

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The Nashville Youth Design Team (NYDT) is a youth participatory action research and design collective based in Metro Nashville-Davidson County, Tennessee, USA. Developing out of a longstanding collaborative partnership between the Civic Design Center, a Nashville-based nonprofit that supports community engagement in urban design and planning, and researchers from Vanderbilt University, the NYDT seeks to improve youth health and well-being through research, design, and advocacy. In this paper we briefly describe the origins and goals of the NYDT before applying the NYDT’s action research process to the team’s most recent project, the Dream City Workshop, to illustrate how the team’s work aims to center youth voices in decision-making spaces and challenge structural inequities within the built environment. The Dream City Workshop is a two hour design thinking workshop, where youth participants are encouraged to create a city specifically designed to meet the needs of young people; a city where the only limit is their imagination. The goal of this workshop is to help young people think creatively to resist hegemonic norms and challenge structural inequities like structural racism and classism to imagine a better and more inclusive city for all. Following a detailed description of the development and implementation of the Dream City Workshop, we consider the strengths and weaknesses of the NYDT’s action research process and the workshop, specifically exploring how the team, through their work, seeks to address structural racism and work towards health equity. We conclude the paper by providing recommendations for others interested in cultivating similar locally focused action research projects and collectives.

Youth participatory action research (YPAR) is an innovative approach that stems from participatory action research (PAR), a methodology that emphasizes the co-creation of knowledge with those affected by the issues being studied. This approach values the insights of “insiders” in local contexts and aims to produce actionable knowledge that can lead to contextual improvements while building participants’ capacity for systematic inquiry (Domínguez & Cammarota , 2022) . YPAR specifically involves youth as researchers, exploring equity issues relevant to their lives and advocating for change based on the findings (Ozer et al. , 2020) . Youth in YPAR settings undergo training to partake in a Freirean process of research, action, and reflection, contributing to a cycle that includes formulating questions, selecting methods, analyzing data, and reporting findings (Branquinho et al. , 2020; Kirshner et al. , 2011) . These findings are leveraged for community benefit, with youth taking proactive steps to address the inequitable conditions they have studied.

To explore issues relevant to their lives, youth draw on various qualitative, quantitative, and geospatial methods (Marciano & Vellanki , 2022) , methods that can have implications for addressing structural racism and promoting health equity. For example, utilizing qualitative and spatial methods (e.g., interviews and Photovoice) within YPAR can emphasize the perspectives of youth from historically marginalized communities, centering them in research and illuminating subjugated knowledge (Aldana et al. , 2021; Collins , 1991; Mackey et al. , 2021; Rose et al. , 2022) . YPAR groups can also leverage geospatial methods to explore and highlight structural inequalities as a result of processes such as redlining, blockbusting, and displacement (Akom et al. , 2016; Anderson et al. , 2024; Literat , 2013; Teixeira , 2015; Teixeira & Gardner , 2017) . As a result, the methodological diversity within YPAR can be instrumental in exposing and challenging oppression, allowing youth to engage with issues of local importance in ways that resonate across various audiences (Bautista et al. , 2013; Ozer , 2016) . This approach enables youth to leverage local knowledge to envision alternative futures and challenge existing power imbalances (Bertrand et al. , 2023; Cammarota & Fine , 2008; Ozer , 2016; Teixeira et al. , 2021) .

YPAR projects can be empowering settings for young people, especially youth from marginalized communities, to critically analyze and address systemic issues affecting their communities (Rose et al. , 2022) . By valuing the insights and experiences of youth, particularly youth of color and youth in low-income communities, YPAR processes can facilitate a deeper understanding of how structural racism manifests in the built environment, contributes to health disparities, and maintains systems of oppression (Caraballo et al. , 2017; Langhout et al. , 2014) . YPAR projects and groups can play crucial roles in identifying and addressing systemic inequities that contribute to health inequities (Abraczinskas & Zarrett , 2020; Mirra et al. , 2015) . This approach can, therefore, be instrumental in revealing and challenging the underlying factors contributing to health disparities linked to structural racism.

YPAR and Urban Design

Young people are often left out of urban design and planning decisions (Derr et al. , 2013; Mansfield et al. , 2021) . Their exclusion from these spaces reflects numerous social and structural barriers, including limitations on youth capacity, insufficient resources, and adultism (Bertrand et al. , 2023; David & Buchanan , 2020) . However, research has found that youth participation in urban design and planning spaces is fundamental for the equitable development of urban spaces (Anderson et al. , 2024; Chawla , 2002; Frank , 2006; Nordström & Wales , 2019) . YPAR centered on equitable urban design can create contexts for youth to engage in critical inquiry and collective action to address disparities in the built environment and significantly contribute to the design and development of healthy communities (Anderson et al. , 2024; Teixeira & Gardner , 2017) . Through their research, youth can examine and address issues such as unequal access to public amenities, disparities in urban development, and the impacts of environmental factors on community health. Methods such as community mapping, surveys, and data analysis are used by youth to identify and document disparities in their local environments. These diverse methodological approaches equip young people with concrete evidence to advocate for improving local conditions, challenging structural racism, and promoting healthy communities.

The Current Study

In this study, we describe the work of the Nashville Youth Design Team, a YPAR and design collective based in Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County, Tennessee, to address structural inequities within the built environment. Focusing on the team’s most recent project, The Dream City Workshop, we describe the team’s action research process and how it addresses structural racism and improves health equity within Nashville. Moreover, we reflect on the team’s challenges and successes, their research approach, and the Dream City Workshop, describing how it can inform future YPAR projects focused on structural racism and health equity, particularly as manifested in urban built environments. Throughout the paper when we refer to “NYDT” or “the team,” we are referring to the youth co-researchers who collectively comprise the Nashville Youth Design Team; we will explicitly indicate the role of adult collaborators.

The Nashville Youth Design Team

The Nashville Youth Design Team (NYDT) is a YPAR and design collective based in Metro Nashville-Davidson County, Tennessee. Developed from a longstanding collaborative partnership between the Civic Design Center, a Nashville-based nonprofit that supports community engagement in urban design and planning, and researchers from Vanderbilt University, the NYDT seeks to improve youth health and well-being through research, design, and advocacy (Anderson et al. , 2024; Morgan et al. , 2024) .

Origins of the Nashville Youth Design Team

The NYDT is an extension of Design Your Neighborhood (DYN), a middle school place-based action civics curriculum, created by the Civic Design Center and Vanderbilt University researchers (i.e., the third and fourth authors) and implemented in Metro Nashville Public Schools (see Morgan et al. , 2022 ). The three-week curriculum focuses on learning about and addressing issues related to affordable housing, transportation, parks and open spaces, neighborhood identity, and sustainability within Nashville.

After four years of implementing the DYN curriculum, approximately 2,500 students were reached. The third and fourth authors recognized a need for continued engagement with DYN participants, primarily after students leave middle school and enter high school. To address this need, NYDT was established to continue engaging Nashville youth in leadership efforts to improve Nashville’s built environment and participate in decision-making spaces and processes. The NYDT was launched in May 2020. Since its inception, 30 high school students have been members of the NYDT, with 47% of team members participating for two or more years.

The Nashville Youth Design Team and YPAR

The NYDT is a paid, year-round internship consisting of 14–16 high school students from across Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County. Team members represent different geographies, schools, and sociodemographics, offering diverse experiences and perspectives that inform the team’s research, design, and advocacy work. NYDT members typically join the team the summer before their first year of high school and can remain on the team through their senior year.

The team is supported by four adult collaborators: two Vanderbilt University graduate students (first and second authors); one former Vanderbilt University graduate student and current faculty member at Sewanee: The University of the South (third author); and the Civic Design Center’s Education Director (fourth author). Adult collaborators play an essential role in the team as they provide training on research methods and design work, assist with developing community partnerships, and provide administrative support (e.g., payroll and scheduling).

Using an iterative action research process that incorporates research, design, and advocacy, the NYDT (i.e., youth co-researchers) seeks to achieve four goals through their work:

Understand how local built environment factors impact youth wellness.

Engage in community-based research to understand the current state of the built environment, seeking to elevate underrepresented voices in urban design spaces.

Implement design interventions to address built environment challenges to improve the quality and accessibility of urban spaces for young people.

Address structural racism and work towards health equity through advocating for long-term sustainable changes within Nashville’s built environment.

The action research process used to achieve these goals begins during the summer with the NYDT Summer Intensive, a four-week program that incorporates research training, data collection and analysis, and design work. During the summer intensive, youth co-researchers conduct research, collecting data from their peers to understand how their neighborhoods impact their health and well-being. The team has used qualitative, quantitative, and spatial methods. The NYDT then analyzes the collected data (e.g., through basic descriptive statistics, thematic analysis, and geospatial analysis) and develops a list of themes that captures what young people see as strengths, challenges, and opportunities within Nashville’s built environment. The team then uses these themes to inform tactical urbanism interventions aimed at making urban spaces more accessible to young people; tactical urbanism projects are low-cost, temporary design interventions developed to imagine alternative urban spaces and activate long-term change (Lydon & Garcia , 2015) .

Since 2020, the NYDT’s action research process has resulted in two tactical urbanism projects: 1) pedestrian safety measures at the most dangerous intersection in Nashville (2021); and 2) a mini-soccer pitch at a local park in a community with a large international population (2022). The designs were implemented by the NYDT with the assistance of adult collaborators and Civic Design Center staff during fall 2021 and 2022, respectively. In addition to the physical installation of the designs, the team also conducted community outreach to understand the impact of each project. For the pedestrian safety measures project completed in fall 2021, the team held community walks and conducted traffic audits. Their work attracted the attention of local news stations and local and state departments of transportation; later, the project was credited by the Tennessee Department of Transportation when announcing a $30 million street project on the pike where the design was implemented. For the mini-soccer pitch tactical urbanism project completed in fall 2022, the team held a soccer tournament where 43 community youth participated and more than 70 community members attended. At the tournament, the team also surveyed attendees to assess their valuation of the soccer pitch, learning that 58% of those surveyed stated that they would go to the park more often if the soccer pitch became permanent. In fall 2023, the NYDT’s mini soccer pitch design was submitted by the team as a part of a city-wide participatory budgeting campaign. Through the campaign, the design was selected by Metro Nashville residents as one of 24 projects to receive funding. Metro Nashville Parks Department is currently working to make the design permanent. Figure 1 provides images of the completed tactical urbanism projects.

Top Left: NYDT members and adult collaborators celebrating after finishing the pedestrian safety tactical urbanism installation. Bottom Left: NYDT members painting colorful bulb-outs at the deadliest intersection in Metro Nashville-Davidson County, TN. Top Right: A sign welcoming participants and attendees to the NYDT soccer tournament. Bottom Right: Aerial image of the NYDT soccer tournament held during the Fall of 2021.

As a result of their hard work, and as illustrated through the tactical urbanism projects over the past three years, the NYDT has been building power and developing a reputation in Nashville as a critical player in youth organizing and urban design spaces (Morgan et al. , 2024) . Due to this reputation, in winter 2023, the NYDT was invited by the steering committee co-chairs of Imagine Nashville, a city-wide community-based visioning initiative, to partner with adult leaders to facilitate the youth outreach for the initiative. In the section below, we briefly describe Imagine Nashville, including its origins, and the roles and work the NYDT has undertaken through this partnership.

Imagine Nashville & the Dream City Workshop

Imagine Nashville is the current iteration of a previous community-led initiative called Nashville’s Agenda. First developed in 1993 by a group of community leaders, Nashville’s Agenda was a “city-wide goal-setting process” that sought to capture perspectives from a diverse group of Nashville residents to create a list of “ideas for action” that would help guide the city’s development (Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee , n.d.; Nashville’s Agenda , 2007) . The original iteration of the project resulted in a list of 21 goals for the city’s future and contributed to the development of the Frist Art Museum, the Nashville Housing Fund, and the Davidson Group. In 2007, a new group of community leaders reactivated the initiative. Still under the name “Nashville’s Agenda,” the group conducted surveys and community meetings to capture ideas about the city’s future from more than 3,000 individuals. The work resulted in a list of 58 actionable ideas focused on education, youth, immigration, economic and community development, poverty and homelessness, the environment, and transportation (Nashville’s Agenda , 2007) .

Recognizing the need for a new list of values and priorities to guide the city’s development during a period of rapid growth, a group of community leaders came together in 2022 to reestablish Nashville’s Agenda, this time under the new name Imagine Nashville. Like previous iterations, Imagine Nashville is a city-wide, community-led effort to envision the city’s future (Imagine Nashville , 2024) .

Unlike previous iterations of the initiative, Imagine Nashville has sought to incorporate young people’s perspectives into the envisioning process. In 2023, the NYDT, with support from the Civic Design Center, was invited to collaborate with Imagine Nashville to center youth voices within the initiative (Imagine Nashville , 2024) . As a result, the NYDT (i.e., youth co-researchers), with the help of adult collaborators, developed the Dream City Workshop to achieve the following goals:

Capture young people’s opinions about life in Nashville in an engaging and educational way.

Center youth voices in the visioning and planning of the future of Nashville, providing young people with an opportunity to engage in civic processes and community planning efforts.

Explore what young people hope for the future of Nashville.

Capture ideas on how to improve spaces young people move through and inhabit in Nashville (i.e., schools, neighborhoods, parks, and roads/greenways).

In the following section, we briefly describe the Dream City Workshop, highlighting the mechanism through which the NYDT seeks to achieve its goals.

The Dream City Workshop

The Dream City Workshop is a two-hour design-thinking workshop created by the NYDT to explore and elicit young people’s perspectives on their ideal city. In Dream City workshops, workshop participants are invited to design a fictional dream city, where an emphasis is placed on the needs and preferences of young people rather than those of adults. Working in groups of four or five, workshop participants are assigned to design one of five sections, a “neighborhood” or the park, within the “dream city,” and asked to create elements they would like to see in their dream neighborhood. To create these designs, groups are provided with a wooden cutout (i.e., a piece of the city layout) and manipulatives to use in their designs. After about an hour of design work, the sections of the dream city (i.e., wooden cutouts) are assembled to construct a complete city (see Figure 2 ). Each group is then invited to present their designs, describing particular elements they chose to include in their city. These presentations are followed by a group discussion about the design process and the overlapping themes across the different groups’ designs. The workshop ends with a short 17-question reflection survey, where workshop participants are invited to translate ideas from their designs into their hopes for the future of Nashville. Through this workshop, the NYDT seeks to challenge adultism (Bertrand et al. , 2023; David & Buchanan , 2020) and structural racism (Stacy et al. , 2022) as they relate to urban planning and decision-making to improve youth health and wellbeing in Nashville (Teixeira & Gardner , 2017) .

Between May and July 2023, the Dream City Workshop was facilitated by NYDT members and adult collaborators at 14 sites, engaging 620 young people between the ages of five and 18. Additionally, through the workshop, the NYDT collected surveys from 220 youth, capturing a diverse array of young people’s hopes and dreams for the future of Nashville.

NYDT Action Research Process: The Dream City Workshop

In the sections that follow, we use the NYDT’s action research process to explain the design and facilitation of the Dream City Workshop in detail (see Figure 3 ); we describe each step of the team’s process generally and how it was explicitly applied in the creation and facilitation of the workshop.

Steps One and Two: Exploring the Built Environment and Understanding Community Context

Steps one and two of the NYDT’s action research process include exploring the built environment and understanding community context. To do this, the team engages in neighborhood walk audits, research actions with community members (i.e., meetings structured to gain insights into people’s values and perspectives), collecting and analyzing secondary data, and reflecting on personal experiences. During these steps, the team starts to identify challenges within the built environment, situate these challenges within their historical, cultural, and geographic contexts, explore how they impact youth health and well-being, and determine a study context for their research.

Due to the exploratory nature of the Dream City Workshop and its goals, as well as the predetermined study context (i.e., Metropolitan Nashville-Davidson County), little exploration of the built environment and community context was done before developing an action research question. The hope was that the workshop and the data collected through it would shed light on the current state of Nashville’s built environment and highlight youth-identified strengths, challenges, and opportunities across various communities, also serving as a resource for future iterations of the team’s action research process.

However, one way the team (i.e., youth co-researchers) explored the built environment, as it related to the Dream City Workshop, was by identifying and defining spaces important to young people. For the past three years, the NYDT has used six built environment factors to guide their research and design work: 1) parks and open spaces; 2) affordable housing; 3) food resources; 4) neighborhood identity; 5) community resources; and 6) transportation. Instead of using these factors in the design and facilitation of the Dream City Workshop, the team developed a list of “Youth-Oriented Spaces” that they believed would be more accessible to young people.

To develop this list, NYDT members engaged in an iterative brainstorming exercise, answering questions outlined by adult facilitators such as, “If communities (i.e., neighborhoods and cities) were designed for young people, what would they look like?” “How could we make spaces more inclusive?” “What would (not) be in these spaces?” Using the lists constructed during this exercise, the team developed and defined a list of eight youth-oriented spaces. The final list is presented in Figure 4 .

Step Three: Action Research Question and Hypothesis Development

After compiling and analyzing background information on the built environment and community context, youth co-researchers develop an actionable research question that considers community context and the current state of the built environment.

For the Dream City Workshop, the team drew inspiration from the eight youth-oriented spaces, posing the following question: What would a city (i.e., Nashville) look like if it was designed for young people?

Step Four, Part One: Research Tool Development

Once the action research question is defined, with the guidance of adult collaborators, the NYDT creates a research tool that collects the data needed to answer their research question. Prior to the Dream City Workshop, the NYDT had only used surveys (i.e., quantitative, qualitative, geospatial) and interviews to gather data from their peers. For this project, adult collaborators encouraged the NYDT to create a new outreach tool that would take one of their frequently used design processes, a charrette, and use this approach to create a workshop that would harness the creativity and imagination of young people into the design of an ideal city for youth. A design charrette is a collaborative process where a group of people, typically adults, think through a problem in their community and draw out solutions on a map (see next section for more information on how the NYDT adapted the design charrette tool for the Dream City Workshop; Howard & Somerville , 2014; Neuman et al. , 2022; Sutton & Kemp , 2006 ). Using the framework of a charrette, the team drew upon the list of eight youth-oriented spaces they identified in step one of their action research process to develop a workshop that would ask youth participants to design their ideal city. To encourage youth participants to think outside the box while designing their dream cities, a youth co-researcher developed a short video that integrated images and video clips of imaginative worlds in pop culture. The video was shown to workshop participants prior to the design phase. It was also during the workshop development stage that another youth co-researcher (i.e., a NYDT member) came up with the name “Dream City,” to communicate what they envisioned as the fun and imaginative nature of the workshop. To increase workshop accessibility, all materials were available in both Spanish and English. Next, we briefly detail the NYDT’s unique design charrette approach before discussing the development of the workshop’s data collection tools.

Design Charrettes Designed for Young People

A design charrette is a tool used by designers and planners (e.g., architects, city planners) to involve residents in addressing community-identified problems through creative design thinking (Neuman et al. , 2022) . During a charrette, small groups collaborate to brainstorm and design spaces that tackle identified problems (Sutton & Kemp , 2006) . Typically, this process engages adults with limited participation from young people (i.e., people under the age of 18; for exceptions see Rottle & Johnson , 2007; Sutton & Kemp , 2002 ). Through the Dream City Workshop, the NYDT modified the concept of a design charrette, making it more accessible to young people. The key adaptation was changing the objective of the charette from addressing specific place-based issues to inspiring creative and imaginative thinking that could later be translated into real-world ideas. For example, within the Dream City designs, participants designed various modes of transportation, such as flying cars, moving sidewalks, and youth-only buses. The flexibility of the charrette allowed workshop participants to develop inventive solutions while also highlighting issues that are important to youths (i.e., accessibility and mobility). By tailoring this widely used design tool, the NYDT offers an innovative approach for capturing youth perspectives on the built environment and identifying youth priorities within public spaces. Furthermore, the youth-oriented charrette functions as a valuable instrument for youth organizing groups to center youth perspectives and ideas within planning and decision-making spaces.

Identifying and Creating Data Collection Tools

To capture data during the Dream City Workshop, the NYDT developed and utilized a variety of data collection tools to capture workshop participants’ opinions and values.

Audio recordings of the Dream City design presentations.

During the group presentations, one workshop facilitator, typically an adult collaborator, would be responsible for recording the presentations through a phone-based audio recording app.

Photos of the Dream City designs for each workshop to document design ideas.

Following the design presentations, one workshop facilitator, typically an adult collaborator, would be responsible for taking pictures of the Dream City designs.

Short survey/series of reflection questions to ask following the design presentations.

Because the Dream City Workshop is part of the larger Imagine Nashville initiative, questions similar to those on the adult survey were required in the youth survey. Working off the questions provided by Imagine Nashville, the team revised and condensed the adult questions to make them more accessible to young people. Additionally, they added questions focused on safety; the Dream City Workshop was developed in the wake of the school shooting at The Covenant School in Nashville, re-emphasizing the need to design for safety. The 17 revised questions were coded into the qualitative research platform Recollective by an adult collaborator and organized into four categories: “Things I like about living in Nashville”; “Things I don’t like about living in Nashville”; “Safety and Belonging in Nashville”; and “Changing Nashville for the Better.” The survey questions can be found in Appendix A .

To increase accessibility for Spanish-speaking participants, a Spanish-speaking adult facilitator offered translation during the workshops, and Dream City surveys were also translated into Spanish.

Step Four, Part Two: Data Collection

The facilitation of the Dream City Workshops served as the mechanism through which data was collected. Between May and July 2023, the Dream City Workshop was facilitated by NYDT members and adult collaborators at 14 youth-serving or youth-oriented organizations, engaging 620 young people between the ages of five and 18. Twelve Dream City presentations were recorded, more than 200 Dream City designs were photographed, and 220 surveys were collected.

These presentations and designs were intentionally collected from a variety of neighborhoods and youth-serving settings in the city. When choosing locations to implement the workshop, for example, geographic diversity was prioritized. Ensuring different neighborhoods were represented naturally led to demographic diversity. The workshop was also adapted to accommodate two location types. The first was a classroom-like setting, utilized for summer programs such as summer school and summer camps. The second was a come-and-go set-up where the workshop and survey activities were set up for youth participants to join and contribute as they please. This set-up was utilized for tabling at festivals, the Nashville Fair, and the Adventure Science Center’s i2 Makerspace. The Civic Design Center’s youth programs have built relationships with schools and other youth programs across the city, which were valuable when scheduling these workshops.

Due to the complexity of scheduling the Dream City workshops, NYDT adult collaborators created a system to manage the logistics of scheduling workshops and assigning NYDT members and adult facilitators to each workshop. This system was managed by an NYDT adult collaborator and included handling all communication between community partners and facilitators. Due to all the moving pieces, it was crucial to have one consistent adult collaborator managing these daily details to ensure clear communication with partners and facilitators. A spreadsheet was also developed to keep track of the information for each scheduled workshop, including number of participants, location, and assigned facilitators. A shared Google calendar was created to assign NYDT members and adult facilitators to each workshop.

Step Five: Data Analysis

After data has been collected, the team moves on to data analysis. Historically, this has included quantitative (i.e., basic descriptive statistics), qualitative (i.e., thematic coding), and geospatial (i.e., mapping data and identifying patterns) analysis. Various software tools have been used during the analysis process, including Excel, Quirkos (a qualitative data analysis software), Google My Map, Google Sheets, and ArcGIS Online. Data analysis has sometimes been done without the use of technology, though we have found that technology typically speeds up the analysis process and results in more accurate findings. We have also found that the data analysis stage requires substantial time and adult support, both for training and conducting the analyses.

For the Dream City Workshop, youth co-researchers analyzed Dream City presentation transcripts, Dream City design photographs, and youth survey responses. The team used an iterative cycle of deductive and inductive coding to thematically code the data. Through analyzing the data, the team identified recurring themes and developed a set of youth priorities for Nashville’s built environment.

Coding Process

The NYDT utilized Quirkos, software for qualitative data analysis, to code the Dream City presentation transcripts and survey responses. Quirkos was selected by adult collaborators because it allowed the team to engage in real-time collaborative coding. The coding process was conducted in two phases. During the first phase, team members coded the presentation transcripts. Utilizing both inductive and deductive coding, youth co-researchers worked in pairs to code the different design elements included in workshop participants’ Dream City designs. The eight youth-oriented spaces were populated as deductive codes prior to analysis; however, team members were also encouraged to create new inductive codes based on themes that emerged from the data.

Before starting the second phase of coding, NYDT members were assigned one of the eight youth-oriented spaces to focus on. Focusing on their assigned youth-oriented space, team members were asked to review the data coded under that space and to develop a list of emergent themes. These themes were presented to the rest of the team and populated as codes for phase two.

During the second phase, the team coded the survey data. To do this, the team was divided into four groups, and each group was assigned one section of the survey (e.g., “Things I like about living in Nashville”; “Safety and belonging in Nashville”). Using the eight youth-oriented spaces and the emergent themes identified within those spaces, the groups deductively coded the survey data.

The team used Google Jamboard to analyze the design photos. Prior to the meeting where the photos were analyzed, an adult collaborator arranged the photos on pages in Jamboard. Team members were then assigned portions of Jamboard and tasked with reviewing the photos and adding codes in the form of sticky notes based on the designs. We found that photo analysis of was the most difficult and tedious part of the data analysis process.

Priority Statements

After coding, the team identified recurring themes that appeared throughout the Dream City designs, presentations, and survey responses, including: “General youth quality of life,” “Accessibility in Nashville,” “Neighborhood safety/belonging/community,” “Transportation,” “Safety,” “Outdoor spaces and places,” and “Expensive to live in Nashville.”

Using the previously listed themes, the team (i.e., youth co-researchers) worked individually to generate youth priorities, creating a total of 21 youth priorities. Between meetings, an adult collaborator (second author) arranged the priorities developed by the team into five overarching priority areas: 1) transportation; 2) affordability; 3) having youth-centered and fun spaces and places; 4) safety; and 5) proximity to youth-oriented spaces. The adult collaborator wrote summary statements that encompassed all the priorities listed in each area. Using these summaries as a guide, the team worked in groups to develop priority statements for each of the five priority areas. These five priority statements (outlined below) would guide the team’s design work.

Nashville Youth Priority Statements

Young people in Nashville want simple, local, safe, and close transportation to move around the city and to common areas. Young people want better access to resources and fun spaces.

Accessibility and affordability are two words that do not go together in Nashville, and the youth of Nashville want to create a Nashville that is both accessible and affordable for the next generation.

A priority for young people living in Nashville is having access to safe, local, entertaining, and welcoming spaces. They want more youth-geared spaces that consider what they value and are accommodating to them specifically. They want spaces that help them build relationships and meet new people.

Young people in Nashville want to feel safe. When they go out for activities, they don’t want to worry about their own safety being compromised. Having a sense of safety will encourage youth to be more active in the community rather than feeling constant fear.

Youth value places to have fun that are important to them and transportation support to places further out. Transportation is a struggle for all and this includes youth.

Step Six: Data-Informed Design & Advocacy

The final step in the NYDT’s action research process is data-informed design and advocacy. The data-informed design portion of this step involves small groups (three to four people) creating tactical urbanism design interventions to address a challenge(s) identified through the research findings. The design intervention must stay within a $2,000 materials budget and be able to be built by the NYDT in a weekend. The advocacy portion of this step typically includes the Youth Voice Exhibition (discussed in more detail below), the tactical urbanism design installation, and community outreach around the design, including community meetings, surveys, and press releases.

For the Dream City Workshop, the NYDT was divided into four groups based on which priority statement they found to be the most interesting; it was determined that safety would be incorporated into every group’s design. Typically, the NYDT would design a tactical urbanism intervention to solve a problem related to the priority statements, but this summer, the NYDT created visionary designs that will be included as recommendations in the final Imagine Nashville report. The NYDT will later create tactical urbanism interventions to advocate for their visionary designs.

To create the designs, the teams worked with their design advisors (i.e., Civic Design Center design staff and interns) to determine the location and programming of their design, considering their group’s priority statement. Once outlined, the groups worked on collecting and developing six design components needed in their final design board and presentation: 1) before photos of the site; 2) a site plan (i.e., how the site would be used); 3) perspective drawings of the design intervention, either hand-drawn or created using Gimp, a free photo editing software; 4) site diagrams (e.g., accessibility, programming); 5) data from the Dream City Workshop to justify their design; and 6) a one-to-two paragraph write-up describing the design and connecting it to their priority statement. These elements were then incorporated into each group’s design board (see Figure 5 for an example of a design board) and Youth Voice Exhibition presentation slides. The designs developed during the 2023 summer intensive included transportation infrastructure improvements in North Nashville, a youth way-finding route in East Nashville, youth-oriented improvements at a park in Northeast Nashville, and a youth center at a park in Midtown Nashville.

The Youth Voice Exhibition

The Youth Voice Exhibition marks the end of the summer intensive and serves as an opportunity for the team to share their research with the public, including family and friends, architects and designers, community leaders, Metro Nashville government employees, and elected officials. During the exhibition, the team presents the work they conducted over the summer, highlighting the designs they developed to address specific challenges within the built environment. After the presentations, there is a short Q&A session, followed by a chance for audience members to vote on the design they want to see implemented during the school year. Following the formal events of the exhibition, there is a short reception where attendees can interact with and ask questions to team members. The exhibition typically lasts an hour, and a virtual streaming option, such as Zoom, is also offered.

More than 70 in-person guests attended the 2023 Youth Voice Exhibition. During the exhibition, the team presented on the development and implementation of the Dream City Workshop and their work from the Summer Intensive, specifically showcasing their design interventions. See Appendix B for the complete set of slides from the 2023 NYDT Youth Voice Exhibition. Following the presentations, attendees voted for their favorite design; the winning design of the 2023 Youth Voice Exhibition was a youth center at Centennial Park, a prominent park in the city. Figure 6 presents images from the 2023 NYDT Youth Voice Exhibition.

The NYDT has continued to facilitate Dream City workshops throughout the city. Since the summer of 2023, the Dream City Workshop have been facilitated at 30 sites, engaging more than 2,000 young people and collecting more than 1,181 surveys. During fall 2023, NYDT adult collaborators worked to get the workshop approved by Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS) to enable workshop facilitation in MNPS schools. As a result, the workshop was written as a lesson plan that was aligned with Tennessee state learning standards. The team plans to continue to facilitate the Dream City Workshop in classrooms and after-school programs through the end of the 2023–24 school year. The data collected during this time will be used during the 2024 Summer Intensive, where the team’s action research process will begin again.

Key Takeaways from the Nashville Youth Design Team and the Dream City Workshop

Having discussed the NYDT’s action research process and how it shaped the Dream City Workshop, we next consider the successes and challenges that these efforts have faced, as identified by NYDT members, adult collaborators, and adult facilitators of the Dream City Workshop.

Since forming in 2020, The Nashville Youth Design Team has navigated a path marked by achievements and challenges in promoting more robust youth participation in local urban design through participatory action research.

NYDT has established itself as a key player in local urban design and youth organizing spaces. This is in large part due to team members’ (i.e., youth co-researchers) duration and consistency of engagement. Over the past four years, 30 high school students have been members of the NYDT, with 47% of all team members participating for two or more years. In 2024, the NYDT will graduate the first team member who has been part of the team for all four years of high school. This long-term engagement has enabled youth team leadership, as well as sustained a leadership cycle where team members who have been involved longer train and lead newer team members (i.e., first year team members), contributing to a strong and continuing team culture. Additional strengths of the NYDT are discussed below.

Increased capacity. The involvement of multiple team members spanning multiple years has increased the team’s capacity to engage in meaningful action research and design work in Nashville. Because of the seasoned team members, each year, the research and design work builds off prior years, resulting in more creative data collection tools, increased rigor in data collection and analysis, and more detailed and knowledgeable designs. The growth around the team’s iterative action research process has also attracted the attention of adult stakeholders, leading to increased community partnerships and opportunities to engage in city-wide decision-making spaces (e.g., the Dream City Workshop).

Empowering context. NYDT has served as an empowering context for youth co-researchers from across Nashville. When reflecting on their time with the team, the fifth and sixth authors (a first-year team member and a third-year team member) shared that being part of the NYDT has provided a space where they can collaborate with other young people to make tangible differences in local communities; a relatively unique experience for most young people. They also shared that being part of the team has given them the opportunity to gain work experience and exposure to “real world” projects, making connections that have the potential to help them reach personal or professional goals. Ultimately, the fifth and sixth authors believe that throughout their time on the NYDT, the team has connected with young people from across the city and elevated youth voices in urban planning and decision-making spaces.

Despite the notable strengths of the NYDT, there have also been several challenges the team has had to overcome.

Engagement and participation during the school year. One of the biggest challenges the NYDT has experienced is maintaining engagement with team members during the school year. After the four-week summer intensive, the NYDT holds monthly Saturday morning meetings throughout the school year to complete their tactical urbanism designs and continue advocacy for the priorities identified over the summer. While Saturday mornings have proven to be the time the team is most available during the school year, many have conflicting commitments, such as jobs and other extracurricular activities. It is also challenging to keep momentum going when the meetings are infrequent. One way adult collaborators have addressed this challenge is offering flex work, or additional paid opportunities, between meetings as an avenue for providing extra touchpoints.

Consistent funding. The NYDT was initially funded through a community partner contract with Vanderbilt University through a National Institute of Justice (NIJ) grant. The team’s role in the grant was to contribute to a dataset about young people’s perceptions of spaces in their neighborhood (see Anderson et al. , 2024 ). This grant funded the first two years of the NYDT program. Since its end, funding has come from a series of local grants and sponsorships, including Imagine Nashville, which is the most recent. In addition to seeking financial support to fund the day-to-day activities of the team, the Civic Design Center also seeks financial partnerships to fund the tactical urbanism design installations. Not having a consistent funding source has been a challenge, requiring the Civic Design Center to be proactive about building relationships with financial partners.

Transitions in adult collaborator leadership. The adult collaborators who lead the research portion of the NYDT are PhD students, which means they typically leave Nashville after graduation (i.e., roughly five years). This has presented challenges in maintaining the fidelity and design of the research component of the program. Keeping the NYDT’s methods rooted in the YPAR process has been critical in ensuring consistency and quality in the NYDT’s research. As the PhD students build out lessons and activities for the NYDT, they ensure they are written in a way that can be reused in the future. Furthermore, a staffing structure has been developed so there are always two PhD students working with the NYDT, one student who is new to the program and the other in their third to fifth year. The more advanced graduate student has a higher level of responsibility and acts as a mentor to the newer student. Stability is added by the Civic Design Center’s Education Director being a consistent collaborator. Furthermore, the NYDT is a formalized program within the Civic Design Center, which has provided the structure needed to ensure continuity despite changes in adult collaborator leadership.

Reflections on the Dream City Workshop illustrate successes and areas for growth that can inform future efforts to engage youth in discussions about creating a more equitable built environment.

Overall, the Dream City Workshop has received positive feedback from youth participants and their adult facilitators. Workshop participants are consistently excited to dive in and thoughtfully and meaningfully engage with the content, including the survey. We attribute this energy and excitement to the workshop’s design (i.e., design charrette), as it engages young people in a fun, hands-on activity that requires them to be creative. Below, we outline additional strengths of the Dream City Workshop as an approach to participatory research and action to address inequities in the built environment.

Widespread and diverse engagement. The workshop has been effective in engaging a diverse group of young people, particularly across age, race/ethnicity, ability, and geographic locations in the city. This reach has allowed the NYDT to collect a wide range of experiences and hopes for the future of Nashville. Since implementation of the workshop began in May 2023, 79 workshops have been held, engaging 2,000 young people and collecting more than 1,000 survey responses.

Robust data. The data collected through workshops and surveys have been richer and more extensive than previous NYDT-led data collection processes. Having the workshop precluding the survey has also led to more meaningful engagement with the survey. The applied workshop helps participants to make connections between their Dream City and their immediate environments (e.g., neighborhood, city).

Meaningful civic participation. The accessibility of the Dream City Workshop, as well as its direct connection to the Imagine Nashville initiative, has enabled young people from across the county to participate in city-wide efforts to envision the future of Nashville. As a result, the workshop has served as a catalyst for engaging young people between the ages of five and 18 in meaningful civic participation. Through the workshop, youth are invited to imagine alternative futures for the city of Nashville and then communicate their preferred alternatives through the survey. As a result, the NYDT has been able to center youth voices in the Imagine Nashville initiative, providing young people with an opportunity to engage in civic processes and community planning efforts, with the hope of designing and building a city that is more equitable for all.

Alongside the strengths and accomplishments of the Dream City Workshop, challenges have arisen.

Workshop logistics. Due to the complexity of the workshop, numerous logistics had to be considered during the implementation stage. This included scheduling workshops, assigning NYDT and adult facilitators, and managing workshop materials. In any given week, the team could facilitate upwards of seven workshops, interacting with more than 300 young people. As a result, ensuring that at least three facilitators were at each site and equipped with all the necessary design materials proved to be a juggling act. Additionally, the materials used in the workshop, with the exception of the design layouts, have a limited life span, requiring a constant restocking of the material boxes. To address these logistics, one adult collaborator was responsible for scheduling and assigning facilitators to workshops, and a Civic Design Center intern was responsible for keeping the workshop supplies stocked and organized. We found that giving multiple people small but specific roles distributed the workload and resulted in successful workshop implementation.

Workshop adaptations. Over time, we found that the workshop required adaptations to fit the varying spaces, levels of experience, ages, and primary languages of participants as well as the time allotted by community partners. Moreover, there was a need to find the right balance of design constraints to ensure workshop participants had enough direction to design a city that felt meaningful to them but not too much direction to stifle creativity. As a result, in September 2023, the NYDT launched phase two of the workshop. In phase two, the team drew from their summer work and identified five themes; these themes would replace the eight youth-oriented spaces and serve as the guide for workshop participants’ dream city designs. We found that these themes have inspired more personality and creativity in the designs, but workshop participants often focus too much on incorporating their group’s theme, leaving out critical parts of a city, such as housing and food resources. To address this challenge, workshop facilitators adapted their support methods and focused their questioning on asking participants what else their neighborhood needed to support the people who live there.

Structural Racism & Health Equity

The NYDT’s work to address structural racism and health equity through YPAR presents a complex landscape of ongoing successes and challenges.

Focus on health equity. Since 2020, the NYDT has explicitly focused on utilizing research and design to address the health and well-being of young people in Nashville. At its inception, the team’s initial research question sought to explore what young people in Nashville needed to be healthy and well, utilizing a holistic definition of wellness, which included physical, environmental, recreational, social, financial, intellectual, spiritual, and mental wellness. For two years, the team surveyed their peers to understand youth wellness and explore the relationship between health and the built environment (see Anderson et al. , 2024 and Morgan et al. , 2024 ). This focus enabled the team to engage in more extensive conversations around health equity in Nashville, advocating for changes in Nashville’s built environment that would improve the health and well-being of not only youth but all Nashvillians. Though the team’s research question has evolved, youth health and well-being continue to remain at the center of the team’s work. When developing the Dream City Workshop, the team discussed how the various youth-oriented spaces impacted youth health and sought to create spaces that were safe and supportive of young people. Throughout the team’s various projects, they have continuously advocated for the idea that when cities are designed with young people in mind, they become more accessible for everyone, thus positively contributing to the collective health and well-being of the greater community.

Participatory research and urban design to address structural racism. Participatory processes, including the process envisioned and executed through the Dream City Workshop, can provide essential input for long-term transformation. Through their work, the NYDT has engaged in more extensive conversations in Nashville around how structural and environmental racism are represented in the built environment. One such manifestation of structural racism the team has identified is young people’s restricted access to (or exclusion from) public spaces, particularly in neighborhoods experiencing high levels of police surveillance and structural disinvestment. The work of the Youth Design Team illustrates the potential for youth-led research and urban design to work to combat these manifestations of structural inequities in the built environment.

The NYDT has faced several barriers to addressing structural racism and health equity through YPAR. These challenges underscore the need to deepen our understanding of the local Nashville context and offer youth more opportunities to reflect on these systemic issues.

Context of Nashville. Metro Nashville’s history of structural racism in urban planning and housing and transportation policy, including redlining and the construction of Interstate 40 (see Mohl , 2014 , for a history of community resistance to the construction of Interstate 40), has informed the present structural disinvestment in Nashville neighborhoods. Moreover, it has contributed to young people’s experiences within their neighborhoods. Imagine Nashville and the Dream City Workshop aim to envision the future of Nashville, and young people of color’s reflections on their experiences of the city will be core in building a more equitable city in the coming years. The embeddedness of structural racism in Nashville’s built environment and the broader structural practices that marginalize youth in decision-making spaces make it difficult to center youth voices in more extensive planning processes. To address this challenge, the Dream City Workshop has worked to be intentional about gathering young people’s insights on their experiences of the built environment in an effort to combat structural inequities.

Critical consciousness development. The development of critical consciousness is an ongoing process. While discussions about racism, structural racism, and environmental racism emerge during NYDT’s initiatives and the Dream City Workshop, these topics are not the central focus of their work or the workshops. In conversations about urban planning in Nashville, issues of structural racism, particularly of gentrification and displacement, naturally surface due to their significant impact on the city’s communities of color. Nevertheless, there is some ambiguity regarding how each NYDT member perceives their role in addressing structural racism and the degree to which they view their participation in NYDT and Dream City as aligned with this vision. Understanding that the development of critical consciousness is a transformative process emerging from a cycle of action and reflection, there is significant potential to deepen this process for youth involved with Dream City and the NYDT by creating intentional spaces and opportunities for reflection, particularly regarding structural racism.

Youth participatory action research (YPAR) can be a promising approach for engaging young people in inquiry and action to address issues in their communities, including those related to built environments and neighborhoods (Bautista et al. , 2013; Ozer , 2016) . This study has detailed the work of the Nashville Youth Design Team (NYDT, a YPAR and urban design collective) as it developed and led the Dream City Workshop — a city-wide effort to gather perspectives and visions from a broad array of young people across the city, to synthesize and analyze those perspectives and visions, and then to use the findings to design, implement/build, and advocate for concrete changes to the built environment that can address systemic inequities. The NYDT’s approach to action research and the design of the Dream City Workshop (i.e., design charrette) can be a valuable model for other efforts to implement YPAR, particularly as it relates to making urban areas more equitable and capable of supporting the well-being of young residents.

Recommendations for Future YPAR Projects

Although the longer-term impacts of the work of the NYDT on Dream City and Imagine Nashville remain to be seen, in this final section, we reflect on some of the immediate successes and challenges faced by the NYDT during the Dream City Workshop, and from these derive a set of recommendations for others attempting to cultivate similar locally focused action research projects and collectives.

Develop a strong core team of leaders before attempting large-scale projects (like Dream City). The fact that the NYDT (youth co-researchers and adult collaborators) had already developed a shared understanding of an approach to research and action on the built environment equipped the group to be able to design and implement a larger-scale participatory research project that engaged large numbers of young people from across the city in helping to determine city-wide priorities.

Work with the core team to consider and negotiate potential projects, partnerships, and opportunities . The NYDT was asked to lead the youth engagement portion of the Imagine Nashville visioning process because it had already established a strong reputation for youth leadership in local decision-making. The group carefully considered the opportunity for partnership with this larger initiative and ultimately proposed an approach to broaden youth engagement that was consistent with the NYDT’s longer-term goals.

Seek to elicit imagination, vision, and creativity . Many approaches to action research engage participants only in studying the world as it is to the neglect of the world as it should be. Documenting imaginative ideals like the Dream City did can be engaging for participants and can yield findings that highlight gaps between present reality and more just and equitable futures.

Use hands-on activities and visually stimulating techniques . Although the Dream City Workshop made use of some of the more common approaches to social research (i.e., survey data collection; qualitative data analysis), it also developed novel techniques for engagement and communication of perspectives that were tactile and that created visually interesting representations (i.e., design charrette).

Create contexts for participants to connect personal experiences and preferences to systems and features of environments. The NYDT and Dream City Workshop orient their work to changes in the built environment, which are continuously shaped by policy and systems (e.g., transportation systems) that can contribute to or detract from health equity. This orientation to changes in the built environment naturally spotlights structural inequities and determinants of well-being and directs attention away from, for instance, individuals’ beliefs, motivations, or health behaviors.

Consider possibilities for generating short-term wins . The Nashville Youth Priority Statements identified through the Dream City Workshop could take decades of community organizing and advocacy to fully achieve. While it is essential to be unrestrained in establishing a vision for more equitable futures, it is also valuable to identify concrete actions that can be taken in the near term to begin improving local policies, systems, and environments. The tactical urbanism design and installation provide a concrete first action step toward realizing longer-term visions.

Submitted : January 31, 2024 EDT

Accepted : May 06, 2024 EDT

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Research Overview

Studying engineering proficiencies.

To advance our understanding of how institutions can broaden participation of underrepresented groups and fill gaps to maximize innovation in solving future problems, this project included two research studies:

A study of collaborative practices at interactive engineering challenge exhibits (C-PIECE Study) developed integrated measures for several visitor experience outcomes including engineering proficiencies, intergenerational collaboration and visitor satisfaction. We employed culturally responsive approaches to data collection and analysis, in which the culture and context of the visitors are considered crucial facets in evaluating the study’s impact.

A study of conversation participants’ choices and connections on the topic of engineering practices and usefulness in day-to-day life (EP&UDL Study) utilized the C-PIECE framework and prioritized the centering of parent/guardian voices, co-development between parents and educators, and stories as a means to learn more about how adults communicate the DOT exhibit, specifically the exhibits’ relevance with regard to everyday engineering.

These studies build on prior work on engaging girls in STEM using altruistic, personally relevant and social experiences, and increasing bilingual exhibits that teach engineering proficiencies.  By better understanding and promoting engineering learning in ISE, we will raise public awareness of sustainable engineering practices.

C-PIECE Study

The C-PIECE Study ,   A study of collaborative practices at interactive engineering challenge exhibits,  was the first of two research studies in the the DOT research program.

In this study we explored engineering practices used by families engaging with design challenge exhibits, guided by one overarching question:

“ What can we better understand about fostering engineering design practices associated with more informed levels of engineering proficiencies by improving engineering design challenge exhibits and facilitation for families ?”

While the research did not proceed linearly — it involved reflecting, revising, and working on multiple aspects of the project simultaneously — it roughly followed this process:

The purpose of the C-PIECE Study was to develop theory-based measures of engineering proficiencies within an exhibit context. The investigation was guided by the following research questions:

• What instruments capture engineering proficiencies at exhibits? Specifically, what are valid approaches to assess visitors’ proficiency in (a) Defining a problem, and (b) Optimizing Solutions at exhibits?
• What is a valid method for determining visitor awareness of engineering process in an exhibit?
• What is a valid method for determining intergenerational collaboration?

The C-PIECE Study developed integrated measures for several visitor experience outcomes including engineering proficiencies, intergenerational collaboration and visitor satisfaction. We employed culturally responsive approaches to data collection and analysis, in which the culture and context of the visitors are considered crucial facets in evaluating the study’s impact. This included a culturally responsive framework specific to the project and strategies for data collection, analysis, interpretation, and dissemination. 

Background and Methods – The Study of Collaborative Practices at Interactive Engineering Challenge Exhibit

Documenting Group Engineering Practices Elicited by Design Challenge Exhibits

Exploring patterns of collaborative practices at interactive engineering challenge exhibits

Exploring facets of engineering awareness

Exhibit Features and Visitor Groups’ Engineering Design Practices

EP&UDL Study

A study of conversation participants’ choices and connections on the topic of engineering practices and usefulness in day-to-day life  ( EP&UDL Study ) looked at the storytelling choices parents and educators use to communicate to other parents and educators that the DOT practices in the exhibit are usefully relevant to engineering practices in families’ everyday lives and their community goals.

This study centered the voices of parents and guardians (caregivers) by having parents in roles to generate stories, respond to stories, and revise stories. Building on theories of relevance in education and the theory-based C-PIECE framework , caregivers helped  develop a conjecture visualization and an evidence-based, contextual model of the types of strategies that might inform stories about the DOT exhibit’s connections to families’ everyday engineering practices.

The study reveals evidence that begins to show relationships between variables such as the content strategies in the stories and the perceived usefulness of DOT engineering practices mentioned in the stories. The study was designed to support stories that are part of ecological communications; not any one particular stereotype story. The approaches and model emerging from this evidence can inform many types of stories that are told about the value and usefulness of exhibits, such as between parents or between educators and parents.

Caregivers and Researchers in synergy: Two perspectives on collaborative research

2023 ASTC poster on storytelling and making meaning about engineering practices

More From Designing Our Tomorrow

Designing our tomorrow, dot educator resources, design challenge resource collection.

Action Research Design

• First Online: 10 November 2021

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• Stefan Hunziker 3 &
• Michael Blankenagel 3  

This chapter addresses the peculiarities, characteristics, and major fallacies of action research design. This research design is a change-oriented approach. Its central assumption is that complex social processes can best be studied by introducing change into these processes and observing their effects. The fundamental basis for action research is taking actions to address organizational problems and their associated unsatisfactory conditions. Also, researchers find relevant information on how to write an action research paper and learn about typical methodologies used for this research design. The chapter closes with referring to overlapping and adjacent research designs.

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Hunziker, S., Blankenagel, M. (2021). Action Research Design. In: Research Design in Business and Management. Springer Gabler, Wiesbaden. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-658-34357-6_7

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