Category: 25. November 2015

Action Research

The Second half of the day focused on The Action Research Method. As a method of research, Action Research focuses “on the conditions and effects of various forms of social action and research leading to social action” and uses “a spiral of steps, each of which is composed of a circle of planning, action and fact-finding about the result of the action”. Experience is an essential part of the action research process. After choosing the topic of focus, and developing questions, the research group must actively engage in the community or situation of question (similar to participant observation). More infomation about the Action research method can be found here and visually in this diagram below. 

Action Research Groups

The cohort was split into 5 smaller groups. Each group was given a specific set of social organizations in Berlin, ranging from Churches,Shelters, NGO’s etc… which deal with issues of migration in different ways. Each group was given a list of different places to explore and then return to the larger group to report on their findings the next day. This excecise gave the groups an opportunity to journey together through the city of the day, gain a some practical exposure to the issues we’ve been discussing, as well as discover the easily accesible affordances of this place. Here’s an overview of places visited by the groups:

Group 1:

International Womens Space

Kinderbar: A cafe designed to bring children and families from different cultural backgrounds to play and socialize

Gorki- Museum and Experience Play: Refugee’s Library an exhibit and interactive play which focused on the experience of being a refugee in a fictional country where a language nobody understands is spoken.

Group 2

Borderline Europe: An Organization which observes humans rights issues on the borders of European union

Group 3

Church Asylum: The German Ecumenical Committee on Church Asylum (Ökumenische Bundesarbeitsgemeinschaft Asyl in der Kirche) is a network of associations of German protestant, catholic and free church parishes ready to offer church asylum.

Emergency Refugee Shelter

Group 4

Kubus: An organization which actively supports youth and elderly welfare with a focus on intercultural coexistence of people of different nations and cultures through language education and vocational training

Reach Out: a counselling centre for victims of rightwing extremist, racist or anti-Semitic violence in Berlin.

Group 5

LeGeSo: LEGESO was in the past the State Department of Health and Welfare in Berlin Settled medical book stock was the central point for the German military medical records from both World Wars. Today the offices are completely working in supporting migrants, ensuring all the administrative tasks for their conditions of life, to allow them to live or to work in Germany

MOABIT HILFT: Working with refugees who are often traumatized, speak little or no German language. MOABIT HILFT gathers a group of local residents, institutions, associations and businesses from Moabit to contribute to helping these new residents.

Each group had it’s own experiences (which will be further discussed in the next days blog), but it is safe to say that this research method can be and efficient way to organize a research project, espescially in a short period of time. It is quite beneficial as a group activity considering that it can serve many purposes in a simple structure, allow research questions to be experiences in the context of the local community, as well as facilitate group socialisation and team building. Furthermore, many could imagine using this particular 1-day exercise in Action Research in as good way to introduce research methods for those learning how to do research.

Wednesday, November 25. It is the second day of our Training Course, and we are slowly getting to know one another. Not an easy task. What is your name? And tell me again, where are you from?

Officially, there are 7 countries present: Romania, Serbia, Germany, France, Georgia, Netherlands, and Italy. In reality, we represent many more countries. Next to the participating countries, some of us have their roots in Portugal, Bosnia, Morocco, DR Congo, Australia and the US. Also, there are participants that have information to share about countries that do not belong to either of these groups, but are current host-countries to the participants: Norway and Denmark. All together, we are connected to 15 countries around the world. Not even mentioned are the countries we visited and lived in for certain periods of time … If you ask us, we are definitely ready for some Action Around The World!

The World Cafe provides for collective learning:

”People already have within them the wisdom and creativity to confront even the most difficult challenges; that the answers we need are available to us; and that we are Wiser Together than we are alone.”

More information about the World Cafe method.

The World Cafe method is designed to discuss and reflect on different large topics. A group of people starts at one table, discussing a question/topic related to the theme of the workshop, and doodles their answers on a flip chart. Afterwards, there are several rounds, in which participants go around the World Cafe, to learn about the different topics, while discussing and adding to the flip chart. There are as many rounds as tables, so that each participant has the chance to learn about all topics.

In our World Cafe, we had a slightly different approach. All participants had been asked to provide basic information on migrants in their countries, previous to the start of the Training Course. What are their countries of origin? What about living conditions? What is the media discourse on the topic? How are migrants and refugees related? On our second day together in Berlin, the country groups got together and collectively worked on the presentation of their data.

In order to create an even deeper World Cafe setting, we suggest to ask participants to bring typical sweets from their countries. The different tables would then get an actual taste of the place. Also, it would be good to keep track of time during the second phase. In that way, participants spend a certain amount of time at each table, and no information will be overlooked.