This paper, delivered as a provocative keynote address to the Collaborative Action Research Network (CARN) conference in Manchester on 28th October 2023, explores the question if action research might have a sweet spot. A sweet spot is defined as an ideal location, area or combination of factors for a particular activity or purpose. It draws on…

A growing number of studies on students' intercultural interactions and learning in higher education contexts have placed cosmopolitanism and agency at the centre of conceptual and empirical inquiry. The concept of 'cosmopolitan agency' has been proposed as a hallmark of intercultural relationships, such as friendships, between international and…

This study investigated characteristics associated with two kinds of peer victimization--bullying victimization and adversarial victimization--distinguished by different balances of power between the perpetrator and victim. Specifically, we examined whether bullying victimization (victim has less power than perpetrator) would be experienced to a…

The concept of sense of belonging is a critical component of student success, retention, and well-being in higher education, particularly for underrepresented students. This dissertation examines the lived experiences of Black students and explores how sense of belonging impacts their collegiate experiences as members of historically white…

The continued push to internationalize Korean higher education means that international and Korean students are enrolling in courses that are undergoing dynamic changes that neither group may be prepared for. This research investigated how the experiences of international students and Korean students who attended the same TESOL graduate school…

Oppressive social systems are structures and institutions within society that systematically and unjustly restrict the rights, opportunities, and overall well-being of certain groups (Bonilla-Silva, 1997; Feagin, 2013). The current program of research aims to investigate how oppressive social systems impact individuals and explore strategies to…

In social groups, such as school-based peer networks, youth often vie for power and dominance over others. Different strategies may be used to gain power (i.e., coercive and/or cooperative strategies), and with varying levels of success. Using a social networks approach, we examined whether and how social network centrality and social network…

This research implements and evaluates the effectiveness of three scaffolds: critical theories in classes, critical friends groups to discuss white identity, dominant ideologies, anti-racist practices and diverse field based experiences. These scaffolds provided white pre-service teachers the opportunity to reconcile how their identities influence…

It is typically understood that friendship is define as "a close and informal relationship of mutual trust and intimacy" (Oxford English Dictionary). On a basic level, friends care about each other. They spend time interacting in ways that are mutually beneficial. Friendships usually take a period of time to develop--people typically do…

This study focused on the glass partition, a term used to describe the challenges that exist in forming and maintaining cross-sex collegial relationships in the workplace. Women may be limited in their ability to benefit from collegial relationships due to the challenges of cross-sex relationships, particularly in a Christian environment. We use…

The?purpose of this?self-study?was to examine?an?internal?conflict the lead author?was feeling?about her credibility?to teach?pre-service elementary teachers when?she was similar in age to them and?had?no K-12 teaching experience.?Having taught only as an undergraduate science teaching assistant,?she was now?assigned?in her doctoral program?to be…

Self-study presents one approach to research that can be used to understand how current teacher educators and teacher education doctoral students (re)develop their practice and are socialized into academic norms. In some of these instances, faculty advisors may serve in a critical friendship capacity. This introduces an important power dynamic…

Bullying has been recognized as a complex phenomenon with potential for serious negative outcomes. Activities that address complex social situations of bullying, such as reading and writing to a pen pal about fictional literature, provide space for students to think and share about personal issues that they encounter and how characters deal with…

This study is to revisit the meaning of servant leadership, especially what it means to be "the servant as leader" in organizations. In order to appreciate nuances in the multifaceted nature of servanthood, this study engages in a hermeneutic analysis using a Heideggerian hermeneutical methodology, and converges study participants'…

The professional literature views school principals as major socializing agents for assistant principals (AP) due to their ability to determine the AP's responsibilities, assess performance, and influence the AP's willingness to advance to higher management roles. The effect of the relationship between the two on the AP's functioning is even…