As part of an international tour that also included New Zealand and the Philippines, the Action Learning Action Research Association (ALARA) and Participatory Action Research World Congress stopped off at UTS on 23-24 September 2025. This event brought together a diverse group of practitioner researchers from Australia, South Africa and the US. United by our common interest in actionable research and reflective practice, we didn’t need a warmer activity – we just started talking, sharing and learning from the word go!
Some of my highlights are below but you can also view the full list of presentations and abstracts on the ALARA website.
What is a tree?
Jua Cilliers, Associate Dean (Research) of the UTS Faculty of Design and Society, set the tone for the two-day event by encouraging us to see the same issue from multiple stakeholder perspectives. Unpacking the conference theme of ‘Putting global collaboration at the heart of action research’, she demonstrated how the question ‘What is a tree?’ has quite different meanings for a property developer, architect, urban planner, publisher and urban resident. In order to collaborate, then, we need to fully understand multiple perspectives and work out the action(s) that will be of most benefit. Her message was echoed by many of the World Congress presenters, since inviting community voice and participation is typical of action research.
Deep listening and critical systems thinking
Following on from Jua, the keynote speaker Allan Teale inspired us to consider Indigenous knowledge and methodologies (such as yarning circles), highlighting the importance of listening and sharing to develop deep understanding.
On a similar note, Imelda Smit and Roelein Goede from South Africa highlighted how Critical Systems Thinking allows us to put ourselves in the shoes of others and understand their ‘conditioned realities’ – noting that all realities are valid and subjective. They proposed that reflection using Critical Systems Thinking can be really valuable at the diagnosis phase of an action research project.
Community-led research
Through the lens of my own conditioned reality, one thing that stood out for me from this event was the way that researchers from the built environment and social justice disciplines often start their research with local community engagement. For example, Codee Ludbey presented his PhD study on urban safety at Sydney’s Barangaroo, emphasising how practitioner reflections on community data can be the core ‘action’ component of action research. He captured practitioner reflections through surveys and interviews, and found that community members preferred less visible safety measures in comparison to security and built-environment professionals.
In another presentation, Nick Grinpukel from the Centre of Social Justice and Inclusion shared a project that co-designed community-led sustainability transitions (such as the revitalisation of a social housing community garden), with participant-led investigation being central to their approach.
Action research for teaching innovations
Another key theme at the event was the use of action research to inform teaching, with David Van Reyk, Shankar Sankaran, Tome Awshar Mapotse and Tsebo Kgoto Matsekoleng from South Africa, and myself and Anne Burns from Australia, all presenting on educational innovations through action research. These talks all revealed how action research can empower educators with evidence-based knowledge to make decisions, reflect on dilemmas (such as how to incorporate GenAI!), develop agency to take further action and shift in their identities as practitioner researchers.
Speaking of GenAI, John Mollineux from Deakin University offered a critical review of action learning in the age of GenAI, proposing how GenAI could be integrated into different aspects of the action learning (AL) process in what he termed ‘GenAL’. He suggested that future research could look at how GenAI influences AL and examine effective integration between the two, as well as the possibility of developing personalised AL programs that leverage GenAI principles.
I came away from this ALARA World Congress with a sense of connectivity to a wonderful community of practitioner researchers, practical ideas to incorporate into my own research, and excitement about future participatory action research collaborations at UTS.