I delivered an online talk yesterday in conjunction with UTMLead’s Leadership Symposium 2020. The synopsis of the talks was as below:
This online session will introduce participants to practitioner research. Practitioner research is one of the various approaches in enhancing professionalism and leadership through research in which it assists practitioners in pursuing their continuous professional development (CPD) endeavor within the higher education landscape. Participants will be exposed to the elements of critical reflective thinking and reflexivity that serve as the two main fundamentals of practitioner research. In addition, its distinctive methodology includes a variety of qualitative research designs such as narrative inquiry, self-study, autoethnography and qualitative case study, which will be discussed in this session. Ethical considerations in practitioner research will also be highlighted during the session. For academics who are undergoing CPD programmes such as industrial training or attachment, this session would provide insights and guidance in preparing their final reports or publications upon programme completion. Participants are encouraged to actively engage in the discussion, with a Q&A session that welcomes enquiries related to the topics.
It was an hour talk, and so I have outlined the talk into three main parts:
- Fundamentals of practitioner research
- Critical reflection & reflexivity
- Qualitative research designs for conducting practitioner research
This idea of conducting this webinar was originally stemmed from a participant’s concern during the previous talk delivered by AP Dr. Noraffandy (SOE). The participant was especially concerned over the ethical issue he faced while preparing his final reports after completion his attachment programme at an industry. I was later contacted by AP Dr Sharifah Hafizah (UTMLead) and was asked to share my knowledge on research designs that could accommodate those who are undergoing Continuing Professional Development (CPD) programmes. Thus, I decided to introduce the audience to practitioner research, which is one of the possible approaches that could be employed for CPD programmes. I hope it gave some insights to those who had attended online.