TDNet Discover

The purpose of this action research study will be to investigate how a structured participatory action research (PAR) and professional development (PD) intervention will support consultants’ learning at Gary Wash Consulting (GWC). For the utility of this study, the PAR and PD intervention will be defined as a collaborative, inquiry‑based learning process designed to improve practice. Mertler’s theory on cycles of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting will guide this study and will emphasize practical problem‑solving and participation. This theory will align with the researcher’s focus of inquiry because consultants will learn and will change across iterative cycles of planning, acting, observing, and reflecting. The theoretical framework will serve as the conceptual lens through which the research questions will be examined. The PAR research design will address the complexity of performance improvement among GWC consultants and within GWC as a firm. The study will target two key research questions that will focus on the learning process and will connect the study to outcomes and impact. Because GWC’s mission centers on organizational learning and improvement, it will provide a relevant setting for a PAR study on professional learning and skill development. This capstone project will use a purposive sample of ten (10) internal consultants within GWC. The study will employ three data collection approaches, each of which will utilize separate data analysis strategies to produce a mixed‑methods summarization. For this study’s anticipated results, consultants will likely show clearer understanding of OCB and CoK approaches resulting from the PAR and PD intervention.