Action Research, as Jean McNiff (2002) describes, is research about ones own practice. It’s “an enquiry conducted by the self into the self.” She goes on describing that “it is a strategy to help you live in a way that you feel is a good way.” My action research project was informed by my previous research on sleep, particularly by the perspectives of sleep as resistance or rest as an act of (self-)care as articulated by Tricia Hersey (2022). Rather than employing sleep as a tool to increase productivity I am interested in understanding sleep as deeply entangled with life, outside the control of students or myself, with effects that impact the levels of focus in the classroom.

Due to the short timeline of this project I did not have the chance to change any behaviour on my side and observe the outcome, but my investigation lay some important and necessary groundwork for future implementation of actions. I completed a first cycle of action research: understanding how sleepiness affects the students experience in the classroom and also what factors contribute to this sleepiness. I will discuss the results in this conclusion and also discuss how I will make use of these insights in planning my next term and conducting a second round of action research: changing the way I do things, reflect on what happens and improve upon it. As an approach to developing a pedagogy of care this is an important first step in order to avoid imposing what M. Bali and M. Zamora (2022) describe as a power-driven version of what care should be; a situation where educators assume and implement what they think is best for students that eventually can stifle students’ agency and self-determination. It is important to include those affected by measures of care in the design of their own experiences.

Sleep is a social justice issue. Sleep quality and quantity are impacted by factors outside a persons control such as their sociocultural background, global warming, health and more. Not at last are many of those factors co-creating stress which leads to worse sleep quality and quantity, often affecting people already at the margins (Hersey, 2022). Many of those factors are also intrinsically linked to and accelerated by neoliberalism. Looking at academia, neoliberalism is more and more leading to a corporatisation of higher education manifesting in increased performance management and individual accountability, increased pressure and targets and increasing class-sizes (Meyerhoff, Johnson and Braun 2011; Slaughter and Rhoades 2000). This is contradictory to the notion that universities should be environments where professional development and scholarship is able to thrive through the provision of space, time and resources (Hartman and Darab, 2012).

Slow pedagogy is an approach to teaching with the premise that quality should not be compromised by pressure to prioritise speed and efficiency, while making practice pleasurable for participants. Making space for other activities than teaching such as reflecting, thinking, reading or writing can be differently productive. Collet et. al. (2018) are proposing a slow pedagogy through a political ethics of care. They find that building elements of ethics of care and slow pedagogy in the design of a course can help build ways of working that counteract the impacts of neoliberalism on higher education. In an ethics of care, ‘caring about’ is the first phase of care – it is about paying attention to unmet caring needs. It takes individual needs of each person into account. ‘Caring for’ as the second phase of care is about a caregiver making sure that those needs of individuals are met (Tronto, 2013). As a teacher I see my role as the caregiver and want to focus on those first two phases of caring.

Before devising any action plan to address student sleepiness in the classroom I needed to identify effects of sleepiness and unmet student needs (‘caring about’). The results from my study are presented in the ARP Analysis blog post.

Caring for

Now that I have an idea about both individual and collective levels of sleepiness, what contributes to them and how they affect the students experience in the classroom I can use those insights to plan for the term ahead or a next cycle in the Action Research Project.

The results from the Stanford Sleepiness Scale give me an idea of individual levels of sleepiness of each student (albeit anonymous) – two students are not sleepy and alert, while two are feeling a little foggy. This tool could be used at the start of each class for students to self-reflect on their level of sleepiness and give an indication to the level of alertness and engagement me as the teacher can expect from the class. While this tool is useful to assess levels of sleepiness in the moment, it is difficult to use as a tool for planning. As a way to utilise this in class I could imagine asking students at the start of each class how sleepy they feel and depending on the answers I could take action.

Results also show, that the levels of sleepiness are different during different times of an academic year depending on season and workload. The term I am planning for is the summer semester, which is close to being the least sleepy time of the year (only topped by the summer holidays). While these results have not been validated since only four students participated, a larger survey of this could help in determining what content and assessment to deliver at what time during the year. Since the participation was so low I wish to not make any decision based on those insights yet.

The qualitative insights into the factors affecting student’s sleepiness give me the biggest resource to draw from in taking action in my pedagogy to address the levels of sleepiness in the classroom that might impact student’s learning experience. I pick out a few insights to create some new hypothesis of how they could be addressed in the classroom by changes I could make.

• Interactive classes are raising student engagement even when feeling sleepy. I can include interactive elements in the delivery of my seminars.
• Students perceive showing signs of sleepiness in the class as awkward – but when asking them about it students are interested in talking about how sleepy they feel from time to time. Introducing the SSS at the start of each session might facilitate having conversations about being sleepy in the class, and holding space for people who are extremely sleepy to take a nap or more breaks could be accommodated.
• Food and other consumption was a big topic. Caffeine and sugar were mentioned most to provide energy to stay alert. Both for sessions in the morning and after lunch this is essential. At the moment students get a break where they can fulfil the needs they have, but it could be part of the seminar to offer coffee, tea and fresh fruit to all students for free.
• While too much screen time in the student’s own time can lead to increased sleepiness I can reduce screen time during class – for example by taking time to discuss, write with pen and paper or make something together.
• The environment affects sleepiness. As a teacher I can make sure to turn on the light as appropriate and open the windows for fresh air from time to time and adjust the blinds according to the needs of the class.
• Too much work leads to stress which also leads to sleepiness – if I assess the level of sleepiness each time at the start I can adjust the amount of homework or work I give. Again, that makes planning difficult.
• Last but not least is a lack of physical exercise that can lead to feeling sleepy. Including activities, stretches or movements into the pedagogy could help with this and could aid attention and learning.

References

Bali, M., & Zamora, M. 2022. The Equity-Care Matrix: Theory and practice. Italian Journal of Educational Technology, 30(1), 92-115. doi: 10.17471/2499-4324/1241

K.S. Collett, C.L. van den Berg, B. Verster and V. Bozalek. 2018. Incubating a slow pedagogy in professional academic development: an ethics of care perspective.  South African Journal of Higher Education 32 (6): 117-136.  http://dx.doi.org/10.20853/32-6-2755 

Hartman, Y. and S. Darab. 2012. A call for slow scholarship: A case study on the intensification of academic life and its implications for pedagogy. Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies 34(1‒2): 49‒60. 

Tricia Hersey. 2022. Rest is Resistance: Free Yourself from Grind Culture and Reclaim Your Life. London: Aster.

Jean McNiff. 2002. Action research for professional development: Concise advice for new action researchers. 3rd Edition, 2002.

Meyerhoff, E., E. Johnson and B. Braun. 2011.Time and the university. ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies 10(3): 483‒507. 

Slaughter, S. and G. Rhoades. 2000. The neo-liberal university. In New Labor Forum, 73‒79. Labor Resource Center, Queens College, City University of New York.

Tronto, J. C. 2013. Caring democracy market, equality, and justice. New York: New York University Press.