Abstract

This report presents an action research enquiry using the avenue of living educational theory to examine how I expanded my practice as a volunteer in Special Olympics to develop as an non formal educator within this context. I describe how I embraced my own values in education during this study and chose to be led by them as I attempted to understand how my values influenced my learning and the learning of others. I designed two action reflection cycles of enquiry from June 2010 to June 2011 whilst working with my local Special Olympics Club in Drogheda, Co. Louth, Ireland. In Cycle 1, I record my experience in the production of a commemorative DVD of the Club’s participation in the Special Olympics Ireland Games held in Limerick in June 2010. In Cycle 2, I draw on my experiential learning from Cycle 1 and focus my research enquiry on the production of an educational web accessed video called Changing Lives. This video was divided into six segments so that it could be integrated into the induction module of Special Olympics Irelands online Moodle learning management system. I show how the use of video and visual methods can provide practical, evidence based explanations of practice from the volunteer action sphere in Special Olympics.