Appreciative Inquiry in Higher Education E-Book

Jeanie Cockell

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Bildung
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 423

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

Praise for Appreciative Inquiry in Higher Education "Cockell and McArthur-Blair have crafted a meaningful story foreducational leaders by weaving their personal experiences asAppreciative Inquiry facilitators together with a wide range ofstrength-based practices and positive change theory. The result isa magical book for applying Appreciative Inquiry in highereducation." --Diana Whitney, Ph.D., author, AppreciativeLeadership and The Power of Appreciative Inquiry "Combining the history, philosophy, and principles ofAppreciative Inquiry with detailed guidance for how it can be usedin planning, leading, and teaching, Jeanie Cockell and JoanMcArthur-Blair have tapped the depth and breadth of theirsubstantive knowledge and skills to write a must-read text foradministrators, faculty, staff, and students in higher education.Here is a book grounded in hope and many years of experience with aprocess that begins by recognizing what works, rather than what'smissing--a refreshing and rather radical perspective."--Dr. Shauna Butterwick, associate professor, Adult EducationProgram Coordinator, Department of Educational Studies, Universityof British Columbia "Cockell and McArthur-Blair have delightfully woven together howAppreciative Inquiry has been applied in all of higher educationwith stories of people and relationships illustrating how AI bringslife to organizations. They provide guidance to AI practitioners inhigher education on the depth and breadth of experiences thatinspire those of us in this field." --Kathy Becker, CEO,Company of Experts, Inc.; CEO, Center for Appreciative Inquiry "This book is an inspiring and expansive guide to developingappreciative practice in higher education. It will be an invaluableresource to anyone interested in leading their college into a'positive' future." --Judith Kamber, dean of professionaldevelopment, Northern Essex Community College

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Foreword

Background and Context

Strategy and Intimacy

Proof Points

Why I Like This Book: Critical Appreciative Inquiry and ALIVE

Leaning Into the Future

Preface

Acknowledgments

The Authors

Chapter 1: Introduction to the Journey

The Creative Journey

Provocative Propositions: The Book Unfolding

Emergent Design

Part One: Foundations

Chapter 2: The Tenets of Appreciative Inquiry

Appreciative Inquiry: A Paradigm Shift

Principles

Methodology

Doing AI

Chapter 3: The Passions of Our Practice: Hope and Magic

Joan's Journey of Hope

Jeanie's Passion for Magic

Hope and Magic

Chapter 4: Critical Appreciative Inquiry

The Inclusive AI Practitioner

From Issue Focus to Inquiry Focus

Topic Development

Emergent Design

Using Our Influence: Let's Talk

Critical Appreciative Inquiry: An Emerging Model Revisited

Chapter 5: Being Authentically ALIVE

Living Appreciative Inquiry Through Challenging Times

Appreciative Inquiry as a Daily Practice

The ALIVE Model

Being Authentically ALIVE as a Reflective Practice

Being ALIVE

Chapter 6: Leadership, Possibility, and Appreciative Inquiry

Appreciative Leadership Questions

Using the Appreciative Leadership Questions

Part Two: Practice

Chapter 7: Being an Appreciative Inquiry Practitioner in Higher Education

Foundations

Tell Me a Story

Creating an Appreciative Climate

Techniques for Alternative Dialogue

Practitioner Practice

Chapter 8: Planning: Engaged and Inspired

SOAR

Examples of AI and Planning in Higher Education

From Process to Final Strategic Plan

Final Thoughts on AI and Planning

Chapter 9: Summits in Higher Education: Gathering the Force

Elements of Higher Education Summits

First Notes on All-Institution Summits

Designing a Summit for Higher Education

Summits to Create Institutional Momentum

Summits as Data Gathering for Strategic Planning

Final Notes on the Symphony of Summits

Chapter 10: Collaborative Teams and Groups

Appreciative Inquiry with Teams

Collaborative Learning Teams

Examples of AI with Teams and Groups in Higher Education

Building Collaboration

Chapter 11: Teaching and Learning

Appreciative Inquiry as a Teaching and Learning Framework

Teacher as Self

Appreciative Outlook in Teaching

Fostering a Community of Learners

Final Thoughts on Teaching and Learning

Chapter 12: Leaning Into the Future

What If…

The People of AI

AI Processes

Embodying AI

Parting Thoughts

References

Index

Copyright © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Cockell, Jeanie, date.

Appreciative inquiry in higher education : a transformative force / Jeanie Cockell, Joan McArthur-Blair. – First edition.

pages cm. – (The Jossey-Bass higher and adult education series)

Includes bibliographical references ; and index.

ISBN 978-1-118-09735-9; ISBN 978-1-118-22367-3 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-23704-5 (ebk); ISBN 978-1-118-26200-9 (ebk)

1. Transformative learning. 2. Education, Higher—Aims and objectives. 3. Appreciative inquiry. I. McArthur-Blair, Joan, 1954- II. Title.

LC1100.C63 2012

378′.01—dc23

2012016817

The Jossey-Bass Higher and Adult Education Series

Foreword

I believe the question of Appreciative Inquiry and higher education is not “Why?,” it is “Why not?” Why would we not want to use a cascade of strengths to address the foundational challenge of what and how we learn? Of course, higher education is not the only place that innovation and learning happen, but it is our lives, careers, and passion for some of us who read this book. This is the right time for us to re-examine how we have constructed our theory and practice of higher education.

Background and Context

For almost twenty years I've been teaching, writing, and consulting in the field of Appreciative Inquiry (AI). It has been an adventure for my heart and mind to see how the philosophy and practices of AI play out in organizations as different as the U.S. Army, Avon International, or Verizon. Many books and papers document Appreciative Inquiry success stories in government and business. We have statistics and cases that show the results of strength-focused appreciative approaches and methodologies.

Until now we have not had a deeper dive into the application and implications of using AI in higher education. This book does just that. Jeanie Cockell and Joan McArthur-Blair have provided a “show and tell” that moves AI into mainstream educational thought and policy. We have an expanded resource to document AI success cases and tell those stories.

AI and education is the place of my heart. In 2001 I founded Positive Change Core, a virtual collaborative global community serving education and youth with strength-focused approaches. At the same time Nancy Stetson began using AI in colleges, and over the next several years trained more than 550 community college administrators, faculty, and students in AI. Now thousands of college and university educators have learned about AI.

This book tells why and how to use Appreciative Inquiry for transformational change in education. We have a resource to document the success cases, and tell the stories. Jeanie and Joan have provided a guide to moving AI into mainstream educational thought and policy.

These two are unique authors, educators, and life partners. They bring their relationship and profound insight to the topic of AI in higher education. That insight stems from their connection to the work and from their personal collaboration. They each have created a special learning space because they are so present with each other. Joan and Jeanie put themselves on the map. That encourages others to do the same. They embody a climate of cooperation. This book is honest about the work in no small measure because they are authentic about themselves and with themselves. The book is generously referenced as a resource to other resources so that the reader can go to source materials.

Strategy and Intimacy

Educators have an ongoing dance between right brain and left brain, head and heart, process and content, neocortex and limbic brain, theory and practice. Our challenge is in the connections. How can we stay in an “also/ and” frame of mind? “Either/or” is too narrow a platform. Appreciative Inquiry connects to other frameworks and philosophies. This book invites you to explore using AI with various methodologies such as Open Space or World Café. The essence is combining strategy—goals, outputs, and ideas—with intimacy—relationships, communication, and respect.

Appreciative Inquiry in Higher Education is for anyone who wants to bring AI into an institution as a way to enhance the power of people and the institution itself. It offers practical tips, strategies, and designs for strategic plans, summits, classrooms, team building, and other uses in higher education and speaks to three kinds of readers:

Educators who are new to AI will

Learn the basics and examples of what, where, when, how, and who

Check out the application of graphic facilitation to Appreciative Inquiry and enjoy the illustrations

Find further resources in people and other books and articles

Educators who have some exposure and experience can

Learn a compact way to explain AI to others in the worlds of education

Find validation in these methods and stories for what you have been doing and get some new ideas

Gain perspective and data from a host of resources

Experienced AI practitioners will

Get a deeper understanding of what we know and meet some new frameworks, particularly Critical Appreciative Inquiry and the ALIVE model for personal transformative experience

Appreciative Inquiry in Higher Education speaks to formal and informal leaders at all levels of higher education communities. Daniel Quinn begins his book, The Story of B, with the question “Is then the same as now?” The answer for educators is “Heck no.” We are just beginning to sort out the effect of technology on higher education. Will it make us and our students smarter or dumber or both? What about the old tried-and-true methods and pedagogy? And, most significantly, what are the proof points we can use to bring our students and colleagues into alignment? AI offers a willing partner to marry what you are doing now that is working well with doing things even better. Here is a chance to know, show, and grow the good work that is happening right now. A major contribution of Jeanie and Joan's work is the codification and collection of AI principles and practices tailored to fit the diverse cultures of higher education.

Proof Points

How do we know that AI produces good results? Dr. Adrienne O'Neill, president of Stark Education Partnership in Canton, Ohio, says good results are predicted by proof points. She says, “Proof points are the proof that changes peoples' minds about a certain topic, belief, or policy.” Proof rests in both qualitative and quantitative research. Point of proof is further defined as case studies, testimonials, and convincing demonstrations that provide evidence of truth.

The case studies in this book are evidence of the success of AI. My experience with Northern Essex Community College (NECC) provides an example of points of proof. They have been using AI for more than six years and have a plan for going forward to 2015. This plan describes major collegewide directions. “Now we want to accomplish great things together. We planned our initiatives online and in one semester. We have five collegewide goals that have us working together in teams.” Throughout Northern Essex Community College, AI has become the way business and learning happen.

Why I Like This Book: Critical Appreciative Inquiry and ALIVE

Jeanie and Joan have made some new contributions to all of us who use Appreciative Inquiry. It does not matter if our clients are in business, health care, or the arts. AI in any setting is enriched by these two ideas.

Critical Appreciative Inquiry

My experience confirms that AI must always be honest and speak to what is real. Critical Appreciative Inquiry is relevant when differences of values, experience, privilege, and power are loud and clear. The chapter on Critical Appreciative Inquiry suggests we lean into differences and recognize their impact by acknowledging the current situation coupled with the call for what people want to have happen. We move from issue focus and the proof of how bad things are to an inquiry that focuses on what it is that we actually want. Unpacking our invisible knapsack of stereotypes, pre-conceived notions, biases, assumptions, prejudices, and unconscious predictions requires faith, honesty, and courage. Critical Appreciative Inquiry is an equalizer in helping the underrepresented find voice and insight.

ALIVE

ALIVE is rooted in the appreciative self. Jeanie and Joan provide a blueprint for the blossoming of the appreciative self. The ALIVE model really sings for educators. These are good practices that can help put daily challenges into perspective. What I like best about the ALIVE model is the acknowledgment that appreciation of how we meet difficulties and learn (value) through tough situations is important. You can see my bias is that even tough lessons are valuable and well worth learning.

Leaning Into the Future

We can build on past successes and analysis of what has actually worked in colleges and universities in North America, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, Africa, Asia, and places I don't know about. Perhaps you do…

My dream? Appreciative Inquiry as a foundational practice taught in schools of education. My preferred future has teachers and administrators who use AI and related relational and strength-focused practices in their work and their challenging lives as educators. Then the hope we have for education in our countries can be realized on a day-to-day basis in the classroom, seminar, or virtually because our teachers and professors can clarify the preferred future and support their students on that journey.

If you want to “plerk” (my word for when play and work are combined) towards that future come find me and let's talk. May this new book from Jeanie and Joan be a resource for all of us.

Marge Schiller, Ph.D.

Founder, Positive Change Core

Preface

This book is designed for the people who work in higher education and through their work create a positive difference in the world. We came to the writing of this book from a lifetime in higher education as teachers, leaders, and researchers of the art and craft of learning. Higher education is very diverse in its nature, and we have used the generic term of higher education throughout the book. For this book, higher education includes all research, teaching, and learning institutions at which adults are found. Some of these adults are eighteen-year-olds, right out of high school, and many are much older and engaged in lifelong learning. Appreciative Inquiry (AI) can be a powerful force in higher education for positive engagement, and we hope that the concepts, tools, and stories included here offer ways in which educators, staff, and administrators in higher education can utilize Appreciative Inquiry in their own contexts.

Building out from the fundamental concepts of AI in Chapter Two, we take you on a journey that begins in Part One, “Foundations,” with the basics and explores ever-deepening processes for using AI in higher education. We link AI to our own passions of hope and magic (Chapter Three). We examine in Chapter Four how AI can be used in highly complex situations of diversity and difference through a process of Critical Appreciative Inquiry. In Chapter Five we introduce the being authentically ALIVE model as a process to respond positively to the challenges of living and working in higher education. In a reflective chapter on leadership (Chapter Six), we offer appreciative questions to help leaders align to their appreciative selves. In Part Two of the book, “Practice,” we move to specific aspects of using AI in higher education: being an AI practitioner (Chapter Seven), planning (Chapter Eight), summits (Chapter Nine), developing collaborative teams and groups (Chapter Ten), and teaching and learning (Chapter Eleven). We invite you on this journey: to read, explore new ideas, and practice AI in higher education. As on all great journeys, we invite you to map out your own path. Each chapter focuses on particular concepts, and all chapters relate to one another. The first part of the book is a journey of exploration from the basics to new theories and models. The second part of the book deepens the focus on specific aspects of AI as they can be applied to higher education. We illustrate with case studies and intersperse throughout the book short vignettes and reflections based on our own experience and the experience of others.

And, like all journeys that matter, we are accompanied on this one by the generous Appreciative Inquiry community. We honor those who have developed the underpinnings and early work upon which the ideas presented here rest (David Cooperrider, Diana Whitney, Jacqueline Stavros, Jane Magruder Watkins, Ralph Kelly, Bernard Mohr, Gervase Bushe, Amanda Trosten-Bloom, Cherri Torres, Jacqueline Kelm, Frank Barrett, Ron Fry, Marjorie Schiller, Tojo Thatchenkery, Carol Metzker, and many others). We also honor the practitioners who work in higher education and use AI in imaginative and numerous processes that advance creativity and learning.

We hope you enjoy the journey and find ideas that are useful to your practice, and ideas that call upon you to expand and make your own.

Acknowledgments

Appreciative Inquiry (AI) was developed in the 1980s. From David Cooperrider and others' work, the practice and theory of AI has expanded outward. We sincerely thank all the many people in the AI community who have expanded the theories and practices of AI. It is their work that has allowed us to venture into this discussion on higher education. So many have written before us; you will find some of their names referred to many times in the text. So many have taken up the practice of Appreciative Inquiry in their lives and work. All of these people seek to engage the world in building from what is right and stretching that into a new future. Our work is just one more on this incredible journey, and we acknowledge and thank every one of them.

Every person, institution, and group that has allowed us to tell their story is at the heart of this book. Some of those were experimenting with AI for the first time; others were experienced hands at using AI and expanded into fostering other kinds of strengths-based organizational norms. We thank the following groups and institutions that we have worked with and who allowed us to tell their powerful stories:

Northern Essex Community College, Massachusetts: Lane Glenn, president; Judith Kamber, dean of professional learning; Ellen Grondine, assistant vice president, planning and strategic initiatives

Dalhousie University, Nova Scotia: Tom Boran, dean; John Lovas, assistant dean, and the Academic Planning Working Group

Bow Valley College, Alberta: Sharon Carry, president, and the Core Planning Team

Using Our Influence Planning Group, Nova Scotia: Jean Morrison, chair

Quinsigamond Community College, Massachusetts: Gail Carberry, president; Nancy Donohue-Berthiaume, professor of psychology, Center for Academic Excellence & Staff Development

New Brunswick Community College, New Brunswick: Diane Burt, principal, St. John Campus

Nova Scotia School of Art and Design University, Nova Scotia: Sharon Blanchard, director, School of Extended Studies

Others who are included but unnamed.

As well, we thank those who responded to our call for vignettes with wonderful examples of how they are using AI in higher education:

Barbara Candales, advanced personal and executive coach

Mary Carter, university academic associate, United Kingdom

Maura Da Cruz, consultant and coach, and Julie Stockton, director, Organizational Development and Learning, Human Resources, University of British Columbia

Elizabeth Jones, instructor and chair, BSW Program, University of British Columbia School of Social Work

Prakash Khanal, assistant lecturer, Divyajyoti Multiple Campus, Bardaghat, Nawalparasi, Nepal

Peter Kozik, Teacher Education, Keuka College, New York

Jayne Peaslee, director of professional development, Corning Community College, New York

Barbara Rochen Renner, library services evaluation specialist and liaison, Allied Health Sciences, and Robert Ladd, media design and instructional specialist, Health Sciences Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Kelly Saretsky, director of institutional research and planning, and Rolene Pryor, manager, quality assurance, College of the North Atlantic-Qatar

John Wade, associate professor, director of clinical psychology, Emporia State University, Kansas

Khaki Wunderlich, dean of organizational success and learning, Tompkins Cortland Community College, New York

Byrad Yyelland, director of liberal arts and sciences, Virginia Commonwealth University in Qatar

We acknowledge that there are many stories of how Appreciative Inquiry is being used in higher education, and some are told in Stories of Positive Change in the Community College: Appreciative Inquiry in Action (Stetson, 2008).

The experience of co-authoring this book has been a labor of love. We bless every day that we get to be together in this world, co-creating a positive life. We thank all our friends and family who believed in us at every step and turn in the amazing adventures of our lives. We also thank our wonderful writing group members, Pattie LaCroix and Terrah Keener, who encouraged us to keep on tapping those keys. And, we wouldn't be doing any of this without our amazing editor Sheryl Fullerton and the people of Jossey-Bass. Lastly, thanks to Marjorie Schiller for her words and wisdom in the Foreword.

The Authors

Jeanie Cockell, Ed.D., is an educational and organizational consultant who specializes in collaboratively designing strategies to surface the wisdom of individuals, groups, and organizations so that they can build positive futures and respond effectively to change. She built her consulting practice out of her broad background in adult education, including teaching and college leadership roles. She travels across Canada, the United States, and internationally to deliver workshops, speak at conferences, and consult for clients from public, private, and social profit sectors.

Joan McArthur-Blair, Ed.D., is a writer, speaker, and facilitator. She is committed to the work of community colleges and of higher education. In her life as an educator, she has held roles in higher education from faculty to president, and every day of that journey she cared most deeply about learners, their access to higher education, and their success when there. After more than twenty-five years of institutionally based work, she has returned to her loves of writing, speaking, and facilitating and works with groups of all kinds to make a positive difference.

Chapter 1

Introduction to the Journey

Welcome to Appreciative Inquiryin Higher Education: A Transformative Force. Both of us have spent a lifetime in higher education classrooms, meeting rooms, boardrooms, and just about anywhere the dialogue of education takes place. We believe that higher education is one of the most powerful forces for social and economic good in our world, and through Appreciative Inquiry (AI), higher education can tap that force to create possibilities and transformation. This book is designed for higher education practitioners who are undertaking work that focuses on the positive core of higher education and pushes that positive core to its highest reach.