An appreciative inquiry into the transformative learning experiences of students in a family literacy project

Author/s: David Giles and Sharon Alderson

Edition: Volume 48, Number 3, November 2008

Summary: Educational discourse has often struggled to genuinely move beyond deficit-based language. Even action research, a predominant model for teacher development, starts with the identification of a problem (Cardno 2003). It would appear that the vocabulary for a hope-filled discourse which captures the imagination and influences our future educational activity seems to have escaped us. Moreover, we seem bereft of educational contexts where the experience for students is holistic and transformative. Appreciative inquiry is a research approach that seeks to facilitate change based on participants’ actual experiences of best practice (Cady & Caster 2000, Cooperrider & Srivastva 1987, English, Fenwick & Parsons 2003, Hammond 1998, Hammond & Royal 1998). Based on assumptions that ‘in every organisation something works’ and ‘if we are to carry anything of our past forward in our lives, it should be the good things’, appreciative inquiry energises participants to reach for higher ideals (Hammond 1998, Hammond & Royal 1998). Rather than giving priority to the problems in our current practice, appreciative inquiry gives attention to evidence of successful practice. In this way, proponents describe it as ‘dream forming’ and ‘destiny creating’. This paper will outline an appreciative inquiry with adult students in the context of a tertiary bridging program. The inquiry was able to capture the students’ stories of transformative learning experiences.

Keywords: change, experience, appreciative inquiry, adult learners, bridging, transformative learning

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