Reflecting on Appreciative Inquiry

Discovery: Appreciating the best of “what is”

Over the past two years I find that I have discovered a passion in myself that I did not previously know was there. I always knew that I loved teaching - sometimes more than others! - but I’m not sure that prior to the last two years anyone would have said I was “passionate” about it. However, I’m pretty sure anyone who has had a conversation with me about teaching and learning recently will tell you that I am passionate about my work. And indeed, I can feel the difference in myself.

So what am I most passionate about? I think what fuels me is the realization that we as educators have so much power to do good! Our students come with myriad needs, the least of which, quite frankly, are the academic needs. Yes, we want to ensure that our students learn to read and write and be numerically literate in order to function at a basic level in our society. But that was the goal of an education system that was bent merely on producing compliant factory workers. There can be so much more! And in our current society, where many parents lack the skills, community resources, and often the time to raise their children the way they would like, it falls on us as educators to fill the gap. This is challenging, for sure, but with the right mindset it is invigorating. When we approach every day - every encounter - as a learning opportunity, we have such a gift. Every time I show mercy and look deeply for the meaning behind a behaviour, every time I stop in the hallway to ask a girl about her new puppy or comment on a boy’s homework project, I have taught the importance of caring, of being “present”. How can that not make me passionate?! Every time I validate a staff member’s concerns and then offer to work together to solve the problem, I can demonstrate the value of collaboration and team effort to achieve a common goal. And the true fuel for me comes from the realization I have had over the past few years about the power of resiliency - and the role that one caring adult can play in the life of a hurting, abused, or disconnected child. One caring adult can be the difference between lifelong healing or pain for a child - and I can be that adult. Truly, that thought inspires every interaction I have with children, every day, every year. And by extension, every interaction I have with adults. 

Dream: What might be?

When I think about the crossroads at which I find myself now, I am reminded of a similar crossroads when I first began this program. My reflection at the time reads:

As I stand at this metaphorical crossroads in my career - both as teacher and as leader - I see that one of my challenges will be in depending on others as well as myself. Of course, as a human I often depend on others for small things (and in the case of family, for immense things). But as a teacher I am the one making decisions in my classroom, and if I see a need, I am able to address it. An administrator, by contrast, must by definition rely on others in the building to ensure that needs are being met. That requires a level of trust in those others that does not come easily to me. I see that it is important, and necessary - in fact, vital - for the health of the school; but it still does not come easily to me. That is why I view it as a crossroads question: how do I open myself up to have trust in others to do what needs to be done, when they do it differently from how I would? When my instinct will be to rely on myself first? I feel faith that as I progress through this program I will learn to do that. Looking for the strengths in others and learning about new methods to accomplish our goals is one way that I plan to begin doing this...starting now!

The faith in the program that I professed in this post (it was from my blog in October, 2016) has been borne out, as I now feel that I have the means to accomplish just that. It was learning about appreciative inquiry that truly changed everything for me - especially after I had witnessed its effects first hand. Combined with this new understanding, I have also taken my firm belief that behaviour is communication, and now apply that concept not only to the children I work with, but also to the adults. If, as I believe, most of the “refusal” behaviours we see in adults are as a result of insecurity or lack of skill, then my job is to show empathy and work alongside to promote growth; not to be frustrated and angry. And the relationships that are built as a result break down barriers and open staff up to taking risks. It is very exciting!

As I look to the future after the completion of this Master’s program, I realize that some of the steps I took to expand my learning within the program are ones that I want to further explore when I move on. A small step will be an increased use of my Twitter account. While I check it regularly, I seldom post about what I see in my school visits. I know that I have a voice that can help to spread the understanding I have gleaned from master teachers and researchers regarding the best ways to help our kids. Using Twitter as a forum to do this is one small step. A medium sized step, in addition, will be to continue to write on my blog. Begun only as a means for preserving my thoughts and then presenting them for my portfolio, I see as I read over my posts from the last two years that there is a great deal that could be useful to other teachers on their learning journey. And as I move into the role of administration - my bold step - that blog could be a meaningful way to share my growth and stretches in a new, challenging role.

Design: What should be?

I know what I would like to see in schools, but changing that vision into a reality takes skill and planning and teamwork. The building of relationships comes quite naturally for me, as I have long valued their importance for the creation of community. The same can be said with engaging the shared experience of the team through conversational leadership; it seems so clear to me that the school community can not be healthy without it. However, one area that I truly see as a growth area for myself is in the area of powerful questions. The art of being able to ask questions that get to the heart of the matter and encourage people to think in a positive way for hopeful solutions is not one I have yet mastered – or even one that I previously would have said was important! For this reason the work of Vogt, Brown, and Isaacs (2003) is so valuable for my personal journey. The conversations that can be created through the posing of purposeful and deep questions can make the difference between the realization of a shared vision or not. But where to start? The authors provided numerous suggestions of where to start, some of which resonate closely with me.

One of the first ideas that caught me was the interview question consisting of just one question, wherein the questioner asks: What’s the one question we should be asking about you? What a brilliant way to start a discussion! And what a fantastic way to discover what someone feels is truly important about themselves. This is something that I feel could be adapted to fit growth-plan conversations as well.

The authors also point out that “(b)ecause of the nature of language, almost all of the questions we pose have assumptions built into them, either explicit or implicit” (p. 5). In light of that, a conversational leader must remember to encourage personal reflection among the staff to determine our own underlying assumptions and beliefs.

The right questions allow staff members to ponder, discuss, and elaborate on their ideas. To begin with, the phrasing of the question is critical. As the triangle graphic below shows, asking “Why is this workshop meaningful for you” is far more powerful than asking “Did you like this workshop?” Of course, when asking why questions, one must be very careful to phrase them in such a way that they do not evoke a defensive response!

It occurs to me that posing such powerful questions in a meaningful way with staff requires the leader to have a good grasp of the possibilities of the “big idea” while relying on the team to fill in the gaps and offer new areas for exploration. Even if this takes the team away from where the leader had originally intended, the firm grasp of the big idea will ensure that the growth is purposeful and targeted. To that end, questions must be well-thought out with the overall needs of the community in mind. This is something that I feel I can contribute to the schools I work in now already, in the many meetings I attend and the casual conversations I have. Instead of asking a team, “Did that strategy work for you?” I can instead inquire, “How could we adjust the strategies we are using for this student? Why do you feel this strategy worked while this one did not?” So many more possibilities are contained in the latter questions; and so much hope for growing together. These are the kinds of conversations that I can start now, and continue to have throughout my career as an educational leader. 

Questions to stimulate powerful conversation

Vogt, E. E., Brown, J., & Isaacs, D. (2003). The art of powerful questions: Catalyzing insight,

innovation, and action. Mill Valley, CA: Whole Systems Associates.

Exhilaration

As we begin our last course of this Master's of Leadership program, it seems an appropriate time to reflect on where I was - personally and professionally - when I began the program, and where I am now. Looking back through my reflections from those early days, I came across an image I had chosen to show how I felt about myself as a leader. I saw myself on a journey, without a known destination in mind. The image shows the great climb that has already occurred, and the trajectory shows that the climb continues. For myself, this reminded me that my desire for lifelong learning means that the climb will never finish.

Almost two years later, after learning and growth and experiences that have stretched me, a new reflection of how I perceive myself as a leader led me to this image:

Reading back over my notes from our first class, I notice that while I saw myself as a leader in my small sphere, I wasn't yet sure of either my interest in expanding that sphere, or my abilities to do so. The skydiving image resonates with me because now I feel that, despite the risks of embracing leadership at a more formal level, the prospect is exhilarating! A key element to that, of course, is the fact that the best way to mitigate the risks is to have a team surrounding you; a team built on trust and collaboration and common purpose. 

I find that the various courses we have taken over the past 18 months have given me such an array of tools that I now feel well prepared to take on the role of administration. Ideas that hadn't even occurred to me before starting this program have become key to how I view educational leadership: the importance of timely supervision of instruction for school staff; an understanding of the inner workings of a school budget - and the difficult choices administrators have to make to support their school community; the law guiding educational practice; and the ethical dilemmas to be addressed on a daily basis. Most importantly, however, I've learned how crucial it is for a leader to be present, to be available, and to have a clear understanding of the pulse of the school community. The building of relationships is at the core of a trusting and effective team, and I feel so strongly that over the past months I've developed the skills to build those relationships with staff, students, and parents. 

And so, my exhilaration! What lies next remains uncertain, but I know that I anticipate it with eagerness and enthusiasm, because of who I have become through this program.