LD Superpowers
An appreciative inquiry (Ai) into the skills and contribution of LDers from minoritised group
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47408/jldhe.vi37.1696Keywords:
minoritised groups, creative methods, personal identity, appreciative inquiry, learning developmentAbstract
This research looks at how personal identity and lived experience of learning developers (LDers) from minoritised groups contribute to professional practice within learning development. Using the knowledge building capacity of Appreciative Inquiry (Ai) this research has used participatory workshops and creative analytical methods that explore these ‘superpowers’. Fully embracing the Ai paradigm this research has been designed with Varona’s (2024) 5 ways to view Ai to create the environment for ‘radical curiosity’(Godwin, Cooperrider, 2024).
Uncertainty about identity and roles within LD is indicative of the tendency to marginalise the work of LDers and conflate it with other areas (Webster, 2024). This tendency, and this research’s focus on minoritised LDers, suggest this is an area where minoritised staff work with minoritised students in a minoritised area of HE. These layers of disadvantages are why the research is designed to uncover knowledge, expertise and understanding that may otherwise be obscured.
This presentation presents the preliminary results of the study which forms part of my PhD in Education and Social Justice at Lancaster University. The study consisted of 2 workshops run at Lancaster University and London Metropolitan University using creative techniques to answer 4 questions aligned to the aspects of Ai
- How do LDers from minoritised groups view their own skills and contributions?
- How do the skills, backgrounds and lived experience of LDers from minoritised groups enhance learning develop in the tradition Higher Education Environment?
- How would LDers from minoritised groups like these skills and contributions used and/or recognised in Higher Education in the future? And what recommendations would they make to achieve this?
As well as participation in the workshops, participants were also invited to take part in the analysis of the transcripts from the workshops using black-out poetry.
References
Godwin, L. N. and Cooperrider, D. L. (2024) ‘Appreciating awe: cultivating radical curiosity as the fuel of appreciative inquiry research’, Ai Practitioner, 26(1), pp.64-69. Available at: https://doi.org/10.12781/978-1-907549-58-8-7
Varona, F. (2024) ‘Appreciative research from the appreciative paradigm: a new research model for the Social Sciences’, Ai Practitioner, 26(1), pp.82-96. Available at: https://doi.org/10.12781/978-1-907549-58-8-9
Webster, H. (2024) ‘Raising the profile of learning development in higher education’, in C. Buckley and A. Syska (eds.) How to be a learning developer in higher education: critical perspectives, community and practice. Abingdon: Routledge, pp.230-237.
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