Lesley Lahaye and Larry Espe

DISSERTATION TITLE:

Co-creating Schools of the Future: Approaching Change in a Canadian Public School System Through Appreciative Inquiry

This dissertation questions if our traditions in public education are continuing to serve us well. It explores how asset based conversations made possible through a process of Appreciative Inquiry might help a community to examine its schools, determine what is of greatest value to continue doing, and generate possibilities for action and innovation in order to better prepare students for a future world. At the same time this dissertation explores how the thinking and daily work of two school district administrators is influenced by their experience as co-researchers engaged in a study of Appreciate Inquiry and systems change. It is based on evidence gathered from one school district located in the Province of British Columbia, Canada.