Description
Exceeding Expectations: An Anthology of Appreciative Inquiry Stories in Education from Around the World
Story Curators: Dawn Dole, Lindsey Godwin, and Matthew Moehle
This book is a collection, or anthology, of deep and rich stories about adults, children and communities working together to shape the future of schools and education. Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is the framework explored throughout this book and is a powerful vehicle for multiple generations to consciously collaborate and grow flourishing schools. The stories in this book share a vast array of examples where AI has been utilized to bring about positive change in educational settings around the globe. We are increasingly seeing the appreciative spirit working its way into our school systems in exciting opportunities. Whether it is a whole school district using the AI Summit methodology to engage their community in strategic planning, or it is one teacher deciding to use an appreciative coaching approach with a student, the emergence of AI-based approaches to creating positive change in our schools is growing. Why is this happening? Because the appreciative approach generates the kind of transformation we yearn for in our schools – from whole-system reform, to increased student engagement. We are starting to realize that the solution to the ‘problems’ in our schools is not to focus only on what is broken, but to discover what is working, lift up the strengths and successes, and build new visions of success from there.
This book is about these very stories. It aims to showcase for the first time in one collection, the stories of how AI-inspired methodologies are helping to create positive transformations in our educational communities around the globe. It lifts up stories about building on what is working and explores examples of expanding possibilities in our schools beyond our wildest dreams. Stories about how AI practices in the schools start to happen. Stories about how appreciative approaches take root and grow. Stories about the positive outcomes of AI approaches and the openings they offer for us to go further.
We invite you, the reader, to come with us on this journey to explore, learn about and share the stories of Exceeding Expectations in Education through an Appreciative Inquiry and to learn how these stories can be a catalyst for you to explore and work with strength-focused approaches in the classroom, in the schools and in your community.
A Taos Institute Publication in the WorldShare Book series.
©2014
ISBN: 978-1-938552-29-8
Reader Comments:
I have just finished reading Exceeding Expectations: An Anthology of Appreciative Inquiry Stories in Education from Around the World and found it to contain a bounty of ideas and learnings. Thank you for gathering these diverse stories that engage the reader in the lived educational experience. It is truly a gift!
-Dr. Laura Hyatt
Professor and Chair Doctor of Education in Organizational Leadership Program
College of Education and Organizational Leadership
University of La Verne
Additional article as complement to the book –
Intergenerativity: Imaging Between To Imagine Beyond
Peter J. Whitehouse
Comments are closed here.