Frameworks
The frameworks I use are grounded in an ethic of care that exists in relationship. I believe that conversation, improvisation, and storytelling are important elements of any type of change or research process that hopes to elicit change – this also includes classroom learning!
“Conversation is the natural way we humans think together.”
Meg Wheatley
“The universe is made of stories, not atoms.”
Muriel Rukeyser
Universal Design for Learning
UDL addresses the why, the what, and the how of learning by ensuring students have access to multiple means of engaging with their learning, representing what they learn, and acting on it.
Whether in a classroom, online, at a coffee shop or within a blend of these environments, I am interested in the environments that allow for equal access to learning.
Universal Design for Learning is NOT about catering to different learning styles.
It is about making learning accessible by providing a flexible environment with options based in research and tested in concrete practice.
Appreciative Inquiry
A generative design process that focuses on uncovering the best of what already exists in order to create more of it.
It is a participatory process – as many people from a system as possible are involved.
This process replaces traditional needs assessments by focusing on our assets and not our deficits. We find what we look for, so let us look for what works.
This is participatory knowledge creation at its most positive.
20 years ago, I steeped my Masters work in Appreciative Inquiry. The knowledge and experiences I gained throughout the process has greatly influenced the work I do with learners, teachers, administrators, and educational organizations since then.
“In essence, Appreciative Inquiry supports the development of presence. It reduces anxiety, stimulates creativity, and develops openness to change.”
Appreciative Inquiry: Developing focus, effectiveness, and fulfillment. Nichols (2016)
Searching and Centering: A school looks for what it does best. (Rosen, 2006)
Participatory Action Research
…includes voices which are often missing from conversations around change and focuses on action, promoting immediate, concrete, positive change experiences for all participants.
In 2005, I designed a modified, participatory action research process for making important decisions about learners called Conversations for Ethical Decision Making (CEDM). In my process, reflection happens throughout and not only at the end of an action research cycle. (fig.9)
..at times the participants take an active role in the research process, defining the research intention and its cyclical iterations.
“…knowledge is embedded in the lives and experiences of individuals and that knowledge is developed only through a cooperative process between researchers and experiencing individuals.”
Opening up for Many Voices in Knowledge Construction. Borg, et al. (2012)
There is no one size fits all research or change process. Differentiation is key.