Appreciative Inquiry Sample: Worldviews
Total Time: Approx. 1 to 3 hours
Suitable for: Group Activity | Facilitator-led Activity
Appreciative inquiry may be adapted for use with any topic area. Word documents may be revised as needed.
Conversation Goal: For group members to gain an appreciation and understanding of FNMI worldviews and to make a call to action to recognize, acknowledge and share worldviews in their teaching practice.
| Handouts: | Defining the Positive  Discovery Stories Dream Stories Asset Mapping Tool Designing the Future |
Discover
Before beginning the discover process, participants view Chapter 1: Setting the Context in the video Our Words, Our Ways (located in Observing Practice section of Worldviews). Debbie Mineault, education manager with Alberta Education’s First Nations, Métis and Inuit Education Division, introduces Edmonton Regional Learning Consortium's session on Our Words, Our Ways, a print resource for teachers of First Nation, Métis and Inuit students.
In pairs, participants use the handout Defining the Positive to conduct one-on-one interviews to discuss the video Our Words, Our Ways. The pairs form groups of six to eight persons to share significant stories and search for patterns and positive examples.
Dream
Before beginning the dream process, participants view one or all of the videos in the Respecting Wisdom section of Worldviews.
In small groups, participants use the handout Discovery Stories as they identify and share key story elements from the interviews. Small groups create a collective image of worldviews in their teaching practices and school environments and prepare a creative presentation (e.g., skit, work of art, magazine cover story) for the large group.
Design
Participants use the handout Dream Stories as the facilitator extracts “positive elements” (e.g., respect, family, community, beliefs, kinship) from the previous activities and posts them around the room.
Participants gather around these positive elements in small groups to draft a “provocative proposition,” a vision of what that specific element would look like in the desired future for the school community.
Each group presents their draft provocative proposition to the entire audience. The drafts are transcribed and compiled into a handout for distribution.
Participants review each draft proposition and conduct a dot vote indicating their level of agreement:
- Green, if they basically agree.
- Yellow, if they agree conditionally but with substantive editing.
- Blue, if they don't agree with the proposition.
As a large group, review the provocative proposition that received the most support by using the handout Asset Mapping Tool. Determine if the school community is in a position to move toward the vision in this proposition.
Deliver
The participants are invited to make a 30-second proposal for a possible activity to move toward the future highlighted in the proposition.
- Each possible activity is posted indicating the location in which a breakout group will convene.
- Participants then go to one or more breakout groups of interest during the allotted time.
- Participants form self-managed groups and draft a Call to Action by completing the handout Designing the Future.
Wrap-Up
For each call to action, a group member makes a two-minute presentation to the entire group and clarifies the proposal in a short question period that follows.
