Pausing at the threshold: Using arts based enquiry to promote reflective, appreciative learning

on entering an ‘identity workspace’

Dr Hazel Messenger h.messenger@londonmet.ac.uk Guildhall Faculty of Business and LawLondon Metropolitan University

Written permission has been given by the students to use their photographsand presentation materials

Learning for leadership rather than about leadership

• Emphasis on relationships, reciprocation and responsibility

• Developmental process involving self-awareness and interdependency

• Recognises influence of group culture on learning and development

• Provides opportunities for meaningful participation in authentic leadership activities

• Encourages habits of self and group reflection and developing self awareness

(for example: Kegan, 1982;1994; Kets de Vries and Korotov, 2010; Komives et al, 2011; Petriglieri, 2011)

W IDENTITY O U

Identity workspace

for leadership

development

Arts based inquiry

Appreciative reflection

Communitas

The ‘inbetweeners’

An ‘identity workspace’(Kets de Vries and Korotov, 2012; Petriglieri and Petriglieri , 2012; Petrigileri , 2011)

Provides participants with a ‘holding environment’ (Winnicott, 1975/1953) for identity work consisting of three elements

• Conceptual frameworks that help with sense-making

• Communities that provide a combination of belonging, support and challenge

• Rites of passage that facilitate and recognise role transitions and identity development

‘reduces disturbing affect and facilitates sense making’ (Petriglieri and Petriglieri, 2010: 44)

Appreciative reflection

• Reflection involves stepping back, considering the object of reflection

• The form of reflection affects the outcome of the reflection (Le Cornu, 2009)

• Critical reflection (CR) has a focus on deficit rejects or modifies earlier knowledge

• Appreciative reflection (AR) is one of admiration and celebration, ‘what is’ rather than ‘what is not’ (Le Cornu, 2009)

• AR promotes a positive emotional commitment, a sense of connectedness

• AR and CR work together in development of selfhood, community and collective well-being

Arts-based inquiry

• Four interrelated elements in arts-based inquiry [use of artistic skills, projection, revealing tacit knowledge, creating] (Taylor and Ladkin 2009:56)

• Spoken and written language insufficient for examining issues associated with identity

• Makes use of an aesthetic experiences for reflection, internalisation and externalisation of elements of the self and identity

• Provides the opportunity to be playful, enjoyable and to share• Using the images to create their own symbols of possibility• Create ‘memories with momentum’ (Sutherland, 2012:2)

In the spirit of bricolage….(Lévi-Strauss, 1966)

A visit to Guildhall Art Gallery

Use the visit to create a short image-based presentation which communicates

‘Who I am, why I am here and where I am going’

(Un) Expected(Un) Comfortable (Un) Settling

Reflection,internalisation and externalisation(Berger and Luckmann, 1966; Jarvis, 2004; Le Cornu, 2009)

Who am I?

and how does this help explain meto others?

Receptive?Appreciative?

A process of meaning making and externalisation

A process of meaning making and internalisation

Welcome to Guildhall Art Gallery

‘Plenty and Progress’

(Mark Titchner , 2012)

Ezgi’s story

Final thoughts

References

Berger, P. and Luckmann, T. (1966) The Social Construction of Reality: a treatise on the sociology of knowledge. London: Penguin. City of London (2014) Guildhall Art Gallery, Available at http://www.cityoflondon.gov.uk/things-to-do/visiting-the-city/attractions-museums-and-galleries/guildhall-art-gallery-and-roman-amphitheatre/Pages/About-Us.aspx [accessed 07.11.14]Jarvis, P. (2004) Adult Education and Lifelong Learning. 3rd ed. Kegan, R. (1982). The evolving self: Problem and process in human development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Kegan: R. (1994). In Over Our Heads: the mental demands of modern life . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Kets de Vries, M. and Korotov, K. (2012). ‘Transformational leadership development programmes: creating long-term sustainable change’. In Snook, S. Nohria, N. and Khurana, R. (eds). Sage Handbook on Teaching Leadership. London: Sage. Komives, S.R. Dugan, J.P. Owen, J.E. Slack, C., Wagner, W. and Associates (2011) The Handbook for Student Leadership Development. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass. Le Cornu, A. (2009) ‘Meaning, internalisation and externalisation: toward a fuller understanding of the process of reflection and its role in the construction of the self.’ Adult Education Quarterly. 59(4), 279-297. Lévi-Strauss, C. (1966). The Savage Mind. Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago Press. Markus, H. and Nurius, P. (1986) ‘Possible selves’, American Psychologist, 41(9) 954-969.Petriglieri, G. and Petriglieri, J.L. (2010) ‘Identity workspaces: the case of business schools.’ Academy of Management Learning and Education, 9(1)44-60. Petriglieri, G. (2011) Identity Workspaces for Leadership Development. INSEAD working paper NO: 2011/27/OB Available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=1756743 [accessed 19.11.14]Sutherland, I. (2012) Arts-based methods in leadership development: affording aesthetic workspaces, reflexivity and memories with momentum. Management Learning 0(0)1-19Turner, V.W. (1969/1995) The Ritual Process: structure and anti-structure. Hawthorne, NY: Aldine de Gruyter. Turner, V. (1982) From Ritual to Theatre: the human seriousness of play. New York: PAJ Publications.Turner, V.W. (1987) ‘Betwixt and between: the liminal period in rites of passage’. In Mahdi, L.C. Foster, S. and Little, M. Betwixt and Between: patterns of masculine and feminine initiation, (pp 3-23). Peru, Ill: Open Court Publishing. Winnicott, D. W. (1975/1953). ‘Transitional objects and transitional phenomena.’ In Through Paediatrics to Psychoanalysis. (pp 229-242). London: Karnac.