Pausing at the threshold: Using arts based enquiry to promote reflective, appreciative learning on entering an 'identity workspace' / Dr Hazel Messenger

1. Pausing at the threshold: Using arts based enquiry
to promote reflective, appreciative learning
on entering an
‘identity workspace’
Dr Hazel Messenger
Guildhall Faculty of Business and Law
London Metropolitan University
Written permission
has been given by the
students to use their photographs
and presentation materials

2. 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)

3. W
IDENTITY
O
U

4. Identity
workspace
for
leadership
development
Arts based
inquiry
Appreciative
reflection
Communitas
The ‘inbetweeners’

5. 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)

6. 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

7. 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)

8. ‘Liminality needs to be facilitated and
channelled if the potential chaos is to be
fruitful’ (Bigger 2010)
• Entering the course is a time of role transition, disruption and
potential growth
• Social ritual has a part to play in changing roles and attitudes
• Liminal state has a progressive function, encountering and
integrating something new
• Want to promote a sense of belonging and also alternative
views of the self
• Promote an active and social partnership
• Need to move away from the straitjacket of bureaucracy
• Ritual provides the time and space to be playful, to generate
contemporary meaning during liminality

9. 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

10. Reflection,
internalisation and
externalisation
(Berger and Luckmann, 1966; Jarvis, 2004; Le Cornu, 2009)
Who am I?
and how does this help
explain me
to others?
Receptive?
Appreciative?
A process of
meaning making
and externalisation
A process of
meaning making
and internalisation

11. 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.
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Winnicott, D. W. (1975/1953). ‘Transitional objects and transitional phenomena.’ In Through Paediatrics to Psychoanalysis. (pp 229-242).
London: Karnac.