Abstract

Context: This critical reflection is about the positive effects for educational and research settings of participation in a two-day programme entitled ‘Using participatory action research and appreciative inquiry to research healthcare practice’.

Aims: To reflect on the journey of positive developments in research and education that started with participation in this programme. Using Caring Conversations (Dewar, 2011) as a reflective framework of questions, this article discusses the journey in order to encourage others to consider the approach of appreciative inquiry to bring to life the concept of co-creation in research and education.

Conclusions and implications for practice: Participation in this programme has led to the implementation of a variety of actions in educational and research settings. Central to all these actions is an appreciative approach to co-creation as a counterpart to today’s prevailing problem-based viewpoint. A possible factor behind these developments was the power of vulnerability experienced during the programme, a shared process of transformational learning.

Implications for practice:

This critical reflection:

• Provides an invitation to shift from a problem-based focus to a positive revolution
• Provides an appreciative reflective story about the power of vulnerability as an inspiration for others to move out of their comfort zone and seek to discover their own exceptionality
• Supports a shift from a facilitator-led to a co-creation approach in doing research and teaching with older adults

This article by Annemieke van den Berg, Belinda Dewar and Carolien Smits is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial 3.0 License.