The BELMAS editorial team are pleased to introduce Martin Kerridge’s blog, ‘Appreciative Inquiry and the power of conversation, the impact of the BELMAS Conference 2025’.
In this reflective piece, Martin invites readers to consider how dialogue, collaboration, and appreciative inquiry can bridge research and practice in times of turbulence and reform. Drawing on insights from the 2025 BELMAS Conference, the blog highlights the power of conversation, the value of evidence-informed practice, and the potential of Appreciative Inquiry as a relational and co-creative approach to educational leadership and change.
This is a timely and inspiring contribution that encourages educational leaders and researchers to reflect on the role of collaborative inquiry in shaping meaningful reform and to continue the conversations that sustain hope, innovation, and professionalism in the field.
If you have any comments or thoughts about this blog and the points it raises, then do share on social media using the hashtag #BELMASblog or contact the BELMAS Blog editorial team by emailing: blog@belmas.org.uk
At the entrance to the BELMAS 2025 conference, was a sign sharing the BELMAS mission statement: “where research meets practice.” A mission which provided the underpinning foundations of the conference, where speakers were able to discuss, collaborate, and align. The question in my mind was: does research meet practice and how does it impact? This felt particularly pertinent against the conference theme of: “Turbulence, Reform and Development in Educational Leadership and Management”. Contributing to the conference reminded me that there is value in dialogue, where such can be a bedrock of shared professional learning and growth. Educational leaders certainly need to exude imagination, enthusiasm, aspiration, and do this by conversing. Zeldin (1998) challenges by stating: “The twenty first century needs a new ambition, to develop not talk, but conversation, which does change people. Real conversation catches fire” (p1). As educational leaders and researchers, this challenges us to focus on: listening to others, building trust, responding to new ideas, developing shared understanding. In turbulent times, can we find messages of sustenance and hope through our shared conversation? Can we positively meet the challenges ahead through shared aspiration, and affect change?
For me, the moment of inspiration that engaged with sharing and change-making, was the reference in one of the thought-provoking symposia to AI, not Artificial Intelligence but rather Appreciative Inquiry.
Defining Appreciative Inquiry
Appreciative Inquiry is rooted in a postmodern perspective that challenges top-down organisational models and focuses on things that work, establishing involvement that is based on co-creation rather than tokenistic consultation (Bushe, 2012; Marshak and Grant, 2008). It is relational and draws on communal, shared understanding that is connected to emotional experience, and feelings (Armstrong, Holmes, and Henning, 2020; Seligman, 2011). In their seminal article, Cooperrider and Srivasta (1987), defined Appreciative Inquiry as a “mode of inquiry … a way of living with, being with, and directly participating in the varieties of social organization” (p131). In his reflection on their work, Gervase Bushe (1995) elaborates on the “method of changing social systems, an attempt to generate a collective image of a new and better future by exploring the best of what is and has been” (p16).
In listening to some of the engaging research presented at the Conference, such as Professor Ann Lopez’s ‘call to action’ and Dr Alex Baird’s ‘que(e)ring leadership,’ I was energised by the focus given to placing lived and evidence informed experience front and centre in the debate of reform and development. Theory was demonstrated as a lens through which to examine, frame, and evaluate findings. The significance of this for me, was the importance of evidence informed practice being critically evaluated. Listening to the speakers, I found myself seeing a different perspective on the way in which theory may be a richer, more connected part of the conversation; supporting a reflexive community of practice connected to scholarship and professionalism (Door, 2014). Cooperrider (2013) later provided a commentary on his original arguments and established the importance of “the cooperative capacity to reunite seeming opposites such as theory as practice.” (p4) Educational leadership benefits from this cooperative capacity, where leaders are researchers and researchers are leaders, in essence appreciating the mutuality of inquiry. Perhaps a future BELMAS conference could explore the theme of cooperative capacity and the power of collaborative inquiry and collaborative professionalism (Hargreaves and O’Connor, 2018), with symposia on the changes affected in practice because of research findings that generated innovation?
Appreciative Inquiry – How can it be utilised within educational leadership?
In their assessment of Appreciative Inquiry and its application, Lewis, Passmore, and Cantore (2008) set out a ‘four D model’:
The Appreciative Inquiry Model. Adapted from Lewis, Passmore, and Cantore (2008).
An educational leader could engage with discovery: what is the best of our setting? Then dream: what are the shared dreams for the future? Lead into design: what are the radical, visionary aspects that we need the courage to enact? Then, actively embrace destiny: what plans and actions do we now co-create? The mutual nature of inquiry would facilitate research that evaluates the responses to these questions and effects informed change.
Education leaders and researchers need to have engaged conversation so that they can refine and deepen the field. In this spirit, and drawing on the learning and thinking that the BELMAS Conference 2025 inspired in me, I would conclude with the following challenge to educational leaders and researchers: How can we, as a collective, ensure that effective collaboration enables theory and research to drive innovation and bring about authentic change in practice? We need leaders and researchers to collaborate more directly and effectively, actively supporting a culture of research and evidence informed leadership practice that is co-created and not tokenistic. Then, we must be bold in how we apply the outcomes of such research. Let’s continue to have the conversations.
Armstrong, A., Holmes, C., & Henning, D. (2020) ‘A changing world again. How Appreciative Inquiry can guide our growth.’ Social Sciences & Humanities Open Volume 2, Issue 1. Available https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssaho.2020.100038
Bushe, G. (1995) ‘Advances in Appreciative Inquiry as an Organization Development Intervention’, Organization Development Journal, Fall 1995 Vol.13, No.3, pp.14-22, International Society for Organization Development. Available https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232568037_Advances_in_Appreciative_Inquiry_as_an_Organization_Development_Intervention
Bushe, G.R. (2012) ‘Appreciative inquiry: Theory and critique’. In Boje, D., Burnes, B. & Hassard, J. (eds.) The Routledge Companion To Organizational Change pp. 87-103, Oxford, UK: Routledge. Available https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303265521_Appreciative_inquiry_Theory_and_critique
Cooperrider, D. L. (2013) ‘A Contemporary Commentary on Appreciative Inquiry in Organizational Life’, Advances in Appreciative Inquiry, Vol 4, pp3-67. Emerald Publishing. Available https://doi.org/10.1108/S1475-9152(2013)0000004001
Cooperrider, D. L., & Srivastva, S. (1987) ‘Appreciative Inquiry in Organizational Life.’ In Woodman, R. W. and Pasmore, W.A. (Eds.) Research in Organizational Change and Development, Vol. 1 pp.129-169. Stamford, CT: JAI Press. Available https://www.researchgate.net/publication/265225217_Appreciative_Inquiry_in_Organizational_Life
Door, V. (2014) Developing Creative and Critical Educational Practitioners, London, Routledge
Hargreaves, A., & O’Connor, M. (2018) Collaborative Professionalism: When Teaching Together Means Learning for All, Thousand Oaks, Corwin Press
Lewis, S., Passmore, J., & Cantore, S. (2008) Appreciative Inquiry for Change Management: Using AI to Facilitate Organizational Development, London, Kogan Page.
Marshak, R., & Grant, D. (2008) ‘Organizational Discourse and New Organization Development Practices’, in British Journal of Management, Vol. 19, S7–S19. Blackwell Publishing. Available https://doi.org/10.1111/J.1467-8551.2008.00567.X
Seligman, M. (2011) Flourish: A visionary new understanding of happiness and well-being, New York, Simon & Schuster
Zeldin, T. (1998) Conversation — How talk can change your life, London, The Harvill Press.
