The importance of imagining otherwise: exploring the antenarrative generation of change ideas through an appreciative approach to professional learning

Imagining towards a different-to-now future is an essential ingredient of institutional change, yet is often downplayed in the neo-liberal university, where current statistical data drives pedagogies of efficiency (Ball, 2016). We challenge readers to consider the role of imagining in academia, not as a fanciful flight of extraordinary thinking, but as a vital element of practice inquiry (Zandee, 2013). Appreciative Inquiry (Cooperrider et al., 2008) is underpinned by collective storytelling and imagining, to generate possibilities from what already exists and works well, thereby challenging problem-only focused forms of scholarship. During four Appreciative Inquiry workshops in a large online institution, Associate Lecturers (tutors) immersed themselves in their own stories of practice and encountered stories created through Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) projects undertaken by others. Through inquiring into these different stories, we identified aspects of tuition that generated imaginings towards a different pedagogical future. Using Boje’s (2001; 2011) notion of antenarrative, we explore how story fragments from the workshops were relationally produced and set in motion, challenging notions of practice stories as being static elements in scholarship writing, and as ‘servicing’ linear forms of scholarship which focus on ‘quick win’ solution finding (Saunders and Cooke, forthcoming). We argue that practices of imagining are key to liberating staff to be collectively agentic in generating change. We contend that an appreciative approach creates the space-time to experiment with what might be, repositioning practice stories and imagining in professional learning, leading towards a more generative space for change in higher education.