Transforming a school community: facilitators living values

Abstract

From a feminist theology of praxis the appreciative inquiry used in this research reflected on the constituting role the living of values by facilitators play in transforming the lives of children who suffer the effects of poverty, neglect and abuse. The concretisation or the living of values within the school community linked with the theme of solidarity with the marginalised. The facilitators' solidarity with children as "concrete others" became ways of doing participatory ethics. As part of a postmodern paradigm, a social constructionist discourse made it possible for therapist-researcher and participants to view the facilitators' work and the research itself as part of a relational process. Appreciative inquiry invited a reflective stance towards action, relating and personal knowledge. The research also reflected on poststructuralist theory and practice, and the power of imagination and language to re-describe of the work of facilitators.