AI Stories from a Training and Technical Assistance Center (T/TAC): New Possibilities for Improving Outcomes for Students with Disabilities

By Denyse Doerries, Donni Davis-Perry, and Lori Korinek

Client Organization

T/TAC at The College of William and Mary (W&M) is part of a statewide technical assistance system of seven T/TACs funded by the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE). The centers are managed by universities in the Schools of Education to help bridge the gap from research to practice. The T/TACs provide quality professional development and technical assistance to increase the capacity of school personnel, service providers, and families to meet the needs of children and youth with disabilities through consultation with school-based teams, information services (including periodic newsletters), linking and networking resources, a lending library of multi-media resources and technology, long-term technical assistance, workshops, and follow-up coaching. T/TAC W&M is comprised of one faculty member from the School of Education who is the principal investigator on the grant, two co-directors, and ten specialists, hired for their expertise as educational practitioners, three office support staff, and two graduate assistants.

This story involves one of the seven T/TACs and how Appreciative Inquiry was employed to enhance the organization and provide new possibilities of ways to work with educational professionals and school divisions. T/TAC W&M’s primary focus is to support schools in implementing and sustaining long-term change initiatives designed to improve outcomes for students’ with disabilities. Because T/TAC W&M is immersed in continuous improvement, the leadership team became intrigued with the possibilities of AI for enriching and deepening the understanding of organizational change.

Objective

Approaching and defining problems through a positive inquiry seemed to have great potential for T/TAC W&M’s work with schools in need of improving student outcomes. As educators, we realize that in order to apply a new strategy, one must understand the content at both a cognitive and experiential level as well as be able to determine the best ways to communicate the material to practitioners. The leadership at T/TAC wanted to experience the Appreciative Inquiry (AI) process and apply the process to a real issue in the organization as well as learn how to embed it in trainings and consultations with schools. This was accomplished through the following objectives to:

• Apply and embed AI in our organization in order to understand the process and its potential for transformation and change;
• Improve the organization’s processes for continuously updating staff skills in research-based strategies and technology during a time of monetary constraints;
• Envision ways to continue to provide quality training and technical assistance to schools given the current economic conditions;
• Explore the possibilities for the use of advances in e-learning with our constituents, our staff, and other T/TACs;
• Envision new ways to collaborate with The College of William and Mary School of Education faculty and projects to enhance T/TAC services;
• Create a stronger organization that empowers all of its members to share their strengths and promotes shared leadership;
• Focus our efforts from the possibilities we create to improved outcomes for students with disabilities; and
• Integrate our knowledge of adult learning with the application of the AI process with schools and educational professionals without de-railing the process.

What Was Done and the Impact

T/TAC W&M participated in multiple Appreciative Inquiries, received ongoing coaching from consultants, and networked with AI practitioners including the University of Virginia Medical School. What was done and its outcomes were both internal to T/TAC and external as it became infused as a part of how T/TAC interacts with its constituents.

Phase 1. Introduction to the Appreciative Inquiry Process (Spring 2008—Fall 2008)

The T/TAC journey began with a reference to research on a positive change model that significantly impacts school culture with which a W&M faculty member was involved. Because of restrictions on conference travel, T/TAC was exploring alternative avenues for professional development for the staff. T/TAC invited the professor to provide an overview of her research on AI and non-violent communication. As part of this presentation, an inspiring video, Celebrate What’s Right with the World, by DeWitt Jones, was shared. This presentation provided the impetus and motivation to the staff to learn more about the AI process. T/TAC staff members also started to embed this video in their trainings with schools to set the stage for change.

Because the T/TAC staff wanted to learn more about applying the AI process, the W&M faculty member connected T/TAC to consultants Jane Magruder Watkins and Ralph Kelly of Appreciative Inquiry Unlimited, who are experts on AI and who could help chart the next part of this journey. During the summer of 2008, a small leadership group in collaboration with the local consultants planned a one-day AI event that allowed the participants to experience the 4-D process of Discovery, Dream, Design, and Deliver. Because of the enthusiasm of the staff about the potential of AI and the generous support of our consultants, T/TAC opened this event to W&M School of Education faculty, the T/TAC staff at Old Dominion University, and to a Virginia Department of Education staff member who worked closely with T/TAC W&M on a complex change initiative.

As a result of this AI event, the T/TAC staff re-discovered what we valued, what energized us, and what we wanted to do more of at an individual level. This event further motivated staff about the AI process, provided a shared experience and language, and helped to establish new partnerships with our fellow participants. However, the event was not designed to focus specifically on the T/TAC organization or to implement the Design phase, so there was more work to be done.

Phase 2. T/TAC Appreciative Inquiries and More (Fall 2008—Spring 2010)

As a result of the fall 2008 introductory AI events, there was a heightened awareness among the leadership team of a need to apply the 4-D process with an inquiry around how our T/TAC organization might enhance its own processes and practices. A pressing question about sustainability of change produced by this process was also discussed. The consultants suggested a number of actions: expand the leadership team from two to six in order to set a foundation for sustainability; network with other AI practitioners within the state and beyond to discover lessons learned in the implementation process; and plan a T/TAC-focused AI event.

The leadership team was formed with four additional enthusiastic volunteers. One of the first actions of this team was to have each member network with a different AI practitioner whose name was provided by our local consultants or found on the AI commons website. We were particularly looking for practitioners who were applying AI with schools as well as AI practitioners in Virginia.

The networking proved to be very fruitful. AI practitioners are generous with their time and resources. T/TAC conferred with a consultant working with a school system in Canada and developed an ongoing partnership with the AI coordinator at the University of Virginia Medical School, which afforded additional training in planning AI Summits. The partnership with the W&M faculty AI researcher was enhanced by a shared experience in an AI Colloquy during the summer of 2009. T/TAC W&M will also be involved in an AI “Evocative Coaching” pilot training, which was to occur in the spring of 2010. Connecting with other AI practitioners and organizations employing Appreciative Inquiries fostered new learning and insights into the possibilities for the process. The leadership team also began a book study that is ongoing and helps to root the practices in a knowledge base, providing rich discussion for the group.

After much study and many conversations with the local coaches, in January of 2009, T/TAC W&M held their own AI “mini-summit” with the seventeen people in T/TAC. This summit was led by the AI leadership team using the 4-D process to determine how T/TAC W&M can continue to provide quality effective services to our schools. Two themes emerged from this inquiry—T/TAC W&M wanted to: (a) be on the “cutting edge” of best practices and (b) become more connected and integrated in our work among projects, staff members, and faculty. There needed to be a shift in roles of staff members to have a greater share in the leadership and a change in the relationships among the staff in order to feel less isolated in their ‘project silos’.

The following activities resulted from the 4-D AI January 2009 experience:

Interconnectedness Theme

An AI subgroup emerged and committed to leading the change in the format and processes for our twice-monthly staff meetings to incorporate professional development, help integrate projects, and increase interpersonal connectedness. This group’s membership brought people together from across work groups and projects to analyze the issues and make recommendations for ways to improve our meetings.

Other efforts to increase the “connectivity” or cross-pollination of projects included intentionally assessing ways to integrate the content of projects and having specialists cross-train each other. For example, the Effective Schoolwide Discipline project embedded parts of the Self-Determination project in their trainings. The inclusive practices work group worked with the AI leadership team to embed questions to help administrators focus on “what is currently working” around inclusive practices.

Infusing AI into workshops and team facilitations through storytelling, wishes, and dreams helped to make this new initiative a part of best practices. School-based concerns were approached by reframing them into positive possibilities.

In order to enrich further the culture of T/TAC, the management team revised the performance evaluation of the staff to an AI “valuation” process. As a result, the roles of the office support staff expanded to include areas of strength and increased their collaboration with the specialists to support the T/TAC mission. The specialists volunteered for more opportunities for leadership.

Another initiative that increased the connectivity and integrative practices across the T/TAC and provided leadership opportunities was the development of two “graduation summits” that examined ways to improve graduation outcomes for students with disabilities. The complex nature of this issue afforded opportunities for integration of information across all of the T/TAC W&M projects.

The specialists spontaneously implemented a “soup sipping” working luncheon on the second Monday of the month to encourage connectivity among the staff and an exchange of ideas and plans. Staff activities outside of work hours have also increased as a result of a desire for connection among staff members.

Staff expressed feeling more connected to T/TAC and their work. The working atmosphere and interactions have improved. On any given day, you can see specialists and office staff consulting and working with each other across projects to improve the quality of their work. Everyone touches base with the office, no matter how far away he or she may be on fieldwork days.

Cutting-Edge Theme

A technology leadership subgroup was formed composed of both office staff and specialists with the purpose of examining use of technology to provide quality professional development and technical assistance. Knowledge and skills in the area of technology were shared across work groups, roles, and assignments. The technology work group created a professional development plan that included partnering with W&M faculty to provide workshops and ongoing coaching on cutting-edge skills in the use of technology to support quality services to our schools. Because of this support, two new discussion boards, one on behavior and one on inclusive lesson plans, are being used as a follow-up to training. The specialists are receiving coaching from the faculty to implement these discussion boards.

• A hybrid course on inclusive practices was developed and has tentative approval from the College.
• New strategies to determine the best match between content and technology are being studied.
• The technology leadership subgroup initiated a book group focused on e-learning.
• The specialists, with the help of the support staff, are embed­ding the technology in T/TAC workshops in order to provide educational professionals with hands-on experience in developing e-learning products and to cross-train staff.
• The AI process has resulted in renewed enthusiasm, understanding, and commitment of the office support staff to the T/TAC mission. Their contributions have emerged in new ways such as the development of Excel documents for tracking data to inform our work and helping schools to manage their data. A new web page was developed collaboratively between office support staff and specialists.

Unintended Outcomes

One of the unintended outcomes of AI was the addition of “more work” due to the energy and enthusiasm of staff for working across projects. Everyone wanted to take advantage of any new opportunity to learn and network. A general sense of being overwhelmed by too many opportunities began to emerge. In response, the AI leadership team held a one-day meeting in the fall of 2009 to address this issue. The purpose of the meeting was to further define and re-commit the staff to identify and focus on specific areas to deepen their understanding. The objective was to determine where to focus energy and resources. The AI leadership team and the meeting process subgroup led this inquiry.

As part of this re-focusing meeting, the AI subgroup working on team meetings, provided training to staff on new team meeting processes and purposes. In order to make better use of our work time, the AI subgroup proposed changing the processes and purpose of staff/specialists’ meetings. The meetings would now include time for professional development, work integration, and connecting to each other and to faculty.

• One team meeting each month will be focused on integrating our work on our separate projects. The emphasis will be on finding the connections and cross-training staff in order to develop more integrated approaches.
• The meeting process will continue to include a format for AI stories and wishes within the celebrations part of our meetings.

Learnings

As a result of infusing AI throughout our practices, T/TAC W&M experienced a culture shift that enhanced the quality of collaboration among the staff and resulted in the development of new tools for providing services to educational professionals and school divisions. Re-discovering the values that enliven us created opportunities in our work that we could not have predicted. Committing to our value of interconnecting has motivated us to reach across projects to collaborate and create exciting opportunities for ourselves and those we serve. Dreaming of providing cutting-edge training and technical assistance for our schools has motivated us to learn new ways to support our sites. By looking for the positive, we uncovered reasons to celebrate instead of criticizing, unleashing enthusiasm instead of focusing on barriers.

Our journey of learning and applying what we learned is exciting. We moved from awareness of a different way to inspire change to applying the process of AI. We transformed our internal work groups, our meeting process, our yearly valuation, and the ways in which we approach concerns. Our organization may be unique in that we use AI to transform our internal organization as well as our external educational practices with schools.

We reflect on our changing practices and notice pieces and parts of AI cropping up in unexpected places— in our workshops, in schools requesting the AI process, in our conversations with our families. We continue to wonder: “Have we arrived?” “Are we doing all we can?” In living AI, we created hybrid professional development sessions using what has worked well in the past and activities we learned through the AI process. By sharing stories, daring to make wishes for our future, and approaching situations with enthusiasm and positive curiosity, our organization brings hope to itself and those with whom we collaborate.

AI Scenario

My first time applying parts of the AI process in a school resulted in such dramatically different outcomes that I was hooked and determined to learn more about AI. I was consulting in an inner-city middle school that was struggling to meet accreditation standards. My partner and I met at a table in the school’s library with teams of teachers at each grade level to talk about including students with disabilities in their classes. I noticed right away that the teachers seemed angry at giving up their much-needed planning periods to meet with us. In our first group, one teacher sat at a separate table, reading the newspaper and refusing to join our conver­sation. Typically, we would have used a traditional problem-solving approach, looking at their current practices of including students with disabilities, brainstorming all the barriers they were experiencing, and continuing to focus on what wasn’t working in order to identify the changes needed to do things differently. But this time we asked the teachers to tell us their best stories of positive experiences of including students with disabilities in their classes. I noticed the teacher at the other table lowering his newspaper and listening as his colleagues began recalling times when things were going well in their classrooms. He joined us, recounting his own positive story about his co-teaching relationship with a special educator. At that point, with the help of sharing stories, our group had “cooked up” enough positive energy to keep the momentum focused on remembering what worked in the past. We ended our short session by having the teachers write down three wishes for including students with disabilities in their classrooms. Without using AI, this session might have ended differently. With AI, the teachers left smiling, energized, remembering why they became teachers and committing to their future dreams for themselves and their students.

Note: Support for T/TAC was provided by a grant to The College of William and Mary from the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE). The opinions herein do not necessarily reflect those of the VDOE and no official endorsement should be inferred.