Circles of Connection: PhD Supervision through a critical-creative companionship by the Rivers Colne and Windrush

August 9th-11th 2013

On Friday evening soon after Lorna’s arrival, we agreed that we would engage in a critical-creative inquiry over the weekend as critical-creative companions and get to know each other better as people as well as professionals.

Lorna’s inquiry focus is two-fold. The first is how could she embody critical creativity (CC) within herself because her knowing of CC at this point is confined to her head. She knows she needs to do this because she is having difficulty retaining the philosophical, theoretical and methodological principles and key ideas cognitively and that these have to go into her body to become part of her as she begins her PhD. The second focus is to explore further the nature of human flourishing as developed by Brendan and me.

This ties in beautifully with my inquiry focus that is to build on my new insights working with another critical-creative companion and further explore how I can help others to acquire the professional craft knowledge (PCK) (practical know-how derived through experience) of CC in a way that enabled both of us to flourish. My feeling was that this would help Lorna to begin her journey towards becoming a CC companion for the Palliative Care teams that she will be working with to review and develop their service. Lorna enthusiastically agreed and we decided that our inquiry into the companionship, CC and human flourishing frameworks would begin from an experiential perspective and then we would examine/challenge/make connections between them to see how well they fitted with our primary experience. The frameworks can be thought of as mandalas (an ancient form that shows the parts and the whole and their relationships with each other).

Critical companionship framework (Titchen, 1998: 2004) which includes the professional artistry framework (Titchen et al 2007; Titchen 2009) (see Appendix A)

Theoretical framework of critical creativity (McCormack & Titchen 2006; Titchen & McCormack 2008) (see www.criticalcreativity.org)

Methodological framework of critical creativity (Titchen & McCormack, 2010) (see www.criticalcreativity.org)

Human flourishing framework within critical creativity (McCormack & Titchen, in press) (see Appendix A and www.criticalcreativity.org)

In this reflection, the concepts are picked out in italic and in colour as follows:

Critical companionship and professional artistry in blue Theoretical CC framework in red Methodological CC framework in dark red Human flourishing framework in green

Critical-Creative inquiry methodology We used the critical creativity approach for devise our methodology. We worked with the methodological framework, (Titchen & McCormack, 2010), namely working with the praxis spiral, with its hermeneutic and emancipatory aspects enabled by professional artistry, and with the principles for human flourishing. Thus we were able to achieve our own human flourishing as we engaged in our inquiry together over the weekend and later by email and Skype. Working in this critical creativity way means that data gathering, analysis, interpretation and writing were melded and blended in successive layers during two walks by different rivers on one weekend in the Cotswolds in Oxfordshire, then written up and expressed creatively in the full interpretation presented here.

Not only did we design a critical creativity methodology, we also created a critical-creative learning space for Lorna to experience how new understandings and knowledge can be generated through this methodological approach.

The methods we used were: Meditative walks in silence/opening up the body senses/noticing

thoughts but letting them float away Attunement to each other Creative expression of insights emerging – framing in the landscape,

photos, symbols, objects, painting, poetry Dialogue with self in silent reflective walking Sharing insights, experience and PCK of using, melding and blending the

CC frameworks (“dancing the frameworks”) through dialogue on walks, sitting by river/in fields, driving in the car, sharing meals/drinks at home and in the pub (audio-recording and key insights in journals

Observing, listening and questioning to access PCK Making sense of new insights (interpretation) through dialogue and

creative writing and creative arts media

Facilitating the acquisition of the PCK of critical creativity

My intention during the weekend was to help Lorna to begin to draw into her body the essence and spirit of the critical companionship and critical creativity frameworks (intentionality). I wanted to do this in a way that would help both of us experience the elements of human flourishing. So, I planned to make it as clear as I could to Lorna how I:

bounded and framed naturally co-existing energies embraced the known and yet to be known

embodied contrasts achieved stillness and harmony gave and received loving kindness

To do this, I would role model and articulate my PCK (practical strategies or know how) to show how the frameworks dance with each other and how working with these frameworks as embodied underpinnings enables us flourish within the turbulence and complexity of transformational practice development (intentionality). I would articulate the PCK of the strategies as near as possible to be doing them. Thus, before we set off from the car and out of the village for our walk by the River Colne, I laid out the landscape, not only the actual landscape of our walk together but also the critical creativity landscape and explained that I would be focussing on bridging or bounding and framing to enable transitions or oscillations of background/foreground as well as focussing in or funnelling into one energetic space and then to another. The purpose is to help people to begin to understand the macro by tunnelling in on part of it, i.e., the micro. Lorna has used meditative/reflective walks and creative expression with me before in short workshops and a pre-PhD walk in the Botanical Gardens in Belfast, but she had not done this kind of indepth work in this way before (particularity), that is, putting a frame around the vastness of the macro, so that some significant parts of it can come to consciousness for our attention. By focussing on these parts we can make sense of the vastness because the foreground (the parts) and the background (the whole) contain the same messages. Thus, we are not overwhelmed by the vastness of what we have to do or understand. This leads to building energy to see what is possible and achievable and ultimately to flourishing. Moreover when we are attuned to the flourishing of the universe, we can tend our own flourishing by learning from the wisdom of the universe.

Also regarding particularity, we already had an established relationship and knew something of each other as people in our professional, social and life contexts before Lorna had registered for a PhD, but we didn’t know much about each other’s ways of learning, inquiry and making sense of things. The previous evening, we had negotiated a partnership relationship (mutuality) in the form of a critical creative companionship within which we would both give and receive gifts of wisdom, learning and care to each other (reciprocity/graceful care).

Circles of connectionWith these terms of engagement clear, I suggested that we begin our silent, attuned walk by thinking through, refining and deciding on the inqury question(s) we would each work. I suggested that when we reached the footpath off the village lane, we would use that point as a transition to moving from cognition to opening the body senses and noticing what we noticed, however bizzare, without rationalising or trying to make sense of it within the meditative part of the walk.

Honouring this transition in a short moment of stillness and attunement to each other, I made eye contact with Lorna in an acknowledging or ‘being with’ way (graceful care). Then I set off up the footpath., flanked by a beautiful old orchard

and a high grass meadow. I noticed flight and role-modelled my noticing by stopping and watching the flight of dandelion clocks, thistle fluff, swooping martins, butterflies. A thought passed briefly through my mind that flight is metaphorically signifcant in some way to human flourishing, but I didn’t know why (embracing the known and yet to be known). Wanting to stay in my body, I didn’t pursue it at that point.

Once in the field, I hung back so that Lorna could choose her own path (mutuality, power). Attuned to Lorna in that I knew the direction she was going and that she was walking in a calm and contemplative way, I was drawn down to the sparkling water of the River Colne.

I walked very slowly looking, feeling, hearing, smelling. Continuing to notice flight I picked up some swan feathers, dandelion clocks and thistle fluff. After some time, I was aware that Lorna had come down to the river a little further down. Standing still, I gazed in wonderment at the water’s edge (stillness and harmony). Drinking in the beauty of vibrant, back-lit yellow-flag iris leaves, marsh marigolds and two white butterflies in a mating dance, I was suddenly filled with a fleeting moment of pure happiness.

Later when I thought about what it was that gave me that flood of happiness or flourishing. I quickly knew with my head and gut in accordance, that it was my being totally present in my body and being still in that moment and also connecting with other moments of radiance, authenticity and deep connection

with nature and the universe (circles of connection). Perhaps the methodological principle for human flourishing of movement in stillness was at work here too. Later on, when sharing and dialoguing with Lorna, she told me that she had noticed my complete engagement at that particular place by the river. She said she knew that something significant was happening to me. I asked her how she knew and she replied that it was my engaged focus on something at the water’s edge. I told her what had happened to me and that I had since been making sense of what gave rise or flight to my human flourishing (articulating and sharing PCK). I gave her feedback too, remarking on her sensitive attunement to

me as her companion and to her beginning herself to make connections between things when we shared our experiences by the river. For example, she pointed out to me the similarity between my flight sculpture (made shortly after the flood of happiness) and a painting I had created when developing the ecology of human flourishing with Brendan (feedback on performance).

From that point on, circles of connection became the key methodological principle I articulated to Lorna when helping her to embody critical creativity and to flourish. I focussed mainly on this principle so that Lorna would not be distracted cognitively by too many new ideas. I knew that Lorna, like many of us, was almost overwhelmed by so many concepts and principles in the frameworks and I wanted to use this particular one to help her hold some of them together (particularity, intentionality, saliency, temporality). Let me tell you how this came about.

Tramlines After this sharing above, and during a second period of contemplative walking, we traversed a wheat field. I noticed that, at regular intervals, there were parallel lines of space created when the wheat was sown mechanically. They reminded me of tramlines and that symbolised for me how our ways of being, knowing, doing and becoming are often habituated. The next day, I was able to use this symbol to help Lorna. But I go ahead.

We were actually engaged on this second period of silent walking because of what Lorna had shared with me. Some ideas had emerged for her about working with her participants in the palliative care programme review. After sharing, she concluded that the insights coming from her engagement with her body senses and then dialogue with self had given her some clarity, but that there were other things that still were unclear and this was making her anxious (crisis). She started to discuss these other things and I gently stopped her. From what I already knew of Lorna I could see her falling into the familiar tramlines of trying to talk her way to understanding (false-consciousness/problematisation particularity/saliency/). Whilst using our cognition is often very helpful to us in moving on, I felt in this case, with her inquiry foci, this was too soon (temporality) and that she could go deeper into openess through her body before bringing in her head (openess to all ways of being). So I suggested that she go back into her body senses and continue in her meditative walk (intentionality). ‘Walk a while more and open up your senses again to let your new insights settle into your body. Remember your body is always several steps ahead of your cognition and there may be further insights embedded there that you have not accessed yet. If you talk now, you may be denying your body’s wisdom (problematisation). Try following the wisdom of your body’ (Education). ‘I am going to say yes to the adventure, Angie’, Lorna said, ‘just like you said yes to the adventures that opened up for you on your world trip!’

The next morning in the car, without prompting, Lorna told me that that moment had been very significant for her because going back to the body really ‘shifted’ her subsequent thinking about how she might start with the two palliative care teams (Transformative action). She recognised (?for the first time) a pattern in the way she approaches things with her head only (enlightenment). This often results in her ‘just going round and round the circle and getting nowhere’. I took this ‘significant moment’ as evidence that my use of the rationality-intuitive domain of critical-creative companionship (i.e., the process concepts of intentionality, saliency and temporality) had been effective in facilitating a shift. I explained this to Lorna and pointed out that I had realised these processes by

stopping her in her tracks and suggesting going back into the body. After this revelation, I pointed out to Lorna that her going round in circles was like circular tramlines going nowhere! I didn’t know at that point if Lorna was getting this articulation of my PCK fully, so I will tell you shortly what I did about that. First I want to link the tramlines with danger and vulnerability.

Danger & Vulnerability Our walks took us through fields that I know have cows and bullocks in them year round. I know they are safe. But twice during the weekend, Lorna spotted a bull in a field of cows and calves. She knew that August is the time the bulls do their work and at this time they can be very dangerous. We were astonished to see this because public footpaths cross these fields. On both occasions, the only route to our destination was across the field. Seeing the bull (symbolising Power in the sense of ‘power over’) was aware of us, we felt our fear and recognised our vulnerability so we stayed close to the fence to ensure escape if necessary.

Danger and vulnerability, unknown for me on this walk before surfaced again in the form of a monster combine harvester cropping oilseed rape. The harvester was bearing down on us (Tradition/Power). I knew we had right of way over the field and I wanted to maintain that right, but it felt scary as the harvester was very big and I couldn’t see the driver. It was heading straight for us. It re-surfaced a fear I had felt in a thriller I had seen some years ago where a huge truck relentlessly ‘stalked’ a car driver with disastrous results. This visual image and fear of both bull and monster machine symbolised for me, at that moment, the dangers of challenging myself and others to move off tramlines to open up to new ways of being. At more or less the last minute, the harvester turned and went round us, leaving us with a safe passage (Power in the sense of power circulating). This image felt relevant in terms of exploring how to help others to recognise socialised stuckness through working with the human flourishing principles and with the need sometimes to be courageous when doing this and to protect ourselves if necessary. (embodying contrasts – in this case the different emotions of fear and happiness and Power over and Power circulating)

Articulating my PCK of dancing the frameworksBack now to the next morning in the car. Because I didn’t know whether Lorna was making connections between the things I was pointing out to her, I decided to begin our critique and contestation of the critical creativity frameworks. I explained that although the frameworks were published separately because they were created over a span of over 10 years, they are linked. I also said that the critical-creative companion uses professional artistry to dance them or improvise use of various aspects of them to inform specific actions in particular situations, cultures and contexts. In this reflection, I have been hinting at this improvisation by showing the different processes, concepts, contructs and strategies I used above and colour coding them according to the framework they come from. I suggested to Lorna that novices to critical creativity tend to focus on the frameworks separately or they do not link the critical companionship and professional artistry frameworks with the critical creativity frameworks. Thus they tend to miss the dance of creative effectiveness and transformative action, for example. Whilst working with one framework at a time (bounding and

framing) is a good idea when learning the complexity of doing research and practice development within a critical creativity worldview, it is very important to be aware that they are connected.

Picking up on Lorna’s insight yesterday about going round in circles and getting nowhere, I asked her how she tried to make sense of the frameworks. She responded by saying, ‘By reading and re-reading many times over’. I said, ‘Would it be appropriate to say that you are trying to learn them by rote-learning, that is, trying to memorise them?’ Lorna nodded, so I suggested the following propositional and professional craft knowledge that I have shared with other students over the years.

‘I suggest that as you read, you keep stopping, say every five minutes and ask yourself how this connects with something you already know or do in your practice. Then alternate reading and connecting all the way through. As you read, be playful and curious. You might want to have a big sheet of paper and create a mind-map of these connections or to draw visual symbols or develop metaphors. Even go for meditative and reflective walks in nature with yourself!!

When you have read the whole article or chapter, develop an action plan about how you might test your deepened understanding in your practice and how you will gather evidence to see if your understanding results in more effective and the desired outcomes. When you have carried out your action, go back and read the paper/chapter again and keep repeating this process of reading, playing and dancing with ideas through your creative imagination and expression, trying them out, then reading again to see if what you experienced fits with what is written. And you might find that you also what to constest what is written and we chan have a critical-creative dialogue or artistic and cognitive critique about that. Over time, I suggest that you widen the scope of the frameworks you work with in this way and play with the connections between them. ‘

‘Finally, throughout this whole process, remember that these frameworks are presented separately for the purpose of bounding and framing so that critical creativity might not be so overwhelming. But as you progress, remember that they are not god-given separate entities. They meld and blend with each other. Also, they should not be revered as god-given, but should be constantly challenged and tested for suitability for your purpose and research questions (critique). You will have to work out how you are going to use the processes, principles in the particulars of your research and situation. Thus you will create new new understandings about the frameworks as you use them. So don’t accept them blindly which novices tend to do of any framework they read in the literature. Contest them, by yourself and with others, see if they have legs for you.’

Lorna said that she had never done anything like this before and no-one (not even in her Master’s degree course) had suggested this way of learning to her. I replied that others had said much the same to me before when I suggested this approach. ‘Maybe it is a case of lecturers and supervisors failing to articulate their PCK of learning and critiquing because it is so taken granted for them.’

Not completing the learning circle When we arrived in Swinbrook by the River Windrush, I asked Lorna how she would like to use the time today (mutuality). ‘Using the same approach as yesterday in order to go deeper’. And so we did. When we came to dialogue with each other, Lorna shared a startling realisation she had had after our conversation in the car. ‘I realise now that I have not been completing my learning circle.’ ‘What do you mean by that?’ I asked. ‘I am not making sure I really understand something before I try it out in practice, then it doesn’t work. I now realise that I must go right round the circle and keep going round, but now it is a spiral and I will move forward.’ Lorna asked me the following question to re-mind her what I had said in the car.

Do you look at each framework in isolation and then try that out in your practice and then go back to reading the framework?

The next question was new As you develop expertise as a critical-creative companion, are you

conscious in action which process, principle and framework you are using at the time?

As you develop, you will find that the concepts, processes and principles go into your body and you act first and then may become conscious after a moment or two what you are using. That is the nature of the rationality-intuitive domain and embodying contrasts. The rationality/consciousness is heightened when working with novices and others who want to learn how to be critical-creative companions. That is exactly what has been happening to me this weekend with you. You will have noticed that I keep pointing them out to you as we dialogue and informally over meals and drinks!’

Concluding remarks In this reflection, I have had more time to identify and articulate many other processes, concepts, critical theories and HF principles than I shared with you at the time. If I had longer now, I would be able to point out more. However, at this

stage I think it is more important for you to grasp the essence of what we experienced, in terms of how to do transformational action-oriented research within a critical creativity worldview, as well as what I have tried to show you. I have finished, in my beautiful garden, the painting I started in the last field when the bull started approaching us and we scooted. You may notice that I have used the grass

and wheat heads that you left behind. Hope that is OK. It felt good to me in terms of connecting with you! The painting captures for me the essence of how the frameworks dance with each other, sometimes being in the foreground and sometimes in the background, supporting and giving meaning and guidance for the foreground work. I have then laid the painting in the centre of a mandala of

mandalas (as already stated the frameworks are in themselves mandalas). Our River Colne forms the overall background that has enabled us to foreground these frameworks/mandalas in our inquiry together. Perhaps this might be useful to you, Lorna, as you go back to your reading, knowing, doing, being and becoming and help you to trust yourself more (to access your Warrior Woman (Titchen & Higgs, 2001)). I hope this reflection and collage inspire you to be playful and curious as you dance between the frameworks and your experience and maybe create your own mandala too.

The critical creativity mandala of mandalas

In terms of whether the definition of human flourishing (see Appendix A) has been lived in our time together, I have been able to see all the elements at work in our companionship (see green text throughout this reflection). Perhaps there is something of it too expressed in the mandala of mandalas.

I know I have flourished. I have been happy which many people claim is at the heart of human flourishing. I have really enjoyed myself. I have also learned a lot more about how to express the melding and blending of the frameworks and to reveal how the critical-creative companion uses them through synthesis, flow, interplay, working with energy and maximising synchronicity, attunement and balance (processes of professional artistry). It is these professional artistry processes that are so hard to show others, but I think I have achieved that with you this weekend.

Thank you, Lorna.

August 2013

References

McCormack B. & Titchen A. (in press) No beginning, no end: An ecology of human flourishing.

Titchen A. & McCormack B. (2010) Dancing with Stones: Critical creativity as methodology for human flourishing, Educational Action Research: An International Journal, 18(4), 531-554.

Titchen A. (2009) Developing expertise through nurturing professional artistry in the workplace. In S. Hardy, A. Titchen, B. McCormack & K. Manley (eds.), Revealing Nursing Expertise through Practitioner Inquiry, Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 219-243.

Titchen A. & McCormack B. (2008) A methodological walk in the forest: critical creativity and human flourishing. In K. Manley, B.McCormack & V. Wilson (eds), International Practice Development in Nursing and Healthcare. Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 59-83.

Titchen A., Higgs J. & Horsfall D. (2007) Research artistry: Dancing the praxis spiral in critical-creative qualitative research, in Being Critical and Creative in Qualitative Research, J. Higgs, A. Titchen, D. Horsfall & H. B. Armstrong, Hampden Press, Sydney, pp282-297.

McCormack B. and Titchen A. (2006) Critical creativity: melding, exploding, blending, Educational Action Research: an International Journal, 14(2), 239-266.

Titchen A. (2004) ‘Helping Relationships for Practice Development: Critical Companionship’, in Practice Development in Nursing, eds. B.McCormack, K. Manley & R. Garbett, Blackwell Publishing, Oxford, pp.148-174.

Titchen, A. & Higgs, J. (2001), 'Towards professional artistry and creativity in practice', in Professional Practice in Health, Education and the Creative Arts, eds. J. Higgs & A. Titchen, Blackwell Science, Oxford, pp. 273-290.

Appendix A

Process concepts and professional artistry of critical companionship (Titchen, 2004) & a definition of human flourishing (McCormack &

Titchen, in press)

Relationship domain Mutuality – working with Reciprocity – reciprocal giving and receiving of wisdom, care, concernParticularity – getting to know the other as a whole personGraceful care – engaging the other as a whole person authentically with the whole of oneself/being kind/present/emotionally engaged but balanced/

Rationality-intuitive domainIntentionality – Being deliberate, purposeful cognitively and intuitively Saliency – Knowing what matters/what is significant/what needs to be paid attention toTemporality – past, present future time, timing, timeliness, pacing and anticipating

Facilitation domainConsciousness-raising – enabling conscious awareness of taken-for-granted assumptions, embodied wisdom and the carrying of culture in the body, discourse and language Problematisation – helping others to see problems that they are not aware of or re-framing problems to help others see things from different perspectives Self-reflection – helping people to reflect on themselves and their practices to develop self-knowledge and to be able to evaluate their impact in interaction with others Critique – engaging in critical-creative dialogue with self and others to co-create and contest new knowledge and understanding.

Dimensions of Professional artistry (Titchen, 2009; 2012)Artistic qualities, such as connoisseurship, disposition to what is good and audacityDifferent knowledges (local, PCK, personal and propositional knowledges) Different ways of knowingMultiple intelligences (wisdom/capacity to grasp something quickly and enable the use of multiple knowledges etc in the moment), i.e., embodied, aesthetic, emotional and spiritual intelligencesMultiple discoursesCreative imagination and expressionArtistic and cognitive critique

Professional artistry processes (Titchen, 2009; 2012)Improvisation is enabled through processes:

AttunementInteractionSynthesis (blending/melding)BalanceFlowing Energy Syncronicity

Human flourishing definition

“Human flourishing occurs when we bound and frame naturally co-existing energies, when we embrace the known and yet to be known, when we embody contrasts and when we achieve stillness and harmony. When we flourish we

give and receive loving kindness.” (McCormack & Titchen, in press)