Appreciative Inquiry (AI) is an approach that believes improvement is more engaging when the focus is made on the strengths rather than the weaknesses.
AI is a powerful tool that can be used in the field of Education to enable children discover what is good about them and dream of what they can do with this realization.
It involves systematic discovery of what gives a system 'life' when it is most effective and capable in economic, ecological, and human terms.
AI involves the art and practice of asking questions that strengthen a system's capacity to heighten positive potential.
"[1] Applied in the education sector, AI is a cooperative search for the best in children, their school, their teachers, their classmates, their parents and this discovery influences and helps shape their image of the future.
AI brings about social change in the pupil as the emphasis is on what is good and the belief that people nurture what they appreciate, than what they are not happy about.
The Poetic Principle - as the topic of inquiry is on what is good about the individual or the environment, this helps open a new chapter in the life of the child.
[7] Educational researcher Hargreaves (1994) referred to collaboration as an 'articulating and integrating principle' (p. 245) for school improvement, providing a way for teachers to learn from each other, gain moral support, coordinate action, and reflect on their classroom practices, their values, and the meaning of their work .
These concerns point to the need for a change process that has a positive focus, is essentially self-organizing, encourages deep reflection, and avoids the pitfalls of manipulation by school administrators.