Donna Frost

60 This chapter addresses the foundations and methodological framework which support the research design and process. It begins with an examination of the assumptions which underpinned the study and moves into a justification for positioning the study within the worldview of critical creativity (McCormack & Titchen, 2006 , 2007 ; Titchen & McCormack, 2008 , 2010 ; McCormack & Titchen, 2014 ; Titchen, 2018 ). The last section introduces the four methodological principles which shaped the specific research design, explaining their connection to the philosophical assumptions, critical creativity and related methodologies. ‘Finding my place to stand and learning to stand there’ describes the journey this research has become and sums up my philosophical stance. I believewe are always already in the world and that we are perpetually engaged in finding ‘our place to stand’: learning where to ‘place our feet’ and discovering and testing what we stand for (Boomer & Frost, 2011 ). Knowing where we wish to stand is only part of the story; the rest involves learning how to get there and how to keep our balance. My philosophical foundations are presented here as a beginning: part of one of the starting chapters in this thesis and an account of the underpinnings of my research. They are also the fruits of a journey, because at the beginning I could never have described them like this, and yet this is how I walked within and have come to understand the world of my research and the wider world around. I wrote the poem below to summarize the principles on which this research rests. These principles are elaborated on in the first half of the chapter, with the phrases in the poem used as section titles. Enmeshed: shaped, shaping, situated. Embodied selves. Age-old insights. Moral intent. Sing up, question, critique, create. Becoming transformed. Enmeshed: shaped, shaping, situated My point of departure is the ontological notion that we are fundamentally and existentially engaged as human beings in the world. We are always already in the world (Heidegger, 1953 / 1962 ) and as such the world and our involvements in it are the context of all our understandings (Moran & Mooney, 2002 ). That world is not only physical but includes our social and historical worlds (Gadamer, 1975 / 1989 ) and