Donna Frost

Chapter 3 82 was particularly useful in such circumstances, helping us to express, release and make visible the struggles, concerns and crises we faced, whether these were of understanding or within practice. Working creatively helped with acceptance of both the experience and our responses to it, regenerated energy levels and revealed new possibilities for action. Using artistic approaches, natural materials and, for example, metaphorical language, was helpful in explicating supposed, suspected and sensed connections across time and place, across ways of knowing, experiences and fields of practice. Paying attention to such connections and using creativity and the natural world to become aware of, mark and articulate them is the essence of the facilitation principle ‘Circles of connection’ (pp. 539 - 540 ). Working together in such ways enabled co-construction of a shared reality. SPractical challenges arising from the methodological principle of engaging critical and creative ways of doing and being include: developing structures to embed creativity and cognitive and artistic critique within the process of the inquiry; overcoming conscious and subconscious barriers to the use of creativity within work settings and as research activities; developing ways to record critical creative activities and explorations systematically; and learning how to notice and articulate ways of being , as well as ways of doing . Concluding remarks This chapter opened with an exploration of the philosophical assumptions which form the foundation of this research, and indeed of my way of seeing and being in the world. Critical creativity as a worldview and methodological framework for research was introduced. Finally, the four methodological principles of this research were described and discussed in relation to methodological theory, the critical creativity investigative framework and specifically its eight metaphorical principles for human flourishing. I have shown how the metaphorical principles, also referred to by Titchen and McCormack ( 2010 ) as facilitation principles, were translated into principles for action within the CCCI. The description of each of the four methodological principles closed with an account of the practical challenges which needed addressing via the methods of this research. The next chapter describes the CCCI design in detail, including the methods used to address the methodological and practical challenges.