Donna Frost

Chapter 4 118 In both the RN and NP inquiries group members sometimes used this time to select new association cards, to quickly sketch a picture or to choose particular creative materials. Others sat in stillness, eyes closed. The facilitator kept note of the time and announced gently when it was time to move into the next phase of collaborative analysis and meaning making. 7 . CCCI meeting: cognitive and artistic critique (step iv of the meeting loop) To the extent that this had not already happened, we used this step to ask ourselves questions. For example, what issues are we skirting around or avoiding? Which assumptions are we making and can they be supported using our data? When looking for alternative explanations to the conclusions we were developing we considered how we would defend our developing conclusions to a sceptic or a colleague at work. What evidence did we have to back up our ideas and what information were we missing? Alongside these strategies for cognitive critique we also used more artistic approaches, drawing particularly on Bray et al. ( 2000 ) and Simons and McCormack ( 2007 ). For example, which feelings and emotions were evoked in us by the creative expressions, the dialogue and the different phases of the process? Were they congruent and aligned? Which differences were present and howdidwe account for them?We used images, metaphors or poetry to capture the essence of the meeting or our response to it and considered the ways in which the creative expressions had changed or expanded our understandings. Care was taken, in any case, to include both artistic and cognitive approaches to questioning the developing conclusions. 8 . CCCI meeting: articulating insights and new questions (step i of the CCCI lemniscate, ending the meeting loop and transitioning into the practice loop) This last step in the collaborative process of analysis andmeaningmakingwithin the CCCI meeting was also the first step of the practice inquiry loop. We summarised what we had learned about professional artistry within the present meeting and considered how these new insights built on or changed what we had learnt last time. We articulated the questions we now had, as a result of the new insights or as a result of the discussion and we determined which of these had priority for the next investigative cycle. In some cases, if the question warranted and time allowed, we agreed howwe might generate data in practice about the inquiry question.