# Introduction

As discussed in Session 1 and 2, an appreciative approach to inquiry adopts a stance where lived experiences, either individual or collective, are foregrounded throughout the process of inquiry, starting with the stories of current practices that you began to write and collect in Session 2.

In this session, you will use these stories as a stimulus to explore and play with ideas about how things can be different if built from positive practices that already exist. In doing so, it allows us to create an imaginative vision, but one that is grounded in detail from the present.

By the end of this session, you should be able to:

- understand the role of imagining and dreaming in an appreciative approach to inquiry
- identify elements of existing stories that have potential for creating imagining and dreaming about future practices
- understand how ‘pushing outwards’ from stories, images, metaphors and representations can open up new ways to imagine differently
- experience some techniques for envisioning different practices.

The session starts by considering what role imagining and dreaming have in inquiry processes.

OpenLearn - An appreciative approach to inquiry
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