I have finished my doctoral studies through the Taos Institute Ph.D. Program  with a completed dissertation entitled How Might Appreciative School Leadership Meet the Needs of the 21st Century Schools? An Initial Inquiry. Since then, I  have become an Institute Associate member. The Taos Institute is a community of scholars and practitioners concerned with the social processes essential for the construction of reason, knowledge, and human value. It is a non-profit organization committed to exploring, developing and disseminating ideas and practices that promote creative, appreciative and collaborative processes in families, communities and organizations around the world.We achieve our educational ends through conferences, workshops, publications, a PhD program, a distance learning program, newsletters, and web-based offerings. We work at the interface between the scholarly community and societal practitioners from communities of mental health, social work, counseling, organizational change, education, community building, gerontology and medicine. We develop and explore the ways in which scholarly research can enrich professional practices, and practices can stimulate scholarly inquiry.

My involvement with the Taos Institute, initially through conferences and later through my studies, has opened a larger world to me for engagement of my entwined personal and professional interests. On the immediate horizon, I am looking to continue to promote the use of Appreciative Practices in education. Together with colleagues in Empowerment Unlimited, we will be working with local schools in Guatemala and with the network of American International schools. Personally, I will continue to examine the use of Appreciative Practices in classrooms (Appreciative Pedagogy) and with school leadership (Appreciative Leadership). As an Associate of the Institute, I look forward to co-authoring the promotion of these uses of Appreciative Practices in schools.

What is the promise that social construction, dialogue and collaboration hold for our future – throughout our various endeavors?

International Journal of Collaborative Practices (online English & Spanish)

Taos Institute 20th Anniversary Celebration Conference (videos)

Taos Institute YouTube Channel (videos)

Fifield Dissertation: How Might Appreciative School Leadership Meet the Needs of the 21st Century Schools? An Initial Inquiry