An Introduction to Transformative Inquiry: Understanding Compelling and Significant Relationships for Personal and Societal Transformation

Abstract

Transformative inquiry is a theoretical model designed to facilitate the inquiry of important and meaningful relationships that transform and potentiate us. Creswell (2007) described the essential elements of a research agenda: the axiological, ontological, epistemological, methodological, and rhetorical. Each carries with it assumptions that hold implications for practice and research. Transformative inquiry addresses all of these elements through considerations given to deep ecology, transdisciplinarity, integral meta-theory, heuristic research, and eudaimonistic philosophy, respectively. Transformative inquiry is an approach to understanding and fostering the full range of deep and meaningful relationships from the personal to the political, and beyond. It is a theoretical model designed to support investigation into the important and meaningful relationships that both transform and potentiate us. Transformative inquiry provides a theoretical context in which to approach any question related to obtaining a deep understanding of the rich, nuanced experience of meeting deeply with (and being transformed by and with) another. What do such relationships do in the world? They transform us, and they transform the world. Understanding deep, potent, lasting transformation means to understand the relationships that foster, support, and co-create it. Such relationships generate a paradigmatic shift of consciousness. But deeply, this shift is about the uncovering of a beautiful personality, a deep goodness within, an enduring truth of self. Within this context, transformative inquiry in general and deep heuristics in particular, is designed to allow researchers to expand farther and reach deeper than our current models and methodologies require.