ABSTRACT
This chapter describes an action learning initiative in a university, which focused upon putting compassion into practice during a period of organizational change. It provides the reader with an overview of the principles and practice of action learning, with a particular emphasis on critical action learning—an approach that aims to reveal how underlying emotions and power relations are part of action learning. The chapter authors co-facilitated the action learning process from an academic-practitioner collaborative perspective, addressing shared organizational challenges/issues, with the aim of producing ‘scholarship that matters’. We approach our academic-practitioner relationship from the perspective of ‘weaving a narrative’, thus building upon the theoretical lens of ‘compassion as narrative’ introduced in Chapter 1. The chapter also draws upon systems-psychodynamic thinking and theory, and the use of metaphor as a tool to promote critical reflection. By aiming to produce ‘scholarship that matters’, we hope readers find the chapter an engaging and critical reflection on the value and use of action learning in a wider context of turbulence and rapid change in the higher education sector.
