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To describe the connections between reading and writing and to discuss new ways of understanding the nuisances associated with their development beginning with consideration to language appreciation.

Theoretical advances related to the complexity of reading, thinking, and writing are discussed alongside an ongoing description of how wide reading, interventions, language study, and risk taking are foundational to language creation.

The linkages between reading and writing are inseparable. Reading and writing must be developed in unison. The best writers are avid readers and vice versa. Generally speaking, students will have preferences regarding which they enjoy partaking in more but this just gives the motivation to utilize an appreciate approach to grow, that is utilizing existing strengths of the student in either reading or writing toward improving the other.

A host of instructional practices can extend from these new theoretical understandings of language creation including free verse journals, usage of non-examples to jolt previous understandings, language play, feedback, diverse literature, and finalization processes related to writing development.

While Cooperrider (2001, p. 32) suggests that appreciative inquiry is about “the artful creation of positive imagery,” most of the literature that describes the process of artful creation explains it as one in which the organizational members simply talk about these new images, vs. actually engaging in the creation of artistic representations of the desired future. This chapter moves the appreciative inquiry literature beyond the metaphorical understanding of the “art of” appreciative inquiry in order to reveal and explain how practitioners are actually engaging organizations in the artful creation of positive anticipatory imagery. In this chapter, the literature that labels and describes the process of artful creation in organizations is reviewed, described, and synthesized into five propositions – ultimately creating a framework for understanding artful creation as a unique organizational discourse: an aesthetic discourse. These five propositions reveal the common characteristics of artful creation: (1) presentational knowledge/language; (2) mediated dialogue; (3) symbolic constructions that act as metaphorical representation; (4) collaborative inquiry/co-creation; and (5) window to the unconscious. The chapter concludes by addressing the implications, seeking to answer the question “What is the value of an organization engaging with the process of artful creation?” Finally, the chapter suggests that the five propositions may guide future research in two areas: (a) the practice of the artful creation of positive anticipatory imagery in appreciative inquiry; and (b) the further development of a theoretical framework for understanding the “art of” appreciative inquiry as aesthetic discourse.

The participatory action research project described in this chapter took place with an established campaigning and research organisation in Manchester. The young activists who were part of the work were all living without legal status in the UK, and had all been failed by the asylum system and cast as the ‘abject’ (Tyler, 2013) and unwanted. Building upon decades of protest against racist and ‘othering’ polices in Britain (Copsey, 2016; England, 2019), the project illustrates a powerful example of young people who are very much on the margins, neglected and disbelieved by the state, and vilified by wider society and deliberate distortions of what it means to ‘seek asylum’, coming together to activate and find a voice in public to call for justice and change. Utilising Voloshinov’s (1929/1986) method of ‘language creation from below’ to create a shared understanding of their experiences in the UK’s ‘hostile environment’ (Goodfellow, 2019), the young activists engaged in consciousness-raising together to explore the commonality of their lives as ‘(young) people seeking asylum’. Rejecting the dominant ideological sign of ‘asylum seeker’, they created a play, ‘Faceless’, to depict the reality of their experiences, to present a counterstatement (Voloshinov, 1929/1986), in the public sphere (Fraser, 1990), and to exercise what Castells (2015) refers to as ‘counterpower’.

While visual arts, drama, dance and music have been used to enhance literacy learning for many decades in preschool and primary classrooms, engaging with mobile learning can also provide many opportunities for young learners to explore and develop language and literacy. The use of mobile devices is of particular interest as technology has an impact on pedagogy and the mobility of digital devices provides many opportunities for engaged and meaningful literacy learning when teamed with the arts. In this chapter, we define the arts and their relationship with literacy learning before exploring a number of resources and practices for integrating their use in early learning settings.

Current research aims to investigate whether it would be possible to identify all information security policy (ISP) writing styles and how these would influence ISP compliance. Almost all businesses use ISPs to establish boundaries and require secure behaviour from their employees. Unfortunately, professional surveys and academic research demonstrate a high level of non-compliance with the ISP. While the justification for the employee’s behaviour has been discussed, very few research papers have investigated whether the ISP writing style impacted the intent to comply with ISP. The research methodology incorporates content analysis and a quantitative descriptive review of published papers on ISP and non-IS policy compliance. The theoretical research allowed the identification of five major ISP writing styles: belonging, deterrence, goal, motivation, and specialist, as well as writing style influencers such as timeliness and readability. To achieve a higher level of compliance with the ISP, it was suggested that the writing styles of belonging, goal, and motivation be used primarily. Deterrence is generally discouraged. The study enabled us to determine when ISP writing styles were mentioned and the type of influence on the intent to comply with ISP. It also allowed for comparison and possible differences in ISPs versus standard workplace policies. There are proposals on which writing styles to put forward, along with recommendations on creating an ISP.

In this chapter, I present a concept named Diversity Icebreaker® where the participants in a seminar are categorized along red, blue, and green dimensions based on a psychological assessment. The participants co-create the meaning of the dimensions in mono-colored groups due to their dominant scores where they describe themselves and others from inside and outside perspectives. Blue is more task and detail oriented. Green is more holistic and future oriented. Red is more social and communicative oriented. The language as a metaphorical structure as well as the seminar builds a culture of inclusivity. The simplicity and easiness of mastery of the categories make it easy for everyone to apply the categories. The social co-creation of the categories makes every participant at an even level. The colors are defined reciprocally strengthening the needs of the others. Everyone has all colors which makes it easier to connect and see commonalities that build cohesion. In the seminar, participants experience uncertainty followed by dialogues with others. Positive emotions and insight reinforce the script of “dialoguing with others when uncertainties arise.” The positivity and humor in the seminar reinforce the behavior of being together. The closure is a collective reflexivity process where all participants have even possibility to contribute due to their unique perspectives on their shared experience. I end this chapter with reflections and questions on leadership models in this seminar that has evolved in a Norwegian context and their relevance in a global context.