This paper focuses on the creative hermeneutic methods (McCormack and Boomer, 2007) employed as an effective way of evaluating the emancipatory and transformational learning experience of teachers engaged in a research project, the aim of which was to determine whether participatory practice with young children could be positively enhanced by intervention and sustained through critical reflection.

The study was in two Phases. Phase One was about developing a shared understanding of participation. This was facilitated through professional development in the form of deep self-awareness in the form of creative collaborative workshops and reflective tasks over a period of six months. Phase Two explored whether participation could be sustained through a process of critical reflection. The focus of this paper is on the creative hermeneutic evaluation methods as a way of capturing the essence of the shared learning experience and impressions of the participants’ engagement in both Phases of the project (McIntosh, 2009; Titchen and McCormack, 2010; McCormack and Boomer, 2007). The most appropriate method of evaluation and analysis was the application of creative hermeneutic evaluations (McIntosh, 2009; McCormack and Boomer, 2007; Lahman, 2008).

Leitch (2006, p. 551) acknowledges that ‘many emotional, sensory and embodied dimensions of experience lie below the threshold of consciousness and are thus impossible to articulate in words’. To truly understand the ‘richness and subtlety of human experience in all its complexity’, there is a need to draw on other ways than just the use of language (ibid, p. 551). If research methods rely on language as part of collaborative dialogue, an incomplete picture of an experience  may be presented (Leitch, 2006). Arts based approaches can be applied in order to access and explore the unconscious embodied knowing as well as the conscious knowing so that a more complete picture of the participants’ experience can be captured (McIntosh, 2009).

The creative evaluation methods included collages (Simons and McCormack 2007), the use of creative hermeneutic cards (Bijkerk and Loonen, 2009) and metaphors crafted into poetic haiku (McIntosh, 2009). Together these highlighted visual journeys of transformation experienced by the teachers (Titchen and McCormack, 2010). In doing so a deeper kind of knowledge was available (Jupp, 2006: 133). The use of creative hermeneutic arts based approaches facilitated a reflexive approach and enabled the teachers to articulate and summarise the essence of their experience of the project and their transformational learning.

The analysis of the data provides evidence of the value of the creative hermeneutic methods as a way of enhancing openness and also in facilitating new ways of seeing (Scharmer, 2009; Leitch, 2006). The creative methods were a way of capturing the transformative learning of the teachers’ and their personal and embodied emotions before, during and after the project so that future participatory teaching (being) could be considered.

The poetic haiku we created together as a collective summary and analogy of their experience as a whole provides an indication of this:

Safe, open but unsure,

Inspired, open and sure,

Ready to share, empowered

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