The generative dance in pursuit of generative knowledge

This paper describes how a group working around the emotionally-charged topic of cultural and linguistic appropriateness created new knowledge about practice, and in particular practice about keeping a knowledge problem constantly open for inquiry. The group's work focused on the creation of a database of materials to support and educate practitioners in their field. Interviews with 23 participants revealed that key to their success was learning and growth in understanding the importance of opening up discussion on what "appropriateness" meant to group members, assumptions about appropriateness, and how to approach appropriateness on the way to deciding what to include in the database. Moreover, the group learned how to discuss and move forward a project based in the discussion of "hotly contested" areas in the face of "passionately held" beliefs. Cook and Brown's (1999) view that new knowledge arises from a generative dance between what knowledge is possessed by the individual and what is inextricably linked to practice, resonated with the kind of interaction and problem solving we found in this group. We adopt their perspective to interpret our data and further appropriate their terminology when we refer to and identify generative knowledge: an epistemically productive kind of knowledge predicated on constant openness, and characterized by repeated evaluation and interpretation of a problem.