Everybody’s monkey is important: LEGO® Serious Play® as a methodology for enabling equality of voice within diverse groups

This paper explores the theoretical underpinning of the LEGO® Serious Play® methodology and highlights the affordances of the method in the context of eliciting thoughts and views within groups made up of a range of stakeholders. It provides insight into how LEGO® Serious Play® can be integrated into discursive research practices amongst stakeholders, in this case for International Education. The work reports on the application of the method in a workshop with participants, diverse in terms of gender, age, national and linguistic background, professional experience and seniority. The workshop explored and developed conceptions of International Education. The LEGO® Serious Play® method is shown to overcome some of the hierarchies and hegemonies, which can exist in such contexts, allowing equality of voice amongst participants, such that each expresses their views or opinions, which are given equal consideration and legitimacy. This resulted in high levels of engagement, which enabled the presentation, and inclusion, of a broad spectrum of ideas, as well as the development of a shared vision of research in the field of International Education. Findings in this paper show that the LEGO® Serious Play® method has enabled imaginative conceptualisations of the rationale, role and potential for research in International Education.