Inquiry: Just Imagine!
Imagination is the store of human possibility (Huebner)
Julie Machnaik, ECS210, Oct. 2012
Interconnectedness of Self
Place, Language, Pedagogy
What do we see/not see and through what lens?
What do we hear/not hear and in what key?
Look at the presence/ absence,
View the interplay of knowing,
What is being communicated and in whose language?
View with imagination…
Look at the foreground,
Background, middle ground.
Face the inbetween.
See the possibilities…
J. Machnaik, 2009
“We cannot understand schools today without
a look at what they were yesterday.”
Becoming a Teacher, 2012, p. 60
What were the ‘places’ of schooling like long ago?
Essential characteristics of the teacher:
 instructional efficiency
 technical knowledge and skills (with well thought out lesson plans)
 physical efficiency (all teachers should be beautiful with no physical abnormalities
or weaknesses)
 efficiency in control (because disorder means idleness and good discipline is the
foundation of moral training)
 social quality (to know how to act and who to socialize with in the community)
 professional spirit and enthusiasm
 high personal character
 mechanical proficiency where the "ability to stand at the blackboard and impress
instruction by illustrative drawing is always a source of power in the teacher”
Normal School, School Management (1912) textbook
Teachers as Learned Practitioner
 Learn about students, the what and how to teach.
 Blend theory & practice but little anti-oppressive methods that focus
on differences, equity, power and oppression.
 Problematic: only certain insights possible and others impossible-
only certain ways of knowing students privileged
 Need to trouble, disrupt knowledge, see what different insights,
identities, practices & changes it makes possible while critically
examining that knowledge to see what insights it closes off. Need to
teach the contradictions, the gaps, the partialities.
Teacher as Researcher
 Need to be lifelong learners, reflect on own teaching practices, self-
reflecting on readings/discussions, research projects, working to
bridge theory to practice. Learning to teach involves reflecting on,
raising own questions and doing research.

Problematic: Doing research does not in itself promise antioppressive change.
 Need to look at what we have already learned (and desire continuing
to learn as it is comfortable) and what we desire to not learn (where
we feel discomfort).
 Need to ask…what do our students desire learning, how do we
desire teaching, and how do these desires make anti-oppressive
changes difficult? Teacher research needs to examine teachers’
desires for only certain things and resistances to others.
Teacher as Professional
 Learning to teach characterized as an entry into a profession; clear
certification expectations with relevant components of program,
knowledge, skills, and perspectives valued in society.
 Problematic: some in society prescribe ahead of time what all teachers
need to know and do and be in order to be “good” teachers; may insist
on only certain knowledge and do not encourage troubling knowledge
and looking beyond.
 Need: to problematize any effort to predetermine what it means to be a
“good” teacher; commonsensical definitions of good teaching are often
complicit with different forms of oppression just as “progressive”
definitions of good teaching are partial and contradictory and are always
in need of rethought.
New Landscape
Context is the window
of understanding…
Northern Experiences in Nunavut
“An example of what the future may
hold is Piqqusilirivvik, “a place that has
those things important to us”...”where
classrooms are called learning studios.”
Becoming a Teacher, 2012, p. 83
Clyde River, Nunavut
Clyde River
So what
would this
LOOK like?
Photo
Gallery
Inquiry Minds to Guide Our Journey
Inukshuk in Pangnirtung, Nunavut (or Pang, also ᐸᖕᓂᖅᑑᖅ)
Huebner’s Messages:
 We must surpass technical
foundations of education
 We require historical
awareness of:
 where we once were
 sensitivity to present
problems, resistances and
binds
 and openness to future
possibilities
Dwayne E. Huebner’s (1923 - )
Philosopher of education and
curriculum theorist
Poses Questions:
 What are/should be the
purposes of education?
 Who does/should control
education?
 What do/should children learn?
 What relationship do/should
schools play with respect to
society and justice?
Paulo Freire (1921-1997)
Critical Pedagogy
Shortly before his death, Paulo Freire is reported to have said: “I could never think of education
without love and that is why I think I am an educator, first of all because I feel love.”
Maxine Greene
“We can't separate imagination from the ethical, the political, the social...it is our opening to
what is not yet, what might be, new possibilities...“
 Experiential learning
 Imagination
 Arts
 Making meaning
 Making sense of the world
 Ask questions, take action
Inside the Academy:
Maxine Greene
(Maxine Greene, 1917)
Educational philosopher, author, social activist and teacher
Releasing the Imagination (1995) by Maxine Greene
Essays on Education, the Arts, and Social Change
Nel Noddings
 Known for her work in philosophy of
education, educational theory, and ethics of





care.
Makes distinction between natural caring
and ethical caring
Educating the ‘whole’ child
Centred around happiness
Build community of learners
Books:
 The Challenge to Care in Schools (1992)
 Happiness & Education (2003)
 Educating Citizens for Global Awareness
(2005)
 Critical Lessons: What Our Schools
Should Teach. (2006)
(1929)
American feminist, educationalist & philosopher
Nel Noddings YouTube
John Dewey
 Truth as process of discovery
 Education and learning are social & interactive
 Hands-on, experiential learning
 School is a social institution where social



(1859 – 1952)
Father of Progressive Education

reform can and should take place
Project Based Learning (PBL) students as
active researchers...“Learning is doing”
“We need to prepare our students for their
future, not our present or our past”
“Give students something to do, not something
to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to
demand thinking; learning naturally results!”
John Dewey: His Life and Work
Reflections...Revisit…Rethink…Respond
 How do school experiences shape what we believe?
 What do life stories have to tell us about who we are
today and who we may become as ‘teacher’?
 What do we believe about teaching and learning?
 What is YOUR story?
Common sense is not what should shape curriculum design; it is what
needs to be examined and challenged.
Common sense often makes it easy to continue teaching and learning in
ways that allow the oppressions already in play to continue to play out
unchallenged in our schools and society.
Kumashiro, K. (2009). Against Common Sense, p. xxxvii
Project-Based/Problem-based Learning (PBL)
 Project-based learning emphasizes learning activities
that are long-term, interdisciplinary, student-centered,
and integrated with real world issues and practices.
Inquiry…Inquiry…Inquiry…Inquiry
 Problem-based learning actively engages the student
in constructing knowledge. PBL includes real-world
problems that can be solved in many different ways
and have more than one solution.
http://pblmm.k12.ca.us/PBLGuide/WhyPBL.html
So…what are the possibilities of Inquiry Learning?
Just Imagine!
Student Action Projects
Prepares students to
 Identify and carry out
solutions to problems
in their school,
community or beyond
 Learn through
thoughtful, positive,
responsible action
 Critically reflect
Inquiry…Inquiry…Inquiry…Inquiry
Kumashiro urges us to…
 Transform schools into spaces where all
students will be safe, addressed, and affirmed
 Create spaces within schools where students
can go for help, support, advocacy, and
resources
 Change the knowledge that all students have
about people who are labeled ‘different’
 Broaden students’ understanding of differences
and different groups of people by integrating into
the curriculum a richer diversity of experiences,
perspectives & materials.
Kumashiro, K. (2009). Against Common Sense, p. xxxvii
• Inukshuk means “likeness of a person” in
Inuktitut
• Signposts left by fellow travelers
•Guide for new travelers & provides direction
in unknown territory
• Respects the ‘place’ and honours all who
journey
“An anti-oppressive teacher is not something that someone is.
Rather, it is something that someone is always becoming.”
Kumashiro, K. (2009). Against Common Sense, p. 15
“I have a long way to go. But I’m on my way.”
Salas, K.D. (2010)Time to Learn, The New Teacher Book