Looking back on my initial post, where I discussed the duality of inquiry, I see a naiveté in my thinking. Teachers have more sophisticated and nuanced understandings of the role of inquiry despite the playful staffroom banter between the humanities and the sciences that would suggest otherwise: in truth, both faculties have lots in common about the shape of inquiry learning in the curriculum. I know this because of my readings in and around the topic. My thinking now is not so focused on the different perceptions of inquiry learning and more focussed on the common pedagogical language and inquiry learning tools that we all share and can be utilised to improve the process. This realisation reminds me that leadership, particularly in and around the space of academic excellence and scholarship, is a direction I would like to move forward in professionally. Had I my research questions again, I would consider exploring curriculum and pedagogical frameworks to enhance inquiry learning within a whole school rather than be so individualistic in my thinking.
Carol Kuhlthau’s Information Search Process is a useful framework to consider this reflection. Further reading on the topic of inquiry bought forth the realisation that there was a lot in the research question that I had not considered – student engagement, marginalised students, authentic curriculum delivery and the validity of the assessment. At this point in my research, I came to the realisation that I needed more information (Kuhlthau, 2018).
The more search terms I used, and the more search tools I used, the more excited I got – learning seemed infinite, and I enjoyed getting lost in research rabbit holes – digressions that took me down new and improved directions (Kuhlthau, 2018). Though I had some concerns over the magnitude of the research and the associated technical skills of the task, I began to aggregate ideas and cultivate search concepts that I knew would germinate and reduce uncertainty (Kuhlthau, 2018). The collection and curation phase of the task was very time consuming (Kuhlthau, 2018); however, putting the challenging research work together and into a logical, systematic and discernable way for this particular platform was a genuine delight (Kuhlthau, 2018).
With profound apologies to Constantine P. Cavafy, I re-present the poem from my initial post, Ithaca, with an inquiry learning twist…
INQUIRY
When you start on your journey of inquiry,
then pray that the road is long,
full of adventure, full of knowledge.
Do not fear John Hattie
and the outcomes driven system nor the parents demanding value-added growth.
You will never meet such as these on your path,
if your tasks remain lofty, if inquisitiveness,
curiosity and emergent understanding shape your pedagogical spirit.
Then pray that the road is long.
That the mornings debating students are many,
that they will engage with ideas and concepts seen for the first time
with such pleasure, with such joy!
Linger on big questions and complexities,
and conduct fine research,
google scholar and journals, databases and social media,
are filled with pleasurable ideas of all kinds,
read and take notes on many pleasurable ideas;
visit libraries,
to learn and learn from those who have knowledge.
Do not hurry the voyage at all.
It is better to let it last for weeks;
rich with the ideas they have gained on the way,
not expecting that the final submission will offer you riches.
Inquiry has given us all the beautiful voyage.
Without her, we would never have taken the road.
But she has nothing more to give.
With the great wisdom gained, with so much experience,
we must surely have understood by then what inquiry means.
Mathew Stein
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Journey to Ithaca 