Is Community Inquiry Possible? Bertram (Chip) Bruce Graduate School of Library & Information Science for the Philosophy of Education Discussion Group March.

Is Community Inquiry Possible?

Is Community Inquiry Possible?

Bertram (Chip) BruceGraduate School of Library & Information Science

for the Philosophy of Education Discussion Group

March 5, 2010

Bertram (Chip) BruceGraduate School of Library & Information Science

for the Philosophy of Education Discussion Group

March 5, 2010

Outline

Ask: What is (community) inquiry?

Investigate perspectives from pragmatism and the progressive era

Create working definitions

Discuss in terms of specific examples of community work

Reflect on the meaning for educational practice, research, and theory

Ask: What is community inquiry?

Can we move the Public out of its eclipse (J. Dewey)?

Can we learn how to talk to strangers (D. Allen)?

Can we be less polarized (health care debate)?

Investigate: Inquiry

Inquiry is the controlled or directed transformation of an indeterminate situation into one that is so determinate in its constituent distinctions and relations as to convert the elements of the original situation into a unified whole (Dewey, 1938/1991, p. 108).

Peirce on continuity

The principle of continuity is the idea of fallibilism objectified. For fallibilism is the doctrine that our knowledge is never absolute but always swims, as it were, in a continuum of uncertainty and of indeterminacy. Now the doctrine of continuity is that all things so swim in continua. (Collected Papers 1.171, c. 1897)

Inquiry cycleInquiry cycle

Gale on ineffebilityA Deweyan inquiry begins with an indeterminate situation and terminates, when successful, with a determinate situation, both of which Dewey holds to be unique and therefore ineffable. This ineffability requirement has the disastrous consequences that Dewey's beloved collective inquiry is impossible and that there are no objective criteria for the success of inquiry. (Gale, 2006)

Community inquiryCan the notion of individual inquiry be extended to community inquiry, in which driving questions, modes of investigation, concrete action, collaboration, and reflection derive from community processes?

If so, how can that be defined and supported in productive, moral ways?

How can we extend inquiry-based learning from a process inquiry to more substantive inquiry, based on connecting formal learning to lived experience in communities?

Dewey on unity & diversityWhile Turkey needs unity in its educational system, it must be remembered that there is a great difference between unity and uniformity, and that a mechanical system of uniformity may be harmful to real unity. (Dewey, 1923)

Feinberg on common senseCritical pragmatism allows that everyday understanding is sometimes inadequate in defining a situation as problematic, expecially in cases where power or experience is unequal. Here common sense may simply accept a situation as a fact of life...[it] encourages a dialogue between refined research and everyday understanding about the systematic silences that often mark subordinate or oppressed status. (Feinberg, 2010)

Addams on spontaneityIt was perhaps her spirit of youth, her elasticity, the spontaneity and tenderness of her heart, which kept her from all those blunders of moral enthusiasm, from those cruel deeds which are often perpetrated in the name of social duty. (Addams, 1929)

Addams on affectionate interpretationHe [Pullman] cultivated the great and noble impulses of the benefactor, until the power of attaining a simple human relationship with his employees, that of frank equality with them, was gone from him. He, too, lost the faculty of affectionate interpretation, and demanded a sign. He and his employes had no mutual interest in a common cause. (Addams, 1896)

Create: Working definitions for community inquiryCommunity inquiry is inquiry conducted of, for, and by communities as living social organisms. Community emphasizes support for collaborative activity and for creating knowledge, which is connected to people’s values, history, and lived experiences. Inquiry points to support for open-ended, democratic, participatory engagement.

Experimentalism

Community inquiry is thus a learning process that brings theory and action together in an experimental and critical manner.

Different meanings

Inquiry driven by community problems.

Inquiry into “community”

Inquiry facilitated by community=> community of inquiry

Discuss: ExamplesInformation spaces in the community

Urbana Free Library movie making

Radio spots on poverty & racism

Paseo Boricua anti-alcohol campaign

PACHs-Newbury Library Exhibit

WRFU broadcast shadows

E2Y community asset mapping

Reflect: Community as curriculum

learn about the world in a connected way

Learn how to act responsibly in the world, by first understanding self

Learn how to transform the world, to give back to the community

Sources

Addams, Jane (1896/1912, November 2). A modern Lear. Survey, 29(5), 131-137.

Addams, Jane (1929). Helen Castle Mead. In Helen Castle Mead. Chicago: [privately printed], 17-23:

Bishop, Ann P., Bruce, Bertram C., & Jeong, Sunny (2009, March). Beyond service learning: Toward community schools and reflective community learners. In Loriene Roy, Kelly Jensen, & Alex Hershey Meyers (eds.), Service learning: Linking library education and practice (pp. 16-31). Chicago, IL: ALA Editions.

Bruce, Bertram C. (2008). Learning at the border: How young people use new media for community action and personal growth. In C. Angeli & N. Valanides (eds.),  Proceedings of the 6th panhellenic conference with international participation: Information and Communication Technologies in Education (HICTE) (pp. 3-10). Nicosia, Cyprus: Department of Education, University of Cyprus.

Bruce, Bertram C. (2008). From Hull House to Paseo Boricua: The theory and practice of community inquiry. In Bogdan Dicher & Adrian Luduşan (eds.), Philosophy of pragmatism (II): Salient inquiries (pp. 181-198). Cluj-Napoca, Romania: Editura Fundației pentru Studii Europene (European Studies Foundation Publishing House).

Bruce, Bertram C., & Bishop, A. P. (2002, May). Using the web to support inquiry-based literacy development. Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, 45(8), 706-714.

Bruce, Bertram C., & Bishop, Ann P. (2008). New literacies and community inquiry. In J. Coiro, M. Knobel, C. Lankshear, & D. Leu, (eds.), The handbook of research in new literacies (pp. 699-742). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.

Dewey, John (1983). Report and recommendations upon Turkish education. In Jo Ann Boydston (ed.), The Middle Works: Essays on Politics and Society, 1923-1924. Vol. 15 of Collected Works. Carbondale: Southern Illinois Press.

Dewey, John (1938/1991). Logic: The theory of inquiry. In J. A. Boydston (Ed.), John Dewey: The later works, 1925—1953, Vol. 12 (pp. 1–527). Carbondale, IL: SIU Press. (Originally published in 1938)

Feinberg, Walter (2010). Critical pragmatist and the reconnection of science values in educational research.

Gale, Richard M. (2006). The problem of ineffability in Dewey’s theory of inquiry. Southern Journal of Philosophy.

Peirce, Charles Sanders. Collected Papers of Charles Sanders Peirce, 8 volumes, vols. 1-6, eds. Charles Hartshorne and Paul Weiss, vols. 7-8, ed. Arthur W. Burks. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1931-1958.