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| Format: | Recurso educativo Open Access |
| Language: | en |
| Published: |
2018
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| Online Access: | https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED586563 |
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Table of Contents:
- The Kids Inquiry Conference: Tensions in Literacy Activities, Practices, and Actions across Elementary-Level Spaces for Student-Driven Inquiry Silvestri, Katarina Nicole Literacy Education Grade 5 Inquiry Student Research Cultural Awareness Instructional Materials Space Utilization School Culture Social Theories Educational Resources Access to Information Decision Making Elementary School Students Elementary School Teachers Educational Environment This exploratory case study aims to better understand the interactions between and literacy activities, practices, and actions of fifth-grade students, their teachers, and learning environments during a student-directed extended inquiry unit (the Kids Inquiry Conference--KIC) where students propose their own topics to be researched. This study details how inquiry as cultural activity unfolded over time and across spaces within the school (i.e. the fifth-grade classroom, library, etc.). The goal is to understand how enactment of inquiry as a cultural activity--including the repertoires of practice, spatial arrangements, and materials in interaction with participants--both fits into and creates tensions within the larger school context and culture. This study is rooted conceptually in cultural-historical activity theory; Deweyan perspectives about experience, authenticity in learning, and inquiry; assumptions about literacy (i.e., meaning-making) that assert the multimodal, embodied, spatial, and material nature of interaction and meaning-making; as well as assumptions about the persistent entrenchment of school culture in neoliberalism and back-to-basics teaching and learning. Importantly, this research emphasizes inquiry from a literacy and design standpoint rather than the more common stance foregrounding scientific principles and processes. Observational data of participants (i.e., students and teachers) was collected over the three-and-a-half months long KIC project (i.e., audio, video, researcher field notes, artifacts). Interviews were collected from participating teachers, students, and administrators. Data analyses included: domain and taxonomic analysis; multimodal/spatial interactional analysis; descriptive coding of activity systems; and multimodal discourse analysis. Two activity systems were extensively decomposed and analyzed for their interrelationships and tensions: (1) KIC project pedagogy and guidance and (2) KIC project learning and doing. Major themes and tensions revealed in the activity systems under analysis include: (a) supporting agency of students' bodies during inquiry learning; (b) balancing students' access to resources during inquiry; (c) open student choice, widened access to resources, and text readability; (d) honoring and pedagogically supporting student choices in inquiry; (e) student purposes for inquiry learning in schools; (f) teacher purposes for inquiry learning in schools; and (g) the socioemotional supports of inquiry learning. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]