Why Inquire? How Enduring Questions of Political Philosophy Can Frame Compelling Questions in College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Inquiry

• In Event: The Who, What, When, Where, and Why of Inquiry in Elementary Social Studies

Abstract

By investigating what democratic values are inherent in the compelling questions of resources for teachers engaging their students in inquiry, this conceptual paper develops a political philosophical grounding for what is worth inquiring about in elementary social studies and why inquiry into these questions is vital for a diverse democracy.

This paper presumes that all curriculum is political and power-laden (Apple, 2004) and uses contemporary political theory defining democracy (e.g., Habermas, Barber), justice (e.g., Rawls, Young, Barry, Sen), and civic action for the common good (e.g., Allen, Nussbaum ) to more explicitly address why particular inquiries at the elementary level are so important and to what ends compelling questions ought to be oriented.

This paper relies on philosophical and qualitative modes of inquiry. True to the discipline of philosophy, claims within this paper regarding the value of grounding inquiry questions within a landscape of political theory are substantiated through careful logic. Additionally, the usefulness of these claims has been applied through a qualitative content analysis (Hsieh & Shannon, 2005) of the compelling questions within online curriculum materials designed to support teachers engaging students in inquiry at the elementary level (e.g.,the New York Teachers’ Toolkit, C3teachers.org, etc.). Applying the previously discussed political theories to these data helps to identify examples of strong philosophical grounding, examples of juxtaposition between theories, opportunities for deeper philosophical grounding, and emergent themes regarding the theoretical depth of the compelling questions pulled from the online resources.

Findings highlight connections and tensions between political philosophy and compelling questions of inquiry in online elementary social studies teacher resources. In particular, the paper highlights the problematic nature of resources based on compelling questions that are not rooted in democratic values. The paper concludes with attention to the potential for deeper connections between political philosophy and teachers’ compelling questions.

While the C3 framework acknowledges the political work of inquiry by stating that there are different conceptions of the common good as well as different civic actions that promote it (NCSS, 2013, p. 4), this paper lays out a philosophical argument for why inquiry ought to be about certain types of compelling questions in order to help even very young learners engage in philosophical reasoning about ways to live together in a democracy as well as how to evaluate justice. The paper will serve as a stimulus for both scholars and practitioners to think more critically about why inquiry is vital and what the foci of elementary social studies inquiry ought to be.


Apple, M. W. (2004). Ideology and curriculum. New York: Routledge.

Hsieh, H. F., & Shannon, S. E. (2005). Three approaches to qualitative content analysis. Qualitative Health Research, 15(9), 1277-1288.

National Council for Social Studies. (2013). College, career, and civic life (C3)framework for social studies standards. Silver Springs, MD: NCSS Publications.

Author

• Jennifer Lynn Gallagher, East Carolina University