The Kids Inquiry Conference: Tensions in Literacy Activities, Practices, and Actions across Elementary-Level Spaces for Student-Driven Inquiry

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.

Grantor dc:publisher

State University of New York at Buffalo

Year dc:date.issued

2018

Author dc:creator

• Silvestri, Katarina

Contributors dc:contributor

• McVee, Mary
• Learning and Instruction

• elementary education
• reading instruction
• pedagogy

Statement dc:rights

• Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.
• Copyright retained by author.

Language dc:language

eng

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/10477/77987

OAI record oai:identifier

https://ubir.buffalo.edu/oai/request?verb=GetRecord&metadataPrefix=qdc&identifier=oai%3Aubir.buffalo.edu%3A10477%2F77987