Living with monsters: an inquiry parable

摘要

From October 2004 to June 2006 I worked as a curriculum leader across 18 elementary schools as part of an Alberta Incentive for School Improvement (AISI) project focused on the reform question “How does inquiry transform learning environments?”. In support of professional development, I worked closely with teachers in discussion, planning, and co-teaching from an inquiry-based perspective. In this task, a “monstrous” image of inquiry-based teaching and learning began to emerge among the project's participating teachers. This essay inquires into the monstrous image accorded to inquiry-based practice as a means to articulate the challenges and problematic of both school reform and the character of inquiry “itself”. Working analogously with T. H. White's A Once and Future King, this essay seeks to interpret the monstrous and uncertain image of inquiry as vital to the character of the curriculum-as-lived.