Discussion 6 due by noon on 11/7/11 (Please note that is the day that we reconvene)

Please note that your first commentary should be posted as its own conversation thread, not as a reply to someone else's commentary. To do that, go to the "Discussion" tab. Then click on +New Post. Fill in your comments in the boxed section. Submit by clicking on the "Post" button.

NOTE: Please make sure that you to make your response to the prompt. Then please respond to the posts of at least 2 other colleagues from either section. In addition, please be sure to identify who you are -- either at the beginning or at the end of your posts and commentary, be sure to write your first and last names.



In the first part of our course studies, we’ve gained some knowledge and insight on what it means to engage in Multicultural Education, social justice advocacy and cultural identity (at-large and on a personal level) in our schools and in society. We’ve learned that school culture and social structures are powerful determinants of how student and teachers learn to perceive themselves and each other. We now begin to moving into Social Studies & Historical content and Social Studies curriculum development. We begin with work by Paula Rogovin and the Research Workshop Model

Discussion Prompt:


Drawing on your field work and our trip to the African Burial Ground, address the following topics:
  • What do you believe to be the role of inquiry in the classroom?
  • How is student inquiry positioned in the curriculum in your field placement? (central to curriculum, not considered at all, somewhere in between?)
  • How does inquiry connect to notions of social justice and multicultural education?
  • How would an inquiry-based apporach help learning communities unpack historical content such as the content presented through African Burial Ground site.


Lookin' forward to the discussion,

What do you believe to be the role of inquiry in the classroom