Community Inquiry

Chip Bruce

DIME 25th Anniversary

Quill

• Same period as the beginning of DIME• Other software exists for mechanics of

writing• Quill is kids’ version of office tools;

preparation for life• Wide use, focus here on Alaska• Connect to current work

John Dewey

• Democracy & Ed, Child & Curriculum, School & Society, etc; cf Piaget

• Open learning

• Experiential

• Social contexts

• Hands-on

• Inquiry

Quill in Alaska

• Wood smoke in the computer

• Holy Cross brochure

• Super disk

• Family history

• Rural mailboxes

• Menudo

• Mario’s girlfriend

Problems with my thinking

• Not preparation for life (Trident)

• “Enormous pedagogical difference”

• Education as community

• Inquiry is transforming situation

• The pragmatist project ???

Community inquiry: How do we learn together?

”It is the democratic faith that [intelligence] is sufficiently general so that each individual has something to contribute, and the value of each contribution can be assessed only as it enters into the final pooled intelligence constituted by the contributions of all." --John Dewey

Community inquiry:How should we live together?

“…the desire to make the entire social organism democratic, to extend democracy beyond its political expression.” --Jane Addams

Community inquiry inPaseo Boricua

Mile-long section of Division Street in Chicago's Humboldt Park

“Barrio autonomy” (Rinaldi, 2002): autonomous cultural, political, and economic space for Puerto Rican and Latino/Latina residents that came into being as a response to encroaching gentrification and displacement in nearby sections of the city (Flores-González, 2001)

Puerto Rican Cultural Center http://www.prcc-chgo.org

30 years in Chicago’s Paseo Boricua neighborhood

Philosophy of self-actualization and critical thought, self-determination, self-reliance

Galvanizes residents around local issues: cultural preservation, economic development, gang violence

Includes many affiliated organizations that help people “learn how to learn” about/in the community

La Casita de Don Pedro

• Museum: Simple house from Puerto Rico

• Built by HS students

• Cultural space: Bomba dancing, artist fairs

Café Teatro Batey Urbano

• Organized by college students

• Safe place for teens to meet and express themselves

• Without fear of discrimination or violence

• Poetry with a Purpose, neighborhood projects, homework help

Dr. Pedro Albizu Campos HS

• Alternative HS:

– More comfortable

– Safer

– Small classroom settings and local projects

– Teachers care!

Vida/SIDA

• Puerto Ricans in Chicago affected disproportionately by AIDS

• Local artist & ex-prisoner Luis Rosa painted mural

• Education and prevention regarding AIDS

• AIDS clinic also started

Family Learning Center

• For young mothers to earn HS diplomas

• Provide daycare

• Supported by federal funds

• We learn about our culture, parenting skills

National BoricuaHuman Rights Network

• Support for PR political prisoners

• Active in movement to remove US Navy from Vieques, PR

• Defends civil liberties and educates against repressive legislation (Patriot Act, etc.)

Existing assets: Community Library and Information Center

• 3d World book collection (4000 vols.)

• Community tech center

• Posters, sculpture and art, children’s books

• Archives: Newsletters, fliers, letters, pamphlets

• Never been cataloged

Community Informatics

• Technology: Prairienet, communityware development, community technology centers, computer/book share, courses on networks & computers

• Community: partner projects, public reception, training lab, meeting area, CI Corps

• Scholarship: Journal of CI; reports, articles, books, etc; research on access, literacy, participatory design, etc; grad courses & specialization; international connections

“move” to LIS

• Inseparability of learning & life• “The ideal of using the present simply to

get ready for the future contradicts itself,”• “We always live at the time we live and not

at some other time, and only by extracting at each present time the full meaning of each present experience are we prepared for doing the same thing in the future.”