“We Are the Future”: Critical Inquiry and Social Action in the Classroom

Abstract

This study explored how engaging in critical inquiry through Project-Based Inquiry (PBI) Global fostered social action with high school students. Drawing on theoretical perspectives from critical inquiry and social action and employing a collective case study approach, we focused on six diverse students from two of the 18 teams who participated in a PBI Global examining global water and sanitation over a two-month period. Data sources included semi-structured student interviews, students’ posts and uploads in a shared writing space, and students’ multimodal products of learning. Three themes emerged from the analysis across the data sources: synergistic collaboration, critical analysis and creation of multimodal texts, and understanding global and local interdependence to take social action. The discussion illuminates how students’ engagement in critical inquiry and social action ignite the emergence of Freire’s notion of critical consciousness.

Project-Based Inquiry (PBI) Global during a Pandemic: A New Learning Ecology Perspective

“…PBI Global has five phases (see Figure 1) in which learners work together in small groups to investigate and develop solutions toward meeting the 2030 SDG targets. As teachers and students prepare for inquiry, attention must be given to activating and building students' background knowledge on PBI Global content (i.e., the SDGs) and the inquiry process itself [20]. Students then apply this knowledge as they ask a compelling question aligned with their specific SDG interests.…”

“…For this PBI Global, teachers and students collaborated to investigate topics pertaining to SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation and then shared findings virtually with their community. PBI Global has been implemented in a variety of instructional contexts, including US high school classrooms [20,22], and with global partners [5,19]. For this PBI Global, teachers and students collaborated to investigate topics pertaining to SDG 6: Clean Water and Sanitation and then shared findings virtually with their community.…”