Transcript Community Inquiry - University of Illinois at Urbana

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
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Wood smoke in the computer
Holy Cross brochure
Super disk
Family history
Rural mailboxes
Menudo
Mario’s girlfriend
Problems with my thinking
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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 in
Paseo 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
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30 years in Chicago’s Paseo Boricua neighborhood
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Philosophy of self-actualization and critical thought,
self-determination, self-reliance
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Galvanizes residents around local issues: cultural
preservation, economic development, gang
violence
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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 Boricua
Human 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.”