One of the more difficult parts of writing inquiries is often crafting a compelling question. As teachers, we ask questions every day. We ask essential questions to help students address “essential” content. We ask supporting questions to help break up complex tasks and check for understanding. A compelling question’s role is different. In inquiry learning, a compelling question frames an inquiry investigation, sparks student curiosity, is argumentative, intellectually rigorous, and grounded in real issues. No small feat. They must be all of those things, plus be student-friendly. Long, jargon-filled questions will compel students…to take a nap.
When I first joined a project to commemorate the Woman’s Suffrage Centennial with various organizations in Louisville, KY, I was tasked with creating a curriculum collection grounded in inquiry learning. We wanted to have materials reflecting the enduring issues woven throughout women’s suffrage and other rights movements.
The thing I was missing, however, was a compelling question. I didn’t need just any compelling question. If it was going to frame a large project such as this one, it had to be a truly compelling compelling question. I knew the compelling question needed to do a lot of things: encapsulate not only the complexities of the Suffrage Movement, but also speak to enduring challenges related to voting rights in the United States and beyond. It needed to be intellectually rigorous, but still student friendly.
As I immersed myself in collecting sources and writing supporting questions, many themes jumped out at me: the sacrifices of women, including emotional and physical challenges, as well as the very real dangers many women faced. The sacrifices made by marginalized groups, such as African Americans, were particularly stark. Women of privilege faced difficulties too, but the particular challenges facing non-white women put them in a perilous place, as they were victims of both racism and sexism. The staunch opposition to expanding voting rights also crystallized how women’s pleas for the right to vote were matched with an equal passion to keep women disenfranchised.
Likewise, the personal struggles around suffrage illuminate larger questions about voting’s context within a democracy. To describe a vote plainly in terms of selecting representatives flattens the larger symbolic weight of voting in a democracy. For women and men alike, voting is one’s voice in society. Voting represents one’s civic identity, societal membership, and overall personhood and humanity. From “no taxation without representation” to modern questions around felon disenfranchisement, American democratic principles rest on the vote. Some of the most enduring questions of United States history have involved the democratic-ness of American democracy. Who can participate and to what extent?
With dozens of suffragist (and anti-suffragist) voices swirling in my head, I was still wrestling with the right compelling question: I needed one that communicated the importance of voting, but also how that importance varied to different people. It needed to show how that importance could lead to life-long advocacy, to the forming of political organizing clubs, marches, speeches, as well as lead to victimization. It needed to communicate how voting rights have always been, and continue to be, the linchpin of a healthy democracy….and likewise, are continually threatened by those fearing increased democracy will challenge their political control.
As I wrestled with these ideas, I burst awake at 2:00 am one night with the compelling question: what is a vote worth?
Rather than asking, why was suffrage important to activists? this question brings their struggle into the present, emphasizing the enduring challenges to voting rights and free, fair elections. Simple, kid-friendly, and intellectually rigorous, the question illustrates the ways in which the Suffrage Movement speaks to larger questions of democratic participation, voting as a civic act, and what it means to be a citizen. Not all compelling questions are going to be equally compelling. However, spending the time to carefully craft your questions is worth the effort. With this question framing inquiries, students can explore the value of a vote: its past, present, and continuing challenges.
