The Inquiry Teacher: Tools for the Elementary Social Studies is written for anyone who would like to be an inquiry teacher or to become a better one. The book is organized into three parts. Part I tackles the fundamentals of inquiry and social studies in the elementary classroom. Part II helps you design an inquiry using the Inquiry Design Model (IDM) blueprint. Part III expands your skill set by helping you think about different kinds of inquiry and how to create an inquiry-based curriculum. Each chapter is anchored by a question because teaching through questions is the cornerstone of inquiry. You will meet real inquiry teachers along the way who have helped us hone our inquiry practices. We hope you see yourself in them and laugh a little along the way.
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Who wrote the Inquiry Teacher?
We are the thinkers, the designers, and the fellow inquirers behind this work.
Kathy Swan (University of Kentucky) took the lead on writing this book. The ideas within The Inquiry
Teacher reflect the collaborative work she has done with John Lee (North Carolina State University)
and S.G. Grant (Binghamton University) over the last decade to shape the policies and practices that
support inquiry in social studies education.
We started our work together as lead authors of the College, Career, and Civic Life (C3) Framework
for States Social Studies Standards and created the inquiry arc that now sits at the center of social
studies education policy in 38 states.4 We also developed the Inquiry Design Model (IDM) and
published a series of books articulating the theory, design process, and application of the IDM’s
signature blueprint.
We have cultivated a strong international community of inquiry teachers through our C3 Teachers
e#ort and documented the magic and challenges of inquiry-based teaching in our film project
Making Inquiry Possible and within our C3 Teachers columns in the NCSS publications Social Education,
Middle Level Learning, and Social Studies and the Young Learner.
Over the years, our colleagues Emma Thacker (James Madison University) and Laura Darolia
(University of Kentucky) have joined the inquiry revolution and brought their many experiences in
elementary education to further inform the work.
The Inquiry Teacher: Tools for the Elementary Social Studies Classroom is our latest collaboration
fusing together all we know about inquiry-based curriculum and instruction in the elementary
classroom into a single book.
As you read !e Inquiry Teacher, our hope is that you join the we of inquiry.
