Inquiry-based Community Education Practice module (CO20015)

Understanding the needs and priorities of the communities and people is critical to effective practice. It is important to be curious and critical of the world, as well as our own assumptions.

This module explores how you will achieve this through inquiry-based practice in your work with communities.

You will explore theoretical perspectives and practice examples by looking at inquiry-based Community Education practice.

You will be able to apply and reflect on these ideas in practice. You will undertake this while you are on placement. You will use critical dialogue to engage with theoretical perspectives and experiential learning. This will deepen your understanding of dialogue for inquiry.

What you will learn

In this module you will:

• learn about inquiry-based practice. This will draw on theoretical perspectives and practice examples
• investigate your own assumptions. You will reflect on your values and standpoints. This will allow you to develop an understanding of:
  • ontological perspectives
  • epistemology
  • their relation to inquiry-based Community Education practice
• engage in critical dialogue as a vehicle for inquiry. You will look at its particular role in Community Education practice

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

• apply creative thinking to community inquiry
• embed critical dialogue in practice inquiry
• show understanding of key ontological and epistemological concepts
• understand your own value base and assumptions and their relationship to inquiry-based practice

Assignments / assessment

2,000 words essay (100%)

• set in Week 1
• due in Week 24

This module does not have a final exam.

Teaching methods / timetable

• seminars (ten 2-hour sessions during an intensive week of teaching in semester one)
• lectures (three 2-hour sessions in semester two)

Typically, the programme of sessions looks like this:

1. Introduction
2. Seeing the world through critical eyes
3. Key dilemmas in practice
4. Positionality, reflexivity and transformative practice
5. Collaborative community-led practice
6. Examples from practice
7. The relevance of inquiry-based practice
8. Enabling dialogical practice
9. Creative approaches
10. Recap

Topics for the three classes in semester two will be developed in response to topics raised during semester one.