2026-09-19T18:35:50Z https://api.figshare.com/v2/oai

oai:figshare.com:article/31451623 2025-12-01T00:00:00Z portal_693 item_type_8 month_year_12_2025

Using Inquiry Learning to Shift Towards a Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy in Elementary Social Studies Shawn Reddy (23292004) Education Curriculum and Instruction Prentice T. Chandler and Todd S. Hawley (2017) have poignantly noted that social studies instruction has traditionally “erased the histories and experiences” (p. 7) of students of color. This study addresses the question of how white teachers who teach students of color can use inquiry learning to shift traditional elementary social studies instructional practices towards a more culturally sustaining pedagogy. Elementary social studies instruction has traditionally been teacher-centric and rooted in a mono-perspective of historytelling that represents a dominant cultural narrative that often alienates and subtracts students of color from their learning (Valenzuela, 1999). Through a teacher inquiry community that incorporates six-week classroom-based inquiry units, structured participatory conversations, teacher interviews, and teacher artifact collection, this study argues that a shift towards inquiry learning that incorporates student-driven practices that promote building student agency and civic engagement, centering marginalized voices and counter-narratives, and cultivating inquisitive mindsets, is a more culturally sustaining pedagogy that reimagines elementary social studies “where diverse, heterogeneous practices are not only valued but sustained” (Alim and Paris, 2017). 2025-12-01T00:00:00Z Text Thesis 10.25417/uic.31451623.v1 https://figshare.com/articles/thesis/Using_Inquiry_Learning_to_Shift_Towards_a_Culturally_Sustaining_Pedagogy_in_Elementary_Social_Studies/31451623 In Copyright Open Access after 2028-01-01