Co-navigating mobilized student inquiry across multiple contexts

This study traces the learning trajectories of secondary students who conducted inquiry projects based on their personal interests. The study conceptualizes the activities, practices, and tools associated (and not associated) with the inquiry projects within the learning lives of the student participants. The university researchers and the classroom teachers were active participants who assisted the students; shared their own learning lives; and provided resources, tools, and opportunities that helped shape the students’ inquiry projects. The analysis features a co-navigation (with the researchers, the teachers, and the students) of learning trajectories across multiple contexts and social interactions. Findings reveal the agentive ways students took up and cast aside opportunities and artifacts in unexpected, yet fruitful, ways for the development of their inquiry projects. The paper concludes with implications for the design and facilitation of student inquiry across multiple contexts.