Creative Inquiry

Brick wall with spray painted words “Together We Create” in old English style font.

Creative Inquiry is a term I’ve used for the last ten years, yet it remains on the periphery of K-12 education discourse. I first encountered creative inquiry through Dr. Julia Marshall, a leading arts education thinker at San Francisco State University. Julia opened my eyes to what it means to engage in an inquiry process through a creative lens. She captivated my curiosity by demonstrating how, as a teacher, I could integrate the arts to cultivate deep connections, metacognitive awareness, and meaningful learning experiences. She revealed how artists construct meaning and communicate ideas through creative inquiry. This process moved me profoundly. It made my teaching sharper, more engaged, and, surprisingly, more fluid.

Teach with Depth and Connection

By the time I discovered creative inquiry, I was already a veteran educator. I had been following the Teaching for Understanding framework from Harvard’s Project Zero, an approach that took years to master as I transitioned from scripted curricula to designing my own units. I had become adept at crafting yearlong throughlines and coordinating interconnected units. Deeply connected learning generates powerful academic outcomes.

Creative inquiry allowed me to bring my students into the heart of our unit design, making learning a truly collaborative endeavor. I sought to create experiences that centered their interests, integrating collective discovery alongside their individual pursuits.

All it took was asking, "How are we going to learn this?" and my students responded with the most brilliant ideas. “We can read a book!” “We can look it up on YouTube!” “We can make bread!” Their ideas fueled each other’s thinking, and their excitement energized me.

By centering my students' curiosities, needs, and questions, I was responding to them as learners—honoring their agency and inviting them to shape the learning process with me.