100 PREPARATION OF SCHOOL LEADERS
Democratic Inquiry
Dewey's democratic community is much envisaged as a community of inquiry. As Dewey
understood it, community is a way of living in which people are bound together by "mutually
interpenetrating" interests, where "each has to refer his own action to that of others, and to
consider the action of others to give point and direction to his own" (1916a, p. 87).
Inquiry, as Dewey conceived it, is carried out by individual inquirers as members of
communities of inquiry, bound by a covenant of community responsibilities. The individual
inquirer is “committed to stand by the results of similar inquires” (1904, p. 18). Inquiry, as
Dewey explained, is transactional, open-ended, and inherently social. Inquiry begins with an
indeterminate situation–conflicting, contradictory, unclear–and works to make the situation
determinate. The inquirer, rather than standing outside the problematic situation is in it and in
transaction with it. Inquiry is thought intertwined with reflection in and on action, moving
from doubt, to the resolution of doubt, to the generation of new doubt. The inquirer is in the
situation, “instituting new environing conditions that occasion new problems” (p. 8). Inquiry
is transactional, shaping and then being shaped by a problematic situation. Dewey (1938) in,
Logic: The Theory of Inquiry, presented a definition of inquiry that has served as a referent for
inquiry in education:
Inquiry is the controlled and directed transformation of an indeterminate situation
into one that is so determinate in its constituent distinctions and relations as to con-
vert the elements of the original situation into a unified whole. (pp. 104-105, italics in
original)For Dewey (1916a), the purpose of education was the intellectual, moral, and emotional
growth of the individual and, consequently, the social evolution of a democratic society; the
realization of the ideals of democracy through socially engaged citizens. Socially engaged
citizens, from Dewey’s perspective interpret as citizens engaged in social inquiry. Dewey saw
the worth of a democratic society as measured by:
the extent in which the interests of a group are shared by all its members,... the full-
ness and freedom with which it interacts with other groups,... [and the extent to
which it] makes provision for participation in its good of all its members on equal
terms and which secures flexible readjustment of its institutions through interaction of
the different forms of associated life... (1916a, p. 99)Such a society that is democratic requires a system of education that gives the individual
“a personal interest in social relationships and control, and the habits of mind which secure
social changes without introducing disorder” (Dewey, 1916a, p. 99). It also requires a system
of education that reflects an active citizenry, functioning as a community and engaged in so-
cial inquiry; a community of inquiry.
Premised on Dewey’s democracy, education leaders would use inquiry to generate local,
or practical knowledge, developed and used by practitioners and their immediate communi-
ties, as well as public knowledge, which is invaluable to the larger community of practitio-
ners, researchers, and policy makers. Democratic practitioners would also use a critical lens to
guide inquiry and practice, seeking to ensure that ethics of social justice, equity, and caring
are woven into the generative processes associated with knowledge. The democratic leader
learns from practice through inquiry regarded as an integral part of and a critical basis for de-