Supporting students’ inquiry through doubly authentic learning designs: four configurations of interests, domain, and identity

Abstract

In this research, we examine learning within doubly authentic learning designs, which combine the sociocultural perspective that classrooms should be congruent with professional practices, along with a humanistic perspective that suggests students’ identities should be aligned with what they inquire about in class. Our work is situated in a long-term design based research effort where we have come to theorize and develop a set of specific practices around Humanistic Knowledge Building Communities (HKBCs). Based on interviews, classroom observations, learning artifacts, as well as in-class reflective diaries, we examined different ways that students negotiated their own interests and identities within a learning domain in doubly authentic HKBCs. The analysis of our data, instantiated across multiple case studies, resulted in an interest-identity-domain configuration framework that we call ENDURE. This research contributes new knowledge about the ways in which students’ inquiry interests within knowledge building communities can be supported and sustained through designed activities that foster interconnections between different aspects of their lives and what they study in school.