Step 1: Select as your focus one or more students and identify your puzzlement(s) about the student(s).

The first step in your CIP study is to identify "puzzlements" about students that you have in your practice and to select one or more as the general focus for your study.

Background on "puzzlements"

Over time, you and other educators have developed knowledge that informs your practice. As long as you encounter the same kinds of people, situations and problems, your "knowing-in-practice tends to become increasingly tacit, spontaneous, and automatic" (Schön, 1983, p. 60).

When you encounter new people, situations or problems that do not match your previous ways of thinking, three possibilities exist: you may ignore the surprise, force it into existing categories, or use it as an opportunity to reflect and explore new categories or points of view (Schön, 1983). The Cultural Inquiry Process (CIP) is designed to help you take the third route--to reflect on and explore surprises from cultural points of view.

In the CIP, student performance (i.e., behaviors or attitudes) that you do not understand (i.e., that is a "surprise") is called a "puzzlement." The term "puzzlement" is used to shift the focus from the "student as problem" to your need to understand more about what you find puzzling, i.e., it focuses on the fact that something puzzles you. Your puzzlement can leave you feeling "positive," "neutral," or "negative" about students' performance. The new behavior, attitudes, or situations that do not match your previous ways of thinking and that prompted your puzzlement are considered "puzzling situations."

To explore a puzzlement through the CIP, you do not need to know in advance that it has cultural influences. By treating a puzzlement as an opportunity to explore cultural influences on a student's or students' performance in educational settings, you increase the likelihood of developing appropriate interventions.

Note 1: The CIP fits very well with the prereferral process for special education (Quinn & Jacob, 1999). See Quinn's elaboration on using the CIP in the special education prereferral process.

Note 2: Although the CIP and the CIP Web site focus on puzzlements involving students, the same process and the general cultural influences (i.e., those presented in the top level CIP questions--3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4, or 3.5) could be used to understand and address other education-related puzzlements, such as those involving students' parents, a new curriculum, or an alternative behavior management program.

Tips for identifying and presenting puzzlement(s)

• Select a puzzlement that is important (either to you or more broadly)--for example, a recurring issue. This will make the effort involved in the CIP seem more worthwhile.
• Similar patterns of performance across individuals in a group are likely to have cultural influences.
• Lack of success by any student or group of students should create a puzzlement for you.
  
• State your puzzlement in a neutral manner, i.e., without value-laden words (good, bad, etc.) and without explicit or implicit judgments. For example: "I am puzzled by girls' attitudes toward mathematics;" or "I want to understand more about John's behavior in school."

Suggestions for writing

You might write one or more memos to help you consider possible puzzlements to explore in your CIP study. You might first list several puzzlements you have. Then for each puzzlement, you might briefly describe the puzzlement, discuss your thoughts and assumptions about the puzzlement, and explore why it is important for you personally and in relation to broader issues.

You might draft the beginning of your CIP study report after you have selected a puzzlement as your focus. To do that you might describe your puzzlement and its context using neutral language. You might also include a "vignette," or concrete description of a particular incident that exemplifies your puzzlement.

Step 2-Known Information