How to use this site

You may want to think of this book as a boundless table covered with an intriguing buffet of food. While readings will be required for class, ultimately you will choose which ‘foods’ (sections) appeal to you the most. It is designed so that you can navigate organically through the complexity of TI based on your own interests and the needs of your inquiry partners, those individuals who will be part of your TI journey. The book offers suggestions for trying new ways of attending, being, and doing, and you will decide what works best for you as an educator. It is up to you to adapt the process for your own needs and your particular learning situations.

We often talk about the usefulness of TI and continuously seek ways for it to be practical. On the way to practicality however, we ask you to be open to possibilities that you may not have considered previously. For example, TI often requires attention to intuition and other ways of knowing such as those you might access in the inquiry journaling process. While not everyone is comfortable with creative activities such as collage, our hope is that you will suspend your assumptions and dive into the unknown for a while. Many past participants of the course have been pleasantly surprised by what they have learned through what appeared at first to be unusual, awkward and even disconcerting approaches.

While this iBook is in many ways a linear text, the process of TI is anything but linear. This iBook should be considered a modular resource (start or stop reading this book at any chapter/section) for your experience in the TI course and beyond. We suggest that you return and re-read sections of the book periodically. We have also included hyperlinks to bring you out of this iBook to resources that resonate with our work. New experiences can lead to new perspectives that offer other lenses from which to understand the process.

Definitions

Many students have noticed that there are a lot of new words (some of which we made up!) in this text. You can always look for it in the glossary if you need to find some more clarity on certain terms.

A site in the state of be~coming

Please note that we are continuously updating the contents of this site and appreciate your feedback to continue to develop its relevancy. Specific suggestions are particularly appreciated. What is unclear? Where would more information be helpful? How can the organizational structure be tweaked? Let us know your thoughts, by sending us a quick note via your instructor or to: tinquiry@uvic.ca. Student feedback has been greatly useful in developing the content of this book to this point.