What’s Your Context

By now, you’ve explored some of the issues raised in this lesson and the Inquiry Media stories. As you continue through this course, start paying attention to the topics that keep pulling you back.

Ask yourself:

• Which questions do I keep thinking about long after I’ve finished the lesson?
• What issues genuinely interest me?
• What surprised me?
• What frustrates or concerns me?
• What kind of future do I want for my community? My country? The natural world?

Write down your thoughts. This isn’t a final list. Keep adding to it as you continue to explore in this class. And if you get stuck, browse the Curated Library!

A Big Question

Now, reflecting on your answers to the questions above, ask yourself: How should we – locally or nationally – balance the needs of people and nature?

(Why nature? Why is the question so vague? In case you haven’t, check this out!)

Maybe you think this question is easy. Maybe you’ve got a knee-jerk answer at the ready. That’s great, but our first answer is rarely the best answer. The better answer? It requires – you guessed it – a little context. In this case, ask yourself why the obvious answer hasn’t been acted upon? After all, if the answer is obvious, you’re probably not the first person to have come up with it. Which means the easy answer is stuck. There’s a problem that requires solving. There’s context that needs to be understood. And what does that all mean? Well, your first step to answering this question is actually to brainstorm more questions:

• Why is the obvious answer, in fact, not so obvious?
• Why is the issue stuck?
• Who needs to have a say in the answer? What are their perspectives? What are their concerns and fears? What’s their geographical and historical context?
• How has the issue been handled in the past?
• Are there feelings of injustice, alienation and frustration?
• How can we move forward – together, as a community or country – on this issue? What conditions need to be met?
• What would meaningful progress actually look like?
• What role should research and storytelling play?

Take your initial knee-jerk answer and brainstorm every question you think needs to be explored in order to understand why your answer isn’t the right answer. And as you brainstorm, keep this question in mind: how can research and story help find the better answer?

Build Your Question Bank

Take your first instinctive answer and challenge it.

What information would you need before you could confidently defend your position?

Write down every question that comes to mind. Don’t worry about organizing them yet. As you continue through this course, you’ll return to these questions again and again, refining them as your understanding grows.

Think of this as building your own Inquiry Question Bank – a collection of ideas that will evolve alongside your learning.

And if you’re looking for inspiration, explore the Curated Library to discover new perspectives, experts, and case studies.