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Established in 2011, the Institute on Descriptive Inquiry Inc. (IDI) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that seeks to preserve, promote, expand, and augment the concept of descriptive inquiry.
Purposes of the Institute include:
To work to make descriptive inquiry accessible to a broad array of educators
To work in concert with other organizations with the same or similar objectives
To support projects by educators with similar interests
To organize and conduct workshops, lectures, and symposia based on the concept of descriptive inquiry.
To publish pamphlets, articles, and books on descriptive inquiry or related topics
With historical roots in the descriptive processes developed at the Prospect School and at the Prospect Archive and Center for Education and Research (1965-2011), the Institute promotes thoughtful group processes to describe, look closely at, and reflect upon student and teacher work in order to enhance teacher and school practice.
When the Prospect Archive and Center for Education and Research closed in 2011, the residential institutes formerly known as the Prospect Summer Institutes were carried forward by this new organization, the Institute on Descriptive Inquiry, Inc. The Institute on Descriptive Inquiry, Inc. is guided by a working Board of Directors who welcome the skills and partnership of IDI members in all aspects of their work.
There continue to be two institutes, the Summer Institute on Descriptive Process, an introduction faciitated by skilled practitioners, and the Summer Institute on Descriptive Inquiry, a self-governing, collaborative study group, composed of educators and other experienced professionals, that has convened annually since 1978. Using descriptive processes rooted in the work of Prospect, these Institutes provide a venue for concentrated study over a period of days that may be lived out in the professional and personal settings to which participants return.
In the fall of 2024 the Institute on Descriptive Inquiry returned to a long tradition of convening a Fall Conference, offering a day-long opportunity to learn about and participate in descriptive processes.
In addition members of the Institute are also engaged in ongoing virtual and in-person study groups for teachers, leaders and philosophical inquiry.
While some educators return to these descriptive gatherings from year to year, we extend a warm welcome to newcomers. Our top priority is to expand and diversify participation in our offerings. Expansion means that there are more educators speaking out for democratic values and schools responsive to children. Diversity of all kinds immeasurably adds to and strengthens that message.
A letter from the Institute on Descriptive Inquiry Board of Directors, 2020: IDI and Anti-Racism
IDI membership meeting. We are a grassroots organization. Members are participants who have attended at least two weeks of Summer Institutes within five years.
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