Center for Playful Inquiry
let’s partner to inspire courage, invigorate community, and catalyze change
What we do
The Center for Playful Inquiry partners with adults who care for children to embolden their practice, improving living and learning conditions that promote voice, agency, and strong community. By prioritizing play, the arts, and meaning-making, we strengthen the relationship between childhood and adulthood to inspire justice, democracy, and beauty through curiosity, compassion, and courage. We cultivate partnership through the online Studio for Playful Inquiry, presentations and workshops, customized consulting, individual coaching and publication,
In The Studio for Playful Inquiry
You’ll join a global community dedicated to sparking, sustaining, and practicing curiosity, joy, and possibility on behalf of our work alongside children, families, and colleagues..
The Studio engages play, the arts, and meaning-making to hold a stance against scripts and standardization.
Moving forward with uncertainty while holding a strong image of children relies on compassionate collaborators. And The Studio is full of them -waiting for you!
If you have questions about the experience or registration, don’t hesitate to reach out.
Get the book!
Get the book!
How can we establish a classroom community of beginning writers where equity, empathy, and compassion become part of the process and vital by-products of story writing?
Story Workshop includes an abundance of classroom videos, photos, and student samples that illustrate what is possible. Watch how students’ imaginations soar, their love of writing blossoms, and their connections with one another become the focal point of your classroom.
Now in The Studio for Playful Inquiry
Each month we explore a "through line" of interest to members around the world. This month, we're holding a stance against a mindset that can frame our work with children and each other. How do we find abundance when the stories we're told about our economic system are grounded in scarcity?
We’ll launch our study in conversation with Ontario second-grade teacher Donna Indrakumaran, who is finding that documentation is helping keep her attention on the bounty of gifts that surround her.
We’ll read Robin Wall Kimmerer’s new book, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World with an eye toward what it has to tell us about our practice.
Arts leader Kathryn Ann Myer will help us find abundance through the language of nature journaling.
Coming Soon in The Studio
In February, we’re hosting a new course with The Revolutionary Love Project’s Nicole Marie and Valarie Kaur.
Learn more (and register) here.
What people are saying about our work:
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“If John Dewey were to come back from the grave, he would say YES. This is what I was talking about.”
Tom Newkirk, author
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“The Studio serves as a warming hut for teachers when so much in education these days feels cold and sharp.”
Kathy Collins, author and literacy consultant
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“The thoughtful questions Matt and Susan asked and the resources they shared helped build our team's capacity to think deeply about what it means to engage educators in collaboration, learning, and student-centered teaching."
Emily Glasgow, Portland Public Schools
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“I leave energized and excited about ways to connect educators to deeper senses of purpose and collaboration, of the central role of inquiry and play in learning, and of the crucial function of leaders who think, question and act rather than just ‘do’.”
Fiona Zinn, The Friends’ School, Hobart, Tasmania
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“From sharing documentation, to sharing ideas and thought processes - all of it makes us more ready to serve the children in our care, to meet them where they need us to be.”
Donna Indrakumaran, Dufferin Peel Catholic District School Board
What are Studio members saying?
Take a listen to these short testimonials from current Studio members - then join them! Jump in for a membership trial today!
About Us
Matt Karlsen
I find joy and purpose in partnering with other educators to investigate their work with children in order to expand our imagination regarding new frontiers for how that work supports dignity and democracy. Over the last twenty-five years, my teacher-research journey has included work as a teacher and as a facilitator of professional development (including as Director of Opal School's Center for Learning.)
Susan Harris MacKay
I find great meaning in working with educators who wish to enrich their practice as teacher-researchers committed to strengthening relationships between play, beauty, and justice. Former teacher and pedagogical director at Opal School and Portland Children’s Museum, my work has appeared in a variety of publications in the fields of museum education, leadership, and classroom practice. Most recently, I authored Story Workshop: New Possibilities for Young Writers (Heinemann, 2021). I’m excited to offer individual coaching sessions for educators and caregivers.
