Design From Within: Transformative and Culturally Responsive Co-Design Pedagogy During a Pandemic
Design From Within: Transformative and Culturally Responsive Co-Design Pedagogy During a Pandemic
Design From Within: Transformative and Culturally Responsive Co-Design Pedagogy During a Pandemic
By Maria J. Anderson-Coto & S. Rose O’Leary
February 24, 2021
Summary
Design From Within became the term we used to describe our transformative educational model that combined overlapping and complimentary perspectives from culturally responsive education and critical race theory.
There is also a tendency in HCI to position design as pointing outward to an "Other", implying that researchers do not exist or interact within the communities for which they design.
Calling our practice Design From Within served as a constant reminder of our commitment to transformative education goals of creating a community of practice committed to learning, doing and changing for and within communities.
Her ongoing doctoral research seeks to expand upon this to help create culturally responsive online education for marginalized and minoritized communities.
During her doctoral program in Informatics, she has worked in different participatory design projects with minoritized communities around the topics of wellness and care.
Counterstorying as a design principle means we do not have to be technology "Experts" to be critical experts in what technologies work for or do not work for us and why, and we can use our expertise on ourselves and our communities to make designs that actually work for us.
Design as story is a way to broaden design goals from solution oriented or deficit model thinking to nurturative strategies for imagining healthy futures, interrogating technology, and working from the inside to identify specific community needs, strengths, and strategies for healthy futures.
The participant's work progresses from counterstory to connecting identity and community, and then to a plan for design strategies.
Throughout the program we connected traditional HCI, software design thinking, psychological research on wellness, real world examples of digital health initiatives, and introspection into community and individual needs.
Creating a community of care was central to this project and it became even more essential during the pandemic.
Reference
Anderson-Coto, M. J., & O’Leary, S. R. (2021, February 25). Design From Within: Transformative and Culturally Responsive Co-Design Pedagogy During a Pandemic. Connected Learning Alliance. https://clalliance.org/blog/design-from-within-transformative-and-culturally-responsive-co-design-pedagogy-during-a-pandemic/