Participatory Action Research and design pedagogy: Perspectives for design education
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors make the case for the use of methods and practices developed in Participatory Action Research (PAR) to inform and enrich design practice, research and particularly education.
Abstract: Design’s scope of practice has grown from one that was traditionally defined by materials and processes to one where designers are working on some of the most pressing challenges of our times. Once a reactive, artefact-based practice (e.g. poster, typeface, chair, etc.), design is now being situated as a proactive, social and participatory practice focused on outcomes as much as artefacts. Historically, as an academic subject, professional practice and research area, design has suffered from a lack of formal, established research frameworks and theoretical practices. By drawing on established literature, this article makes the case for the use of methods and practices developed in Participatory Action Research (PAR) to inform and enrich design practice, research and particularly education. The article identifies three shared areas between PAR and design that offer an opportunity for further interrogation; these are: a central concern of working with people; the use of iteration and reflection; and the measuring of success through change.
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TL;DR: Collaborative Futures as discussed by the authors is a live project premised on a futures-focused design brief written with an external partner, which brings together a team of students in their final year on the Masters European Design programme to collaborate with a group of early career design graduates.
Abstract: In this article the authors set out and critically reflect upon an innovative pedagogical approach to delivering studio-based learning – drawing on the ‘Collaborative Futures’ project. Collaborative Futures is a live project premised on a futures-focused design brief written with an external partner. In previous iterations of the project, partners have included Hitachi and The Royal Bank of Scotland. Each year this project brings together a team of students in their final year on the Masters European Design programme to collaborate with a group of early career design graduates. Between 2019 and 2020, the Collaborative Futures project worked with Glasgow City Council’s Centre for Civic Innovation to explore and prototype citizen-centred scenarios surrounding data experiences set in the context of Glasgow 2030. Throughout the project the student-graduate team engaged in multidisciplinary collaboration within and beyond the boundaries of the higher education studio context, working with civic, academic and design professionals, public and third sector organisations, and members of the public. The authors reflect on the design process; theoretically unpack the cross-cultural, studio-based collaboration that took place; and discuss the complex challenges that emerged and the meditating role design artefacts played. Building on the work of Ross (2018) and McAra and Ross (forthcoming), the insights presented in the article have value for design educators seeking new approaches to designing and delivering studio-based design learning that fosters creative, multidisciplinary communities of practice and collaborative capacity-building for design students in a professional setting.
8 citations
Cites background from "Participatory Action Research and d..."
...…experiential insight-gathering; reflective, relational and interpersonal skills such as empathy and reflexivity; identifying and co-defining design opportunities; and (co)designing meaningful and impactful outcomes that lead to preferable futures (Moreira 2018; Lee et al. 2019; Rowe 2020)....
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Book Chapter•
01 Nov 2015
TL;DR: The role of design in shaping, prototyping, and manipulating the political terrain and how educators might equip the next generation of designers with the appropriate ethos, mindset, tools, and techniques to survive and flourish in this new complex context.
Abstract: Over the last two decades, design as a discipline has focused less on the production and manufacture of material things and become more concerned with immaterial or ephemeral interactions. The role of the designer has been rigorously debated and questioned, in part due to the rise of specialisms such as Interaction Design, User Experience Design, and Service Design (Press and Cooper 2003; Danish Designers Manifesto 2010; Inns 2010). Coinciding with this de-material turn in design practice, we have seen a ‘material and speculative turn’ throughout the humanities, whereby power and political agency are attributes of non-human entities – conjuring a world, in Jane Bennett’s words, of ‘vibrant matter’ (Bennett 2010). The ‘material turn’ has been expanded through different disciplines, from philosophy (Bryant, Srnicek, and Harman 2011) and cultural studies (Bennett and Joyce 2013) to anthropology (Hicks 2010), and reaffirms an examination of the material domain as essential for our understanding of current political and economic realities. This ‘turn’ moves us beyond a conceptualisation of the world as socially or technologically deterministic, towards a networked distribution of agency. A world of distributive agency, where material entities are recognised actors that ‘make the difference’ and ‘make things happen’ (Bennett 2010: 9), naturally calls into question the role of design. Moving design from a politics of production to a production of politics calls for a radical rethink of the educational modes and frameworks built over the last century. This chapter examines the role of design in shaping, prototyping, and manipulating the political terrain and considers how educators might equip the next generation of designers with the appropriate ethos, mindset, tools, and techniques to survive and flourish in this new complex context. In order to build a clearer picture of what I mean by the de-material turn, I look to design thinking as an exemplar of a sub-discipline that evolved without a material basis. With its history in the design science movement of the 1970s (Cross 2001) and its more recent adoption into innovation and business studies (Kimbell 2011), design thinking has been developed and deployed as a series of tools and methods outside the traditional mediums of design:
7 citations
01 Jun 2021
TL;DR: This article identified and reviewed twenty design thinking related courses offered as MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) taught by instructors from a number of Chinese universities between February and June 2020.
Abstract: Though design thinking has gained increasing popularity in higher education, few studies have explored how it is perceived and taught in non-western contexts. This study identified and reviewed twenty design thinking related courses offered as MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) taught by instructors from a number of Chinese universities between February and June 2020. Further, we selected six courses from these MOOCs for in-depth analysis by reviewing the design cases and examples introduced in the course videos. Our findings reveal the absence of well-stated learning outcomes, and lack of diversity when it comes to the cultural contexts and design areas of the design cases covered in all the MOOCs. We propose three recommendations for future design of DT-related MOOCs in the Chinese context, in terms of situating teaching design thinking in the wider curriculum structure, integrating more active and peer learning components to create better flipped learning experiences, and increasing the diversity of design cases. Apart from supplementing current case studies, this research can shed light on why and how the teaching of design thinking can be modified in different contexts, to achieve quality rather than simply borrowing design thinking as a much-hyped concept.
2 citations
01 Jan 2004
TL;DR: This full-day workshop will explore in an interactive manner how constructivist approaches to teaching can support the teaching and learning of participatory design in academic and non-academic contexts.
Abstract: The goal of this full-day workshop is to create a place where people can share experiences, plans, and questions about teaching Participatory Design (PD). We aim to create a context for all of us to talk about how we design and set up courses, what challenges we face and how we solve them. The workshop is for people who are interested in the way people teach as well as in what is taught and what resources are gathered to aid the process. During the workshop, we will explore in an interactive manner how constructivist approaches to teaching can support the teaching and learning of participatory design in academic and non-academic contexts. We will also discuss experiences in using recent material such as the new (2012) PD Handbook. We hope that this dialogue can become a regular part of PDC.
2 citations
1 citations
References
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01 Jan 1994
TL;DR: This is also one of the factors by obtaining the soft documents of this competing paradigms in qualitative research by online as discussed by the authors. But, it will totally squander the time.
Abstract: This is likewise one of the factors by obtaining the soft documents of this competing paradigms in qualitative research by online. You might not require more become old to spend to go to the books establishment as skillfully as search for them. In some cases, you likewise do not discover the broadcast competing paradigms in qualitative research that you are looking for. It will totally squander the time.
15,524 citations
TL;DR: The evolution in design research from a user-centred approach to co-designing is changing the roles of the designer, the researcher and the person formerly known as the "user" as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Designers have been moving increasingly closer to the future users of what they design and the next new thing in the changing landscape of design research has become co-designing with your users. But co-designing is actually not new at all, having taken distinctly different paths in the US and in Europe. The evolution in design research from a user-centred approach to co-designing is changing the roles of the designer, the researcher and the person formerly known as the ‘user’. The implications of this shift for the education of designers and researchers are enormous. The evolution in design research from a user-centred approach to co-designing is changing the landscape of design practice as well, creating new domains of collective creativity. It is hoped that this evolution will support a transformation toward more sustainable ways of living in the future.
3,692 citations
TL;DR: For serious practitioners of participatory action research, it is helpful to identify its principles as mentioned in this paper, and this paper outlines some principles of participation research in Australia that have bee found useful.
Abstract: For serious practitioners of participatory action research, it is helpful to identify its principles. This paper outlines some principles of participatory action research in Australia that have bee...
732 citations
TL;DR: The term design thinking has gained attention over the past decade in a wide range of contexts beyond the traditional preoccupations of designers as discussed by the authors, the main idea is that the ways professional design...
Abstract: The term design thinking has gained attention over the past decade in a wide range of contexts beyond the traditional preoccupations of designers. The main idea is that the ways professional design...
657 citations
01 Feb 1996
TL;DR: In this article, the authors discuss Lewin's basic dictums and their influence in the author's work and that of others, and discuss process consultation and clinical research and describe a design to teach the management of planned change.
Abstract: This paper discusses some of Lewin's basic dictums and their influence in the author's work and that of others. Specifically, the paper expands on Lewin's change model. It also discusses process consultation and clinical research and describes a design to teach the management of planned change. The paper concludes that planned change might be better conceptualized as managed learning.
653 citations