Extending the Relationship: Using the Complementarity of Participatory Design and Cultural Historical Activity Theory to Improve Educational Practice and Research

• In Event: 16.059 - Poster Session 2
  In Poster Session: 16.059-8 - A Self-Guided Gallery Walk of the Poster Session as a Difficult Exhibition

Abstract

In this paper, using examples drawn from a study of two participatory design-based teacher-researcher collaborative research groups, we seek to illustrate the mutually informing value of CHAT and participatory design (PD) theories. Theories of PD respond to important characteristics of the local activity system and the knowledge embedded within it, while staying committed to the transformation and improvement of that local context. Attention to the ways that CHAT and PD inform each other allow educational researchers to both develop learning theories that are more representative of the local context and make the work of research itself consistently and authentically transformative.

Authors

• Ung-Sang Lee, University of California - Los Angeles

• Kimberley Gomez, University of California - Los Angeles