Co-Designing With Connected Autonomy

• In Event: 54.042 - Co-Design in Practice: Seven Case Studies

Abstract

Purposes
The purpose of this study is to consider the tools, norms, and collaborative structures that supported the members within a small co-design team to work with connected autonomy. This team used specific tools and engaged in cultural practices (Miller & Goodnow, 1995) that enabled productivity, individual sense of contribution, and freedom to express creativity. The participants on this team--three English teachers, one professor, and one doctoral student-- collaborated to create a project-based curricular unit for a ninth grade language arts course. This small team of five core members was one of four co-design teams as part of a larger study.

Perspectives
In this study, I draw on participatory approaches that assume everyone has expertise, and that groups collaborate most successfully when each member is supported to leverage their expertise (Kirshner, 2010; Torre, 2009). In this analysis I presuppose that teachers are able to leverage their expertise in order to contribute to valuable curricular designs. Furthermore, this theoretical stance is based upon recognizing the need to collaboratively identify goals, and feel individual responsibility to work toward them.

Data sources
Our co-design team met monthly during the 2015-2016 academic year, for 2 hours per meeting. Our team used several tools to collaborate in person and in between face-to-face meetings (remotely):
● “Slack”-- a team messaging application (used remotely and in-person)
● Google drive
○ Collective running notes (used remotely and in-person)
○ Collective field journal (used remotely)
○ Shared folders for uploading curricular materials (used remotely)

Methods and modes of inquiry
For this paper, I examine two specific tools and the cultural practices (Miller & Goodnow, 1995) we engaged in through use of these tools. First, I use a grounded theory approach (Glaser, 1992) to code and categorize themes that arise in the use of the collective field journal, by examining both the journal entries and the comments inserted onto the entries. Second, I use the same process to examine four different instances where we used a collaborative structure to 1) silently contribute to the same document, 2) silently read through everyone’s work, using the comment tool to note questions, concerns, or suggestions, and 3) use the comments to then guide a group discussion to make design decisions. I then explore how the emergent themes reflect both instances of autonomy and connection.

Warrants for arguments/point of view
Our co-design team and the curricular unit we produced were regularly brought up as successful, both by the five core participating members within our team, and the larger team of 30 teachers and researchers. In this study, I seek to better understand the tools and practices that initiated and supported our balance between group connection and individual autonomy.


Scholarly significance of the work
Examining the cultural practices and tools used by this co-design team can provide a pathway for other teams of educators, research groups, or co-design teams to create a balance of a) feeling connected and supported, b) being empowered to be autonomous while c) maintaining a structured, goal oriented focus.

Author

• Rebecca G Kaplan, University of Colorado - Boulder