Discourses of Parenting as Resource in the Co-Design Workplace

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

Abstract

Purpose
The purpose of this study was to explore the research question “To what effect and purpose do education professionals use discourses of parenting in the context of curriculum co-design?” This question is relevant to co-design because co-design is an effort to democratize forms of curriculum design (Kirshner & Polman, 2013), and the discourse of parent, arguably, helps democratize the workplace by including yet another perspective: that of parent.

Theoretical Framework
My theoretical framework was based in the idea that when we talk, we link into different positions and identities from the various communities we belong to and make use of these identities as a resource (Bakhtin, 1979/2010; Erickson, 1982). Talk indexes shifts in identity, moreover. A way of thinking about shifts in talk has been conceptualized by Goffman (1981), through what he called “a change of footing.” This paper focuses on changes in footing as they took the form of shifts from occupational identity (e.g., researcher, teacher) to parent in the co-design workplace.

Data Sources
As participant observer (Spradley, 1980), I collected multiple data sources, including transcripts of recorded meetings/interviews and artifacts (e.g., handouts, electronic communication) documenting moments when participants mentioned their positions as parent in the context of professional talk. Participants included the five core members of the co-design team (­­three English teachers, one professor, and a doctoral student) and two collaborators, a district language arts coordinator and Director of Education for an outside organization. Members of the core team met approximately monthly, for one and a half hours, during the 2015-2016 academic year. Five of these seven research participants identified as parent.

Methods
My analytic approach was concrete-level and issue-focused (Weiss, 1994), and I sought disconfirming evidence to generate valid claims. My approach to coding was mostly inductive: For the most part, I developed my own codes, to organize instances of the “narrative of parent,” as I labeled them, into analytically meaningful units. In creating these categories, I was interested in how speakers were using the position of parent during moments of talk.

Results
This paper suggests that the discourse of parent does work in the curriculum co-design workplace: It is a resource for bringing knowledge to design team meetings, and it can be used as a strategy in conversation, specifically to (1) negotiate multiple objectives in the workplace and (2) show deep commitment to the work.

Significance

Co-design spaces must solicit multiple experiences and epistemologies (Kirshner & Polman, 2013). From this perspective, my research is good news: The discourse of parent can be indication of a working context that values different kinds of knowing, knowing based on personal experience, experience that is arguably all the more assuredly emotive and deeply felt. But my research is a warning too: The discourse of parent is a hegemonic one, not available to everyone (Hodges, 1998). Furthermore, if teachers and researchers are designing with “their children” at the forefront of their minds, my research underscores the importance of including multiple voices when reviewing and testing curriculum.

Author

• Maravene Taylor-Heine, University of Colorado - Boulder