Toward Designing Spaces for Culturally Relevant Critical Action Learning

• In Event: From the Margins to the Middle: Centering Learners From Understudied Environments

Abstract

Critical Action Learning provides pathways to empower students by fostering their ability to engage in meaningful, hands-on projects that reflect their cultural and local contexts. This paper reports on the participatory design of a school space called the Critical Action Learning Lab (CALL) for inclusive making to support critical action through curriculum-informed design and learning. Data from teacher interactions, discourse and artifacts was collected and analyzed. Our findings suggest that an interdisciplinary integration of different cultural perspectives in critical action lesson designs informed the potential uses of the space. We discuss the potential of centering curriculum and teachers’ perspectives in the design of the CALL space.

Authors

• Preeti Raman, Toronto Metropolitan University

• Mrinalini Mattoo, University of Toronto - OISE

• Renato Carvalho, University of Toronto - OISE

• James D. Slotta, University of Toronto - OISE