Designing With, Not For: A Case Study of Neurodivergent STEM Learners’ Identity, Agency, and Presence

• In Event: Child Development Across Varied Contexts

Abstract

This qualitative case study examines how neurodivergent middle school students enacted identity, agency, and rightful presence in a five-session, co-designed data science program. Drawing on Design Justice, sociocultural theory, and the neurodiversity paradigm, we analyzed transcripts, artifacts, and observations to understand how learners shaped participation on their own terms. Students drew on personal and community knowledge, adapted tools, and reframed tasks to assert epistemic authority and influence design outcomes. Their contributions—sometimes affirmed, sometimes overlooked—revealed both the possibilities and limits of justice-oriented participation. Findings show how rightful presence emerges through student-authored meaning-making, collaborative critique, and civic imagination, highlighting possibilities for STEM learning that affirm neurodivergent strengths and expand notions of rightful presence.

Authors

• Amy Walter, North Carolina State University

• Briana Trager, North Carolina State University

• Bruce Graham, North Carolina State University

• Jessica H. Hunt, North Carolina State University

• Krista D. Glazewski, North Carolina State University