Student-Led and Co-Designed: Shifting the Role of Youth in Project-Based Learning Curriculum

• In Event: Elevating Student Agency to Promote Equity and Authenticity in Student-Led Projects

Abstract

Purpose
Project-based learning (PjBL) curriculum often emphasizes the importance of a student-centered approach to learning, including design principles such as student voice/agency, student engagement, and authenticity (Author, 2020; Krajcik & Blumenfeld, 2006). Often this approach results as student-led projects, where students take the driver’s seat, determining aspects of the final product of the projects as well as the direction of the projects themselves (Author, in press). However, processes of designing student-led projects often exclude students themselves from the design process. In this presentation, the authors describe the design framework of a PjBL curriculum project that utilizes youth co-design—and therefore increases student agency—in the creation of identity-centered PjBL curriculum for emerging bilingual students.

Perspectives
In our design work and in this paper, we take a sociocultural perspective on youth co-design, in that we view learning and development as interactions between individuals (in this case youth, teachers, district curriculum specialists, and researchers) and the contexts in which they participate (Holland, Lachicotte, Skinner, & Cain, 1998). In particular, the conceptual framework for this project utilized literature on designing to support learners’ identity development (Author, 2020; Nasir, 2012; Nasir & Hand, 2008). The youth co-design process for this project focuses on youth as an integral part of designing the curriculum (Author, 2019; Pitt, et al., 2019).

Methods & Data Sources
At the time of writing, the youth co-design process had not begun (to start 7/2021) – this paper focuses, for now, on the framework created to facilitate youth co-design. By the time of presentation, we will present data from co-design sessions that included both teachers and adolescent youth, as well as an analysis of the co-designed curriculum.

Results
The approach towards co-design seeks to navigate the power dynamics and participation of blending youth and teachers in co-design sessions, disrupting hierarchies of expertise. For the design process, we take the perspective that equitable learning opportunities extend beyond access to curriculum to also shifting the roles in which youth in general and, specifically youth marginalized in public education, are invited to take within education. Put another way, we will describe a model of youth co-design with the goals of not only creating a better curriculum but seeking to disrupt historic inequitable roles for marginalized youth in education.

Scholarly Significance
The presentation highlights how positioning youth as co-designers of educational curriculum challenges traditional hierarchical power structures. Our model of youth co-design shifts youth into the role of protagonist within their learning environments, introducing opportunities for them to collaborate in new and empowering ways (Iversen, Smith, & Dindler 2017). As designers consider the boundaries of “student-led” projects, it would be useful to leverage the metaphor of “youth as protagonist” to consider the design of PjBL curriculum.

Author

• Gavin Tierney, California State University - Fullerton