Community Design Circles: Co-designing Justice and Wellbeing in Family-Community-Research Partnerships

Ann M Ishimaru,Charlene Montaño Nolan,Megan Bang,Aditi Rajendran

doi:10.53956/jfde.2018.133

Ann M Ishimaru, Charlene Montaño Nolan + Show 2 more

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https://doi.org/10.53956/jfde.2018.133

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Abstract

Researchers and practitioners of family engagement have long called for a move beyond conventional deficit-based family-school partnerships. In response, a burgeoning movement in the field has sought to identify and enact new forms of collaboration with nondominant families and communities, in terms of both change-making andthe process of research itself. In this article, we bridge the fields of family engagement and design-based research to conceptualize and illustrate a solidarity-driven process of partnership we undertook with families and communities of color, educators, and other researchers towards community-defined wellbeing and education justice. We offer community design circles as a methodological evolution aimed at reclaiming the central agentic role of families and communities of color in transforming educational research and practice. We illustrate three co-design dimensions with vignettes from a national-level participatory design research project called the Family Leadership Design Collaborative: 1) building from and with families’ and communities’ definitions of wellbeing and justice; 2) disrupting normative, asymmetrical dynamics; and 3) building capacity for social dreaming and changemaking.

Highlights

In recent decades, a number of researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners have looked to nondominant1 families and communities as key “partners” to eliminate education inequities and disparities in student learning, promote student success, and contribute to school improvement efforts (Bolívar & Chrispeels, 2011; Bryk, Sebring, Allensworth, Easton, & Luppescu, 2010; Mapp & Kuttner, 2013)
We offer community design circles as a methodological evolution aimed at reclaiming the central agentic role of families and communities of color in transforming educational research and practice
We carefully look at how we might design for new forms of partnership to occur and heterogeneous definitions of wellbeing and justice to proliferate

Summary

Introduction

A number of researchers, policy-makers, and practitioners have looked to nondominant families and communities as key “partners” to eliminate education inequities and disparities in student learning, promote student success, and contribute to school improvement efforts (Bolívar & Chrispeels, 2011; Bryk, Sebring, Allensworth, Easton, & Luppescu, 2010; Mapp & Kuttner, 2013). Recent scholarship has begun to recognize research-practice partnerships (see Coburn & Penuel, 2016) and community-engaged scholarship (see Warren, Calderón, Kupscznk, Squires & Su, 2018) as forms of educational research that seek to develop findings with direct relevance to change efforts on the ground in schools and communities. Across these two dynamics, a burgeoning movement in the field seeks to theorize and enact new forms of collaboration with nondominant families and communities, in terms of both change-making practice and the process of research itself. We offer community design circles as a methodological evolution aimed at reclaiming the central agentic role of families and communities of color in transforming educational research and practice.

Objectives

Conclusion