Expanding Design Research: From Researcher Ego-Systems to Stakeholder Ecosystems

Abstract

Although design research in wide-ranging fields organizes user-centered and use-inspired design processes, established approaches to design research in the learning sciences and educational technology have typically developed insights and innovations through efforts led by researchers. However, several emerging approaches to design research in these fields organize increasingly participatory forms that leverage human diversity as a resource. Approaches to design research among many complementary disciplines underscore evolving processes not only to couple thought and action but also to foster more inclusive visions and more distributed forms of agency among stakeholders in design projects. Building on this existing literature, the chapter characterizes and compares four emerging approaches with particular attention to processes of designing and their implications for designs. By considering the expanding repertoire of participatory approaches to design research, the chapter explores three interrelated questions about design research. First, we will consider who forms a design and how do they go about doing it. Second, we will consider how answers to these preliminary questions, in turn, frame expertise as design processes unfold. Third, we will consider the influence of design processes on the reach and impact of design research with respect to both educational change and theoretical refinement. In answering these questions, we seek to better resolve the ecological affordances of design research that not only mobilizes stakeholder perspectives in order to inform design processes but also sustains stakeholder networks in order to improve and evolve designs.