Working Project Title: Exploring Positionality-related Thinking on Technology Use in First-year Interaction Design Crits
In previous PGCert units, I found that first-year Computer Science students on the Intro to Human-Computer Interaction course presented ideas in crits that were technology-centred (McDonald and Michela, 2019; blog post link). This is reinforced by the hard-science thinking which dominates computer science (Garibay, 2015; Wong et al., 2021) – less personal and pluralistic reflections tend to happen in this style of work.
As a lecturer and throughout the PGCert, I’ve learnt that I’m passionate about students identifying what they like to do, understanding why this is so, to ultimately inform their pathways through and after the degree. Yet, I find that students often do not bring forth more personal ideas, nor reflect upon how their lived experience and background inform their thinking.
My initial action research project idea is thus to explore how positionality-related thinking occurs in crits. The working research question is: How does positionality-related thinking occur when encouraged in first-year HCI crits?
The teaching context is: students are tasked with designing a visual journaling app. Users of the app need to be encouraged to reflect on their use of a technology (students’ choice) and how their intersectional identities impact this technology use. The assessment brief is introduced to students on the 27th of Oct. The weekly crits are to run on: 10th Nov; 17th Nov; (break week from crits); 1st Dec; and 8th Dec. Each crit is guided, with students completing template slides.
There are ~20 students. The crit style is ‘traditional’ in that they present at the front of the room, to the class (the motivation to start building this essential skill with the students early in the course).
My initial idea is to use the Panopto recordings of the students’ presentations (which occur in classes anyway, so are unobtrusive on the teaching, making sure the teaching doesn’t directly change in a way that makes students feel like they are being researched on). I want to identify points of positionality-related thinking with the students in their critiques. This would then lead to recommendations for how and when students felt they were comfortable bringing forth their positionality, which other teachers could try themselves.
References
Garibay, J.C. (2015) ‘STEM students’ social agency and views on working for social change: Are STEM disciplines developing socially and civically responsible students?’, Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 52(5), pp. 610–632.
McDonald, J.K. and Michela, E. (2019) ‘The design critique and the moral goods of studio pedagogy’, Design Studies, 62, pp. 1–35. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.destud.2019.02.001.
Wong, B. et al. (2021) ‘Is race still relevant? Student perceptions and experiences of racism in higher education’, Cambridge Journal of Education, 51(3), pp. 359–375. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/0305764X.2020.1831441.