Conduct Design Camp: Provide a Platform for Student Involvement with School Decisions
The true strength in our classroom lies in the collaboration of learners, not in the knowledge of one expert.
– unknown
INTRO
The below resource was designed by Dallas County Promise, and is shared here with their permission.
The Design Camp project is an effort to look more deeply at the day-to-day experiences of students and, with their engagement, to design prototypes for initiatives at school.
Centering the stories and experiences of adolescent students—especially students from historically underserved groups—and inviting them to the design table alongside adults is at the heart of Design Camp.
Design Camp was conceptualized as student-centered, anti-racist, and highly interactive, utilizing the tenets of both Design Thinking and Liberatory Design.
OBJECTIVES
- Provide a platform for student involvement with school decisions and involve them with the design of their own learning experiences.
- Center students in the design-and redesign-of systems that support them.
- Create student eagerness for more connections and creativity that a collaborative design experience brings.
RESOURCE LINKS
- Beyond High School: Student-Centered Transition Supports During COVID-coming soon
Identify Students and Counselors / Teachers
The student to counselor / teacher ratio should be 3:1.
For best results, gather a wide arena of student participants to represent various student segments. Consider placing emphasis on the underserved student population.
The practice of being aware of who participates, and who does not participate, is central to Liberatory Design. In fact, the most important consideration is not how many students—but which students are invited and included. Carefully considered, a small group of participants might reveal as much or more as a large group.
Meeting Time
Consider meeting (in person or virtually, depending on your school’s protocols) for:
- 3 consecutive days
- 2.5 hours each day
Agenda
The conversations should be conducted similar to an Empathy Interview using open-ended questions in order to elicit stories from students and uncover unacknowledged needs the school faces.
Consider 4-8 questions using stems such as:
• Tell me about a time when…
• Tell me about the last time you…
• What are your best/worst experience(s) with __?
• Can you share a story that would help me understand more about…?
Debrief
Collect empathy data as a team, as the experience of listening to a story is as impactful as the data itself. Save time for the team to share stories and reflect on the experiences before, during, and after interviews.
What is Dallas County Promise?
Dallas County Promise is a coalition of school districts, colleges, universities, employers, and communities that have joined forces to help more Dallas County students complete college and begin careers. They support students by providing tuition assistance, success coaching, and advising for students to earn a career certification, associate degree or bachelor’s degree.
Responses