With best intentions:a Foucauldian examination on children’s genuine participation in ICT design

Abstract Purpose: Children have been recognized as an important user group for information and communication technology (ICT) and methods for involving them in ICT design have already been devised. However, there is a lack of research on children’s genuine or authentic participation in ICT design as well as a lack of critical research scrutinizing how “children” and “their participation” actually end up constructed in ICT design. The paper aims to discuss these issues Design/methodology/approach: An intervention involving children in ICT design following the research strategy of nexus analysis was implemented. A qualitative data archive of this intervention is examined through a Foucauldian lens. Findings: The study reveals that numerous discourses were relied on when talking about “children” and “their participation” in the case project: the discourses of participation, equality, domination, segregation, rebellion, and patronization were identified. Moreover, “children” were constructed as equal partners and influential, but also as ignorant, ignored, silent, and silencing each other. Some of the findings are in line with the existing ICT literature on the matter, others even with the literature on genuine participation of children. However, children and their participation were also constructed as “problematic” in many senses. Research limitations/implications: The study contributes to and opens up avenues for critical research on genuine participation of users, especially children. Practical implications: Practical suggestions for researchers interested in participation of children in ICT design are provided. Originality/value: While research literature offers an abundance of best practices and an idealized view on children and their participation, this study shows the multitude of challenges involved and discourses circulating around

A Making project at school as a nexus of practice:from interdisciplinarity to zones of identification

Despite an abundance of research on collaboration between participants with di!erent disciplinary backgrounds, there is less research available on researchers’ reflections on their working process. This study sheds light on the interdisciplinary work of a research group in the context of a Making project involving design and digital fabrication at school. Nexus analysis is used as a research strategy. The research material includes researchers’ reflective writing, a video recording of their group discussion and their participatory observations throughout their longstanding collaboration surrounding the short-term Making project. The findings highlight the diversity and roles of the key social actors, and how their historical bodies and discourses in place related to doing research in academia are relevant for the actual Making project at school. The study provides implications for methodological development, interdisciplinary work and for carrying out projects with participants beyond university

Multiple voices in the maker movement:a nexus analytic literature review on children, education and making

Abstract Inviting children to take part in maker movement has been advocated, especially in the context of education. Despite the numerous publications related to making, a more theoretical treatment and common vocabulary of the topic are still lacking. This paper utilizes as its theoretical lens the research framework of nexus analysis, suited for an in-depth study of complex social phenomena, to make sense of existing research on children and making. The study illustrates the value of the nexus-analytic concepts of ‘discourses in place’, ‘interaction order’ and ‘historical body’, the three aspects of social action, in scrutinizing the extant research as well as indicates how to utilize these concepts in educational making projects with children: when establishing relationships with children, involving children as makers, and analyzing the results. Implications for IS research, practice and education are discussed

Educational participatory design in the crossroads of histories and practices:aiming for digital transformation in language pedagogy

Abstract Some level of digital technology design skills and competencies is important in any profession but in their education and work life this is often ignored. We explore the potential of Educational Participatory Design (EPD) in transforming work practices within diverse disciplines. This is done through a transdisciplinary case where EPD was used as an approach for transforming language teacher education seen to respond too slowly to technological advancements in society and work life. Based on our findings, we propose EPD as a useful approach for building the design agency of future professionals with various disciplinary and professional backgrounds. In the context of real-life work practice with students as future workers, EPD invites them to act as ‘designers’ envisioning novel practices and technologies for their own work, engaging their ‘users’ in the PD processes. EPD as a novel methodological approach integrates design with work practice learning and education and therefore, we suggest, belongs to the core expertise of CSCW research and design interested in the digital transformation of work practices

Video diary as a means for data gathering with children:encountering identities in the making

Abstract This paper examines video diaries gathered from 10–11-year-old pupils with the aim of inquiring children׳s technology use in their everyday life. A discourse lens is utilized to provide novel insights into the nature and use of videos and diaries in Human Computer Interaction (HCI) research and design. The paper shows how the children, given the same assignment, produced their video diaries from a range of different positions such as ‘a diarist’, ‘a news anchor’ and ‘a stage performer’, and through a variety of widely known genres such as ‘an intimate, confessional diary entry’, ‘a news broadcast’, and ‘a homework assignment’. The children also smoothly moved between the positions and genres sometimes changing them several times even during one video clip. Our findings bear implications on two types of HCI research: firstly, studies using diaries for research and design purposes and, secondly, studies interested in videos produced by the research subjects. The paper emphasizes videos and diaries as a multifaceted resource not only revealing facts from the producers׳ lives but also playful experimenting with different positions and genres highlighting constant identity exploration and construction going on during the creation of the data. During the data analysis it is useful to consider within what kind of positionings and genres the pieces of data or ‘facts’ have been created as these genres and positions always frame and limit what is said and how. The paper also suggests that researchers could try to guide the research subjects to adopt certain positions and to rely on certain genres in producing their diaries or video clips to obtain better-focused data for particular research or design purposes. On the other hand, challenges involved with this kind of an attempt are also highlighted

Multiple voices in ICT design with children:a nexus analytical enquiry

Abstract Children’s participation in information and communication technology (ICT) design is an established interdisciplinary research field. Methods for children’s participation have been developed, but a closer link between theory and design has been called for, as well as an examination of various participants influencing children’s participation in ICT design. This paper addresses these gaps by introducing the research strategy of nexus analysis as a promising theoretical framework. Especially the concepts of ‘interaction order’ and ‘historical body’ are utilised in the analysis of six empirical studies on ICT design with children. The analysis shows that through the participating children there were also ‘others’ involved, multiple voices to be heard, often invisible but informing design. Some of these ‘others’ have already been acknowledged in literature but the issue has not been examined in depth and common vocabulary for this is lacking. Some practical implications will be offered by illustrating how to consider these concepts in different phases of ICT design: when establishing relationships with children, involving children as participant designers and analysing the results of these participative processes

Children's participation in constructing the future school:a study of a large-scale effort involving ICT

Abstract Children are active technology users. Still, a literature review reveals that they are not positioned in a very strong role in large-scale efforts involving information and communication technology (ICT) development. Information systems (IS) literature hardly mentions children in connection to ICT. The authors have examined how children have participated in the development of a ‘future school’ in a large-scale ICT development effort, involving also developments in the domains of pedagogy, architecture and interior design. They identified three established roles for children: the user, the informant and the tester. In addition, the authors identified traces of children’s more genuine participation, hardly addressed in the IS literature but discussed extensively within other disciplines. Therefore, the authors offer a broadened conception of what ‘participation’ may entail for the IS community. They argue that large-scale efforts of this kind would benefit from more active participation by children as it has been acknowledged that children’s participation may lead to improved decision-making

Switching perspectives:from a language teacher to a designer of language learning with new technologies

Abstract Despite abundant research on educational technology and strategic input in the field, various surveys have shown that (language) teachers do not seem to embrace in their teaching the full potential of information and communication technology available in our everyday life. Language students soon entering the professional field could accelerate the process, which highlights the role of teacher education in contributing to the change. The students should see how technology development may change the affordances for language learning, at the same time transforming the teachers’ professional roles and practices. However, taking an active role in designing a new kind of language pedagogy seems to be challenging for students. This study explores an attempt to facilitate the students’ perspective switch from the teacher role to the designer position through participatory design. This effort was to lead the students to envision new practices for language learning and teaching with new technologies. However, initial analyses of the research materials indicated that, despite the support, the students were not fully able to see their role as designers for the future. Cultural--historical activity theory was used to examine the problem more closely. The analysis suggests that in order to position themselves as designers of the future language learning activity, language students need to understand their role as designers, conduct real-life experiments on the evolving visions with their learners, and involve learners as participants in the design activity by sharing visions and collaborative reflection on the experiments. The findings of the study provide tools for language teacher educators to make these activity systems visible and, thus, target for change

Transdisciplinary research and design:editorial

Abstract This editorial summarizes the background and findings of the First Mini-Conference on Transdisciplinary Research and Design (TRaD 2022) held in Oulu. We describe the aim and vision of the conference, the conference theme, the articles presented and published in the conference proceedings, and the history of the research groups organizing the conference. Furthermore, in the editorial we highlight the main findings in relation to the conference aim. We discuss the conceptualization of transdisciplinarity and directions for further research and collaboration on this topic