Keeping Voices in the Room: Values Clarification in Codesign for Equitable Science and Technology Education

Abstract

When engaging issues at the intersection of science and society, science centers, museums and other informal STEM learning organizations struggle to center perspectives of communities most often impacted by the unequal distribution of technologies' benefits and harms. Increasingly, participatory design is being utilized to do this, but the field must continue to refine methods for accessing the expertise of community partners and keeping it present across multiple design stages and products. We share a case study in which a multi-institution project team, developing resources for educational programming around radio frequency technologies, worked with community design to establish a values foundation that could guide initial planning and ongoing development. We share design methods adapted from values sensitive design and equity-centered research-practice partnership, as well as insights relevant to enacting design practice that can build relational equity, leverage data across institutional boundaries, and span locations, platforms and levels of expertise.