Co-creation of research and design during a coding club with autistic students using multimodal participatory methods and analysis
Co-creation of research and design during a coding club with autistic students using multimodal participatory methods and analysis
Participatory design aims to work with those who are often excluded from design processes so that their interests are better represented in design solutions. Autistic children are often marginalised and excluded from design processes due to concerns about how their social and communication differences may act as barriers to participation, leading to calls for design processes to be more inclusive and examined more closely to understand the value of participation for (autistic) children and young people. This research describes a participatory design project to develop a computer game during a weekly coding club at a special school. Fourteen autistic (neurodivergent) young people, eight staff members, four technology industry representatives and a Doctoral researcher worked together to design, develop, test, and evaluate the game. This article focuses specifically on the views and experiences of two of the students, which are captured primarily through a Digital Story. Digital Stories are short student-centred videos which show educational experiences. We use a social semiotic multimodal approach to analysis which does not prioritise linguistically encoded meaning, instead recognising the importance and validity of the many and varied ways in which students contributed to the project. The findings highlight the valuable opportunities that participatory design processes can provide for students as both learners and as expert knowers. It emphasises the need to allow room for students’ agency in the design process, so that they really can have a say in the outcomes of design and feel ownership over the process and outcomes of their research participation.
autism, co-creation, multimodality, neurodiversity, participatory design, strengths-based
Ward, Verity, Charlie Stone
054f98ae-5b6b-4f13-ac59-479244a5a910
Parsons, Sarah
5af3382f-cda3-489c-a336-9604f3c04d7d
Kovshoff, Hanna
82c321ee-d151-40c5-8dde-281af59f2142
Crump, Ben
06b9b2d3-4d67-4496-a48b-974a7fa1138f
13 May 2022
Ward, Verity, Charlie Stone
054f98ae-5b6b-4f13-ac59-479244a5a910
Parsons, Sarah
5af3382f-cda3-489c-a336-9604f3c04d7d
Kovshoff, Hanna
82c321ee-d151-40c5-8dde-281af59f2142
Crump, Ben
06b9b2d3-4d67-4496-a48b-974a7fa1138f
Ward, Verity, Charlie Stone, Parsons, Sarah, Kovshoff, Hanna and Crump, Ben
(2022)
Co-creation of research and design during a coding club with autistic students using multimodal participatory methods and analysis.
Frontiers in Education, 7, [864362].
(doi:10.3389/feduc.2022.864362).
Abstract
Participatory design aims to work with those who are often excluded from design processes so that their interests are better represented in design solutions. Autistic children are often marginalised and excluded from design processes due to concerns about how their social and communication differences may act as barriers to participation, leading to calls for design processes to be more inclusive and examined more closely to understand the value of participation for (autistic) children and young people. This research describes a participatory design project to develop a computer game during a weekly coding club at a special school. Fourteen autistic (neurodivergent) young people, eight staff members, four technology industry representatives and a Doctoral researcher worked together to design, develop, test, and evaluate the game. This article focuses specifically on the views and experiences of two of the students, which are captured primarily through a Digital Story. Digital Stories are short student-centred videos which show educational experiences. We use a social semiotic multimodal approach to analysis which does not prioritise linguistically encoded meaning, instead recognising the importance and validity of the many and varied ways in which students contributed to the project. The findings highlight the valuable opportunities that participatory design processes can provide for students as both learners and as expert knowers. It emphasises the need to allow room for students’ agency in the design process, so that they really can have a say in the outcomes of design and feel ownership over the process and outcomes of their research participation.
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- Accepted Manuscript
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More information
Accepted/In Press date: 4 April 2022
Published date: 13 May 2022
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
The research for this article was funded by the Economic and Social Research Council South Coast Doctoral Training Partnership (Grant Number ES/P000673/1).
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2022 Ward, Parsons, Kovshoff and Crump.
Keywords:
autism, co-creation, multimodality, neurodiversity, participatory design, strengths-based
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 456566
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/456566
ISSN: 2504-284X
PURE UUID: 4962b3c4-e6cf-47f8-82af-16a0337b2104
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Date deposited: 05 May 2022 16:34
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:53
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Author:
Ben Crump
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