Using the User-Design Research for Building School Communities

This article examines the construct of user-design and a variety of its manifestations as it is related to the school community. We look at user-design, borne primarily from the roots of interface design and Scandinavian user-participation and extend this conversation to include literatures from learner-centered design, emancipatory design, stakeholder participation, and systems theory. We also examine several related strands of research from participatory action research to critical theory and constructivism. This work is meant to help inform school community leaders and practitioners as they think about standard ideas of stakeholder participation. It is meant to help extend this thinking to include broader, more emancipatory ways of engaging all the users of our systems.