Megan Bang and Phillip Bell kindly participated in last week’s DML Commons Design-Based Research webinar on co-design and collaboration. They presented their rich experiences of closely working with research participants. how they established sustainable research/practice partnerships based on exciting networks, and how their work ties into the theoretical and practical considerations of DBR and DBIR. 

Magan and Phil kindly provided their presentation slides for further reference:

http://dmlcommons.net/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/Bang-Bell-DML-DBR-webinar-partnerships-public.pdf

Through the presentation, Megan and Phil answered many of the questions we prepared to discuss. We wanted to share our questions to Magen and Phil here as a resource and starting points to consider when thinking about a design-based research project that commits to ethical and holistic participation.

Establishing relationships

• What are strategies for learning about context before engaging in design (e.g., initial observations of the context, development of partnerships, understanding and specifying partners’ goals)?
• What are strategies/tools for beginning and building relationships with participants?

Co-constructing the design process

• How do you co-construct the design process with participants?
• How did you begin working with your participants?
• What barriers/challenges did you face? How did you overcome them?
• How do you negotiate and document decision making in design-based research?
• How do you share your data collection, data analysis and design practice with participants?

Sustaining a project and participation

• What happens when participants are resistant to change, or go in a direction that you might not think is in the best interest of kids/young people?
  
• How do you sustain the project and participation (handover to participants)?
• How long should/could DBR go on for? How do you know when to continue and when to stop?
• How do you plan for how intensive and long the process will be?
• Do you know in advance how long a project may be? (6 month, 10 years?)