Pulling back the curtain on the co-design process
Editor’s Note: In this week’s blog post, NCFL North Carolina Director, David Sisk discusses the crucial role of co-design in ensuring that community members are part of the decision-making process for the education systems that serve them.
As a college student some 28 years ago, I reached the end of my student teaching responsibilities and soon after my advisor arranged for my cohort to visit and observe experienced teachers in various schools in the region. Before the visit, our advisor had only shared cursory directions: “take notes, learn, and debrief.” Soon after, I found myself in a middle school ELA classroom in a rural North Carolina school. I situated myself in the back of the classroom, students entered, and the day began.
Apparently, the class had taken a field trip recently and student behavior during the outing had left something to be desired. Another field trip was imminent, and it was a good time to review the rules. The teacher spoke solemnly: “Walk single file from the bus to the venue. You may whisper, but no loud voices. Stay with your partner at all times.” It was the end of the school year; and students were tired. Most looked at the teacher passively. Some were doodling while others shifted uneasily in their seats. The teacher, sensing the students’ disinterest, paused and scanned the classroom looking for a hint of engagement. His eyes fell upon a boy who was busy tracing a book character on a lined sheet of notebook paper. “Stephen,” he asked, “what do you think about these rules? Do you think our class followed these rules on our last outing?” Stephen lifted his head and replied, “No, I don’t think so.” The teacher responded calmly, “Well, why not?” Another boy, adjacent to Stephen, came to his aid: “We didn’t make these rules. Someone else did. We’re supposed to follow them, but maybe that’s why we don’t.” The teacher, after a brief pause, responded. “You’re right. So, why don’t we make our own?”
The teacher then led a class discussion, soliciting feedback from the students about reasonable field trip rules. The atmosphere in the classroom changed dramatically. Students who had been sitting passively were authentically engaged. Incorporating student feedback, within twenty minutes the teacher compiled a list of 10 new field trip rules. The power of this classroom experience set me on a learning journey that eventually led to co-design process
NCFL has long been a leader in creating conditions to facilitate equitable and accessible opportunities for partnership and collaboration. We gain valuable insight into this process from Kelly Ann McKercher and her book Beyond Sticky Notes, in which she highlights the co-design principles of prioritizing relationships, sharing power, ensuring participatory means and building capacity.
In my role with the National Center for Families Learning (NCFL), I’m responsible for spreading and scaling our deep community work focused on family literacy, family leadership and Family engagement to help create systems of support for families. This work must be done in partnership and collaboration, recognizing the deep funds of knowledge and lived experiences held by parents and local partners.
Arguably one of the most important principles of co-design is building and prioritizing relationships. Relationships are built on trust. McKercher makes clear the importance of this trust to the outcome of the design process: “You can’t buy trust; it can only be earned – the better the social connection, the better the co-design process and outputs.” Prioritizing relationships means not only connecting with parents and organizations throughout North Carolina, but also listening, learning and being transparent (and vulnerable) in nurturing these relationships. Recently, I brainstormed with a North Carolina school administrator about how we could work together to support our Activate! Local family leadership cohort in the community. The creative solution we came to was only possible because we’d previously prioritized building this relationship. As a result, we anticipate a successful parent leadership experience for the community.
Sharing Power is centered around acknowledging the power differences between participants throughout the design process. You can see this principle in action in the recognition and recruitment of socially, culturally, and economically diverse participants for our North Carolina Statewide Family Engagement Center (NC SFEC) and its Special Advisory Council (SAC). This council will be composed of no less than 51% parents and will provide guidance and insights for education practice and policy in North Carolina. Beyond the SAC, sharing power also happens in acknowledging and navigating power differences between a national organization and local communities and school districts. Recently, a collaboration with a school district administrator produced guidelines that acknowledged the unique needs of the district while simultaneously supporting our collective family engagement work in North Carolina.
The “co” in co-design means “with, together, jointly, partnership.” Using participatory means is about ensuring access for all; ensuring that we “jointly” have a means to engage in the process. Participatory considerations include making presentations and activities accessible through visual, hands-on and auditory approaches. Additionally, we ensure that we respect the tenet of language justice in co-design by providing translation and interpretation support throughout. Consider the confusion and frustration of an English Learner in navigating the English skills necessary to access basic services or visit their child’s school. Providing translation or interpretation access, removing barriers to authentic participation and creating access points for all to “take a seat at the table” are elements of a co-design process.
The final principle of co-design is centered around building capacity. Building capacity is listening and learning from others, embracing the “funds of knowledge” that all families possess and creating safe, equitable opportunities where we can foster both personal growth and sincere, deep partnerships. Building capacity is a two-way street. We enter potential relationships and co-design opportunities with a mindset of support and encouragement while simultaneously acknowledging that we may need support and encouragement as well.
Co-design is embedded into the fabric of NCFL’s work. We believe, as does McKercher, that “with the right resources, care and opportunities, together we can eliminate systemic barriers, create powerful learning experiences, and grow equitable communities.” I think back to that classroom observation all those years ago. That teacher listened and recognized that the students didn’t have a voice. He created a co-design opportunity, and a powerful, equitable learning experience followed. In the years since, I have learned that co-design can happen across partnerships, across a classroom, across a school, across a community or across a state.
NCFL and over 600 friends and advocates will be gathering in Louisville, Kentucky in November for the 2024 Families Learning Conference. We’ll be exploring many topics and hearing from educators and practitioners as they share ideas for intentionally advancing family learning. Several sessions, including “Learners as Co-Designers: The Method and Three Projects,” “Elevating Voices: An Equitable Arts-Based Approach to Engaging Multilingual Families” and “Workshops: Moving From Relationships to Partnerships” will address efforts to implement the tenets of co-design. I invite you to join these sessions to deepen your understanding and share your expertise as we build equitable opportunities for children and families in communities across the country.
Learn more about the co-design process in our 2022 blog post: At the Heart of Family Learning: Building the conditions to support transformational change
About the Author
After working in public education for 27+ years as a teacher, ESL teacher and Multilingual Learner Program Director, David is currently the North Carolina Director for NCFL. In this role, he provides leadership and strategic thinking for NCFL’s North Carolina activities. In addition to building and supporting family engagement, family leadership, and family literacy partnerships in NC, David also leads the North Carolina Statewide Family Engagement Center (NC SFEC).
David earned a bachelor’s degree from Appalachian State University and an M.Ed. from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG). After beginning his career in Puebla, Mexico as a dual language teacher, David returned to the United States where he taught Adult ESL in Forsyth County, NC, was an ESL teacher in Lexington, NC and most recently served the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools community as the Multilingual Learner program director. In his most recent role prior to joining NCFL, David developed and supported multilingual learner family literacy programming.
David grew up in the foothills of the Appalachian mountains in Mount Airy, NC (the inspiration for Mayberry on The Andy Griffith Show) and currently resides in Winston-Salem, NC. In his leisure time he is a competitive cyclist, avid backpacker, occasional traveler, and curious reader.