Toward A Framework of Infrastructuring for Sustainable Educational Innovations

A paper presentation at AECT 2022

Transcript

1. Toward A Framework of Infrastructuring for Sustainable Educational Innovations Bodong Chen, Associate Professor University of Pennsylvania
2. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION 2
4. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION 4 Infrastructure (noun) • Complex networks of structures, humans, and tools (Edwards, 2013) • Relational aspect and ecological perspectives (Bowker, 1994; Star, 1999; Read, 2019)
5. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION 5 Infrastructure (verb) • Design disciplines: fixed products --> adoption and appropriation beyond the initial design (Dantec & DiSalvo, 2013) • Education: Equitable and sustainable implementations of innovations (Bielaczyc, 2013 ; Bolmsten & Manuel, 2020; Lee, 2017; Penuel, 2019)
6. Infrastructuring in education Creating conditions that support educators in making innovations into “working infrastructures” for organizing learning activities (Penuel, 2019) • standards for student learning • curriculum materials • student assessments • teacher professional development • instructional techniques and routines • …
7. Infrastructuring in education • A way to move beyond “naïve” replication and up-scaling • A way to describe “invisible” work in education practice • A way to make it clear that we need to “design across levels of a system”
8. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION 8 How to infrastructure?
9. The IMPROV Framework of Infrastructuring Identify key social actors and design areas Make visible existing infrastructures Plan for possible points of infrastructuring Rally for coherence-making activities Orchestrate meta-design and capacity building Evaluate infrastructures continually
10. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION 10 DataX: Justice-Oriented Data Science Education Vision • Integrate data science across subject areas • Foreground justice in data science practices Partnership • Synergies with district goals • Co-design workshops with teachers Technology • The DataX platform
11. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION 11 1. Identify key social actors and spheres of design activities • Users à Active, creative designers • Design before-use and design in-use In DataX project: • Teachers as co-designers • Design components including curriculum, technology, and pedagogies
12. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION 12 2. Make visible existing infrastructures • The “installed base” • Organizational practices and their inertia In DataX project: • Curriculum standards (state and district levels) • Teaching materials • High-stake teacher observation • 1:1 iPad initiative
13. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION 13 3. Plan for possible points of infrastructuring • When an infrastructure is intentionally worked on • Moments of breakdowns • Anticipate future needs for repair In DataX project: • Make plans to observe the resistances • Anticipate significant refinement after pilots (Pipek & Wulf, 2009)
14. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION 14 4. Rally for coherence- making activities • Increase the fit between innovation and organizational practice • Encourage perpetual reconfiguration of power structures In DataX project: • Work with district interests in culturally responsive teaching, NGSS, etc. • Integrate data science in science and social studies in a non-competing way Photo Credit
15. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION 15 5. Orchestrate meta-design and capacity building • Designing for design • Involve everyone in theoretical work • Cultivate a sense of empowerment In DataX project: • Digital systems for collaboration with teachers • Teacher PD opportunities Photo Credit
16. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION 16 6. Evaluate infrastructures continually • Capture micro-level actions and historical structures • Leverage “digital trace data” in systems In DataX project: • Multiple feedback channels • Carefully designed system logging Image: Shutterstock/Oko Laa
17. UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA GRADUATE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION 17 Join the conversation http://ki.pubpub.org/ and many others … • To critique the IMPROV framework • To investigate innovations from an infrastructuring lens • To infrastructure new innovations
18. Thank You Any questions? Email: cbd@upenn.edu Twitter: @bod0ng Links: • https://bodong.me/ (personal) • https://penn-wonderlab.github.io/ (research lab)