Abstract:

The concept of social change is inextricably linked with profound struggles such as apartheid, global migration, equal rights for women, and movements like Black Lives Matter (in the US) and Idle No More (in Canada). Social change requires agency – it is culturally and politically situated and is manifest in the way to choose to “think and do” design (Fry, 2011). Design fields have been evolving over the past 40 years in theory and practice from craft-based design to applied human and social sciences, and towards transdisciplinary, post disciplinary and collaborative approaches. The designer is a promising agent for social change, practising from a gestalt of skills, cognitive processes, design methodologies, attitudes , and one's ability to reflect critically on the social, cultural, and political aspects of design contexts and problems.

Critical pedagogy is a framework that addresses how relationships of inequality and oppression are produced and reproduced in educational institutions, of which design practice is a subset. Universal instructional design exemplifies design as social action in its service of critical pedagogy. Participatory design is another approach in which a critical instructional designer might frame design questions and make decisions that address issues of cultural authority, learner voice, the source of knowledge, oppressive practices, and access to learning. The critical instructional designer assesses how content, representation, interaction, delivery, and assessment are set up to privilege some voices and not others.

We are interested in critical instructional design as a means to challenge dominant culture assumptions and develop learning environments for social justice that are inclusive and equitable. The pluralistic Canadian context includes a diverse community of learners who live not only urban, but also isolated rural and/or northern communities with little infrastructure, are Indigenous, were early school leavers, and are political refugees. With a large land span, and minimal population, distance has also been a challenge. As well, equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) policies have emphasized a decolonization of curriculum in schools and other sites of formal and informal learning. Departments of Continuing Education have long been sites of social action and have rich histories of developing learning environments for these diverse communities. In this paper we will present the theoretical framework of the critical instructional designer in the Canadian context of continuing education, supported with three case studies involving Indigenous, northern, rural and immigrant communities.

Participants will be invited to share stories of critical design practice from their sociocultural contexts.

Keywords:

Critical instructional design, critical pedagogy, participatory design, social justice, equity, inclusion.