Participatory design for community-based research: a study on regional student higher education pathways
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Participatory design for community-based research: a study on regional student higher education pathways Mollie Dollinger1 · Belinda D’Angelo1 · Ryan Naylor2 · Andrew Harvey3 · Marian Mahat4 Received: 28 June 2020 / Accepted: 29 October 2020 © The Australian Association for Research in Education, Inc. 2020
Abstract Supporting higher education participation across equity groups has long been a directed effort in global higher education practice and policy. However, to date, there has been little improvement in the rates of Australian higher education participation by equity groups such as regional/remote, low socioeconomic, and Indigenous Australian students. In this study, we visited four outer-regional communities in Victoria, Australia to utilise participatory design methods as an approach to explore participants’ ideas on the optimal nature of early-stage higher education outreach interventions and how future resources or programmes can be designed. Our case study of four schools showcases how participatory design with students (Year 7 and 8), school staff, and carers (e.g. family, community leaders) (n = 101) helped to elicit participant feedback and ideas as well as support the subsequent co-design of future resources and outputs. Key findings included the need to address information gaps on the daily life of university students and the importance of context-specific advice and interventions. Keywords higher education · Inequity and social justice · Research design · Participatory design · Widening participation
Introduction Universities have long been concerned with equitable access to help promote individual and community-level socioeconomic advancement and drive economic growth (Adnett 2016; Pitman 2017). More recently, the focus has turned to identifying and addressing structural inequalities in access and participation for groups of students, including those from regional backgrounds (Naylor and Mifsud 2020; Tight 2018). Shah, Bennett, and Southgate (2015) have highlighted the need to * Mollie Dollinger [email protected] Extended author information available on the last page of the article
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create a sense of belongingness at university for students from regional and/or other equity groups as a means to recruit and retain these students. Participatory design methods have increasingly been identified as a means to foster and include communities in university outreach programmes such as research and intervention processes (DiSalvo et al. 2012; Gannon and Naidoo 2020). Literature has suggested that participatory design methods can bolster community buy-in and help to ensure the full range of stakeholders can be engaged in the process (Lung-Amam and Dawkins 2019; Spinuzzi 2005). In this study, we explored participants’ ideas and suggestions on how to improve higher education participation among regional/rural, low socioeconomic, and Indigenous students. To support our investigation, we utilised a participatory design methodology and hosted co-
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