Community-based design partnerships: Examples from a new generation of chat/dbr

There has been great interest recently, across research communities, in the intersection of formative interventionist methodologies (originating in cultural-historical activity theory, or CHAT) and design-based research (originating in the learning sciences). A recent special issue of the Journal of the Learning Sciences was dedicated to exploring “CHAT/DBR” from multiple perspectives (Penuel, Cole & O’Neill, 2016). Beyond the similarities and differences between these methodologies, this scholarship also imagines new possibilities and orientations drawing on the two traditions – new roles for researchers and collaborators, alternative “argumentative grammars” (Kelly, 2004) underlying these approaches, and even new conceptions of learning itself. This symposium highlights the work of emerging scholars whose research employs variations of CHAT-inspired DBR in collaborative, community-grounded work oriented toward social change. The session offers innovative perspectives on how we conceptualize learning; rethinking design in our methods; what constitutes a learning environment; and rethinking relationships among researchers, partners, learners and interventions.