Enabling Student Participation in Course Review and Redesign: Piloting Restorative Practices and Design Thinking in an Undergraduate Criminology Programme

Abstract

Questions remain as to the utility of the data obtained through student feedback, and the extent to which students experience feedback processes as meaningful, and academics revise their teaching accordingly. This project piloted restorative practices and design thinking to enable active student participation (n = 25) in reviewing and redesigning a victimology course within an undergraduate criminology programme. It utilized restorative and design workshops to gather data and facilitate student-lecturer dialogue, and collaborative reflection and ideation. Aligning with the research on dialogue-based student feedback processes, students valued this process, articulated their learning experiences and the course’s strengths and weaknesses in sophisticated ways, and co-created many practical, transferrable ideas to meet future students’ needs. The project humanized participants, and aided the course leader’s efforts to empathize with students, develop their courses, and reflect on their broader teaching and student support practices. This project is easily replicable in criminal justice and criminology programmes globally.

Keywords:

• Restorative practices
• design thinking
• student participation
• feedback
• criminology
• victimology

Acknowledgements

We are indebted to all the students who participated in the project, from whom we have learned so much. We are also grateful to Dr. Adeline Cooney for mentoring us during the project, and to Prof. Todd Marder and Anne Brunelle for their invaluable comments on a draft of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This

project was supported by funding from the Maynooth Centre for Teaching & Learning via a Team Teaching and Learning Fellowship (2019/20).

Notes on contributors

Ian D. Marder

Dr. Ian D. Marder is Assistant Professor in Criminology at Maynooth University Department of Law since May 2018, where he teaches policing, victimology, criminal justice and restorative justice. In 2020, he founded the Restorative Justice Pedagogy Network to explore the teaching of restorative justice and the use of restorative practices in higher education teaching and learning. Previously, he was Research Associate at the University of Liverpool. He competed his PhD at the University of Leeds Centre for Criminal Justice Studies in 2018.

Trevor Vaugh

Trevor Vaugh is an academic and practitioner focused on human-centred innovation. He is Assistant Professor of Design Innovation at Maynooth University and Principal investigator of the Maynooth University Innovation Lab (Mi:Lab). In 2021, Trevor appeared as an expert on the critically acclaimed RTÉ series "The Big Life Fix", published a co-authored book ARRIVE - a Design Innovation Framework to Deliver Breakthrough Services, Products and Experiences (Routledge), and was appointed by the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to serve on the Irish Public Service Innovation Advisory board.

Catriona Kenny

Catriona Kenny is Research Assistant in Restorative and Criminological Education at Maynooth University Department of Law since February 2020. She completed her MA in Comparative Criminology and Criminal Justice at Maynooth University in 2021, and her undergraduate degree at Maynooth University in Criminology and Sociology in 2020.

Shauna Dempsey

Shauna Dempsey is Research Assistant in Restorative and Criminological Education at Maynooth University Department of Law since February 2020. She completed her MA in Comparative Criminology and Criminal Justice at Maynooth University in 2021, and her undergraduate degree in Criminology and Psychology at Maynooth University in 2020.

Erika Savage

Erika Savage is Research Assistant in Restorative and Criminological Education at Maynooth University Department of Law since February 2020. She completed her MSc in Psychology at Maynooth University in 2021, and her undergraduate degree in Criminology and Psychology at Maynooth University in 2020.

Ruairí Weiner

Ruairí Weiner is Research Assistant in Restorative and Criminological Education at Maynooth University Department of Law since February 2020, and Research Assistant in Third Level Services for Engagement and Transformation at Trinity College Dublin since October 2021. He is completing his MSc in Applied Social Research at Trinity College Dublin in 2021, and his undergraduate degree in Criminology and Anthropology at Maynooth University in 2020.

Kate Duffy

Kate Duffy is Research Assistant in Restorative and Criminological Education at Maynooth University Department of Law since February 2021. She completed her MA in Comparative Criminology and Criminal Justice at Maynooth University in 2021, and her undergraduate degree in Criminology and Anthropology at Maynooth University in 2020.

Grace Hughes

Grace Hughes is Research Assistant in Restorative and Criminological Education at Maynooth University Department of Law since February 2021. She completed her MA in Comparative Criminology and Criminal Justice at Maynooth University, and her undergraduate degree in Law and Criminology at Maynooth University in 2020.