Queering Participatory Design Research

ABSTRACT

This article offers a way forward for educators and researchers interested in drawing on the principles of queer theory to inform participatory design. In this article, I aim to achieve two related goals: To introduce new concepts within a critical conceptual practice of questioning and challenging the heterosexual matrix and to recommend principles for participatory design that support this critical practice. I aim to present an argument that queer theory supports investigation of a range of educational issues—particularly those that are linked to sexual and gendered norms and identities—and that participatory design research is particularly well suited to queered approaches to theorizing, designing, and investigating learning. I then offer principles for queering participatory design, drawing on data collected during a recent design study completed in an elementary classroom. Finally, I discuss the implications of a queered approach to participatory design.

Notes

1 Since these terms are crucial to queer theoretical frameworks, they bear defining. Heteronormativity is present when a culture, community, or interaction positions heterosexuality as the desired norm; or when discourse focuses on social structures that privilege heterosexual relationships and interests (Heffernan, 2011; Sumara & Davis, 1999). Cisnormativity is present when cisgender (i.e., nontransgender) identities are positioned as “normal” and “natural,” and transgender identities are positioned as rare, abnormal, or undesirable (Lair, 2013; Taylor, 2010; Walls & Costello, 2010).

2 Throughout this article, I use the terms “cisgender” or “transgender” to refer only to people who have explicitly identified as such. In other cases, such as with the children who were members of the classroom I describe, I have chosen to use the terms “female-assigned” and “male-assigned” to denote that I knew only the gender they were assigned at birth or by teachers and administrators.