Abstract

This article presents a formative intervention study, called Learning Lab that facilitated the collective design of a culturally responsive behavioral support system at an urban middle school in the United States. Learning Lab united parents, teachers, support staff, education leaders, and researchers, specifically those who have been historically excluded from schools’ problem-solving activities to address an inner contradiction that they face—racial disproportionality in school discipline. Learning Lab members excavated and analyzed the school’s discipline system with its activities and disturbances and designed a new school-wide behavioral support system that is responsive to diverse experiences, perspectives, practices, and goals of their school community. A qualitative analysis of the Learning Lab process was conducted related to the development of the new system. Members examined outcomes in the existing discipline system, identified daily manifestations of the inner contradiction and collectively designed a culturally responsive system. The study showed the “how” of a systemic design and transformation process that helped develop a deeper understanding of educational change as a form of collective learning. The study demonstrated how a secondary artifact (system mapping) might facilitate movement from problem-definition to envisioning new possibilities. Given the inability of top-down education policies to impact sustained systemic transformation in schools, Learning Lab provides an ecologically valid collective knowledge-production and systemic design process that shows the possibilities of transforming marginalizing systems from the ground-up and collectively envisioning schools as spaces of solidarity, emancipation, and innovation.

摘要

本文介绍了一项形成性干预研究，称为学习实验室这促进了美国城市中学对文化响应行为支持系统的集体设计。学习实验室将家长、教师、支持人员、教育领导者和研究人员联合起来，特别是那些历来被排除在学校解决问题活动之外的人，以解决他们面临的内在矛盾——学校纪律中的种族不成比例。学习实验室成员挖掘并分析了学校纪律系统及其活动和干扰，并设计了一个新的全校行为支持系统，以响应学校社区的各种经验、观点、实践和目标。对学习实验室过程进行了与新系统开发相关的定性分析。成员检查了现有学科系统的成果，确定了内部矛盾的日常表现，并共同设计了一个文化响应系统。该研究展示了系统设计和转型过程的“如何”，有助于更深入地了解作为集体学习形式的教育变革。该研究展示了次要工件（系统映射）如何促进从问题定义到设想新可能性的转变。鉴于自上而下的教育政策无法影响学校的持续系统转型，学习实验室提供了一个生态有效的集体知识生产和系统设计过程，展示了从头开始转变边缘化系统并将学校集体设想为空间的可能性团结一致，