#214: Teacher Agency in Learning Sciences Co-design: Dubious or Undocumented?

Frequent mentions of co-design in the learning sciences (LS) reflect an increasing effort to create resources through partnerships where researchers and educators share agency. Whether these partnerships meaningfully lead to new, teacher-shaped innovations depends on the dynamics of cross-role collaborations, including who gets to make design choices. We use Bratteteig and Wagner’s (2016) conceptual framework for the types of decision-making in co-design to evaluate LS research that involves co-designing with teachers. Our review reveals substantial gaps in descriptions of teacher decision-making, indicating either insufficiently described or insufficiently empowering co-design practices. We advocate for more transparent and egalitarian approaches to co-design at all phases of the design process, to increase the equity, robustness, research contributions, and potential real-world impact of co-design.