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Title: “I'm a little less inclined to do it”: How Afterschool Programs’ Culture Impact Co-Design Processes and Outcomes
The importance of considering local context and partnering with target users is well established in co-design. Less common is an examination of the adaptations needed when deploying the same co-design program across heterogenous settings to maximize program efficacy and equity. We report on our experience co-designing educational games with six culturally and socioeconomically diverse afterschool sites over two years, and insights from interviewing ten program administrators across all sites. We found that even within the same afterschool program network, site differences in organizational culture and resources impacted the effectiveness of co-design programs, the co-design output, and expectations for student engagement. We characterize our afterschool partners into different archetypes – Safe Havens, Recreation Centers, Homework Helpers, and STEM Enrichment Centers. We provide recommendations for conducting co-design at each archetype and reflect on strategies for increasing equitable partnerships between researchers and afterschool centers.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1906753
PAR ID:
10441227
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS '23)
Page Range / eLocation ID:
1263 to 1276
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
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