Noticing and Enacting Equity Across Design Sites of Knowledge

Abstract

Our commitments influence the narratives we center, the technologies we design, and the knowledge we create. Yet, little scholarship exists that documents the lived experience of enacting our commitments in practice. I propose that there is a unique opportunity to explore how individuals notice how they enact equity in their everyday. In doing so, I build on the theory that social change can be achieved by individual people making contributions toward larger equity movements. In this dissertation, I ask: How might we conduct research projects across sites of knowledge that both generate localized knowledge and center equity? And What does the process of documenting the development of an equity praxis across sites of knowledge uncover? To answer my first research question, I weave together three projects where I produced scholarly contributions to HCI education (Site 1), learning sciences (Site 2), and computing education (Site 3). Collectively, these three sites make visible the critical implications of what it means for people to notice their actions and how those actions contribute to the collective movement of creating equitable spaces. To answer my second research question, I document my process to reflexively develop my equity praxis that was informed by theory, iteratively developed, and grounded by my research sites. My dissertation offers an expansive view of noticing and enacting equity that deepens our understanding of the multiplicity in approaches and the propagation of our actions to enact social change across sites. I argue that naming an equity praxis transforms the researcher as well as their relations with others; a process of action and reflection of agentic people upon their world to transform it toward creating equitable futures.