Expanding Theories of Educational Change in Family & Community-Led Designs

In this paper, we share findings from Family Leadership Design Collaborative’s (FLDC) multi-year work, which comprised 10 co-design collaboratives engaged in historicizing their experiences and imagining transformative possibilities for education together. Using knowledge interaction analysis (e.g., diSessa, Levin, & Brown, 2015) examined collaboratives’ conceptual ecologies (Kelly Green, 1998) to develop an empirical typology of collaboratives' theories change (Tuck Yang, 2018), or the broader aims who, what how change-making conversations community design circles, a first step solidarity-driven codesign (Ishimaru et al., 2018). Across diverse range geographically, linguistically, racially families communities, intentionally rooted conversation initial set principles order move beyond status quo problem-solving open social dreaming spaces towards collective changemaking. We found: 1) ecology multiple both across contexts within given context; 2) systems-centric (premised on family deficiencies institutional pragmatics) that constrained possibilities; 3) increase more expansive as engagement was sustained nurtured over time. argue engagements build politicized trust ability grapple with tensions can deepen relational theorizing enable groups shape imaginative pursuing realizing change.