Pandemic highlighted pre-existing systemic barriers for students with special needs, diminishing their sense of agency and freedom.

Why It Matters

Understanding how educational systems inherently affect a student's sense of agency is crucial for designing inclusive and empowering learning environments. This research emphasizes that design interventions must address systemic barriers, not just temporary disruptions, to truly support user subjectivity.

Key Finding

The study found that students with special educational needs felt a significant lack of control and choice in their education, a problem rooted in the educational system itself, which was further highlighted by the pandemic. Teachers and parents, while also affected, maintained a stronger sense of agency and responsibility.

Key Findings

• Students with special educational needs reported a low sense of subjectivity in education.
• The low sense of subjectivity for these students was primarily attributed to systemic issues within the educational system, rather than solely pandemic-related challenges.
• Teachers and parents generally reported a higher sense of subjectivity, particularly in areas of responsibility and agency.

Research Evidence

Aim: To explore the lived experiences of students with special educational needs, their teachers, and parents regarding their sense of subjectivity in education during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Method: Qualitative study using focus group interviews.

Procedure: Researchers conducted focus group interviews with students with special educational needs, their teachers, and parents to gather insights into their experiences of educational subjectivity, focusing on dimensions of freedom of choice, agency, responsibility, and interpersonal contact.

Context: Educational settings, particularly in the context of pandemic-related disruptions and the broader educational system.

Design Principle

Empowerment through systemic design: Design interventions should aim to fundamentally alter systems that disempower users, rather than merely adapting to temporary conditions.

How to Apply

When designing educational programs, platforms, or policies, conduct thorough user research with diverse student groups, paying close attention to their reported sense of agency, freedom, and partnership. Use these insights to advocate for and implement systemic changes that enhance their subjective experience.

Limitations

The study's findings are based on qualitative data and may not be generalizable to all educational contexts or populations. The specific systemic issues identified are context-dependent.

Student Guide (IB Design Technology)

Simple Explanation: The pandemic made it clear that some students, especially those with special needs, already felt like they had very little say in their education. This wasn't just because of COVID-19, but because the school system itself often limits their choices and control. Teachers and parents generally felt they had more control.

Why This Matters: This research shows that good design isn't just about making things easy to use; it's about ensuring users feel empowered and have a genuine voice. For design projects involving education or support systems, understanding and addressing a user's sense of agency is critical for creating truly effective and ethical solutions.

Critical Thinking: How might the design of digital learning platforms be intentionally structured to foster a greater sense of agency and freedom of choice for students with diverse needs, moving beyond accessibility features to address systemic limitations?

IA-Ready Paragraph: This study highlights that educational systems can inherently limit a user's sense of subjectivity, particularly for students with special educational needs, by diminishing their agency and freedom of choice. This underscores the importance of user research that delves beyond surface-level usability to uncover and address systemic barriers that impact user empowerment and their overall experience within a given context.

Project Tips

• When researching user needs, specifically ask about their sense of control, choice, and how they feel treated as partners in the design or educational process.
• Consider how your design might inadvertently reinforce existing systemic inequalities or disempowerment.

How to Use in IA

• Use this research to justify the importance of exploring user agency and systemic barriers in your user research phase.
• Reference the findings when discussing the limitations of current systems or the need for user-centered design approaches that prioritize empowerment.

Examiner Tips

• Demonstrate an understanding of how broader systemic issues can impact user experience, not just immediate usability.
• Show how your design aims to empower users and enhance their sense of agency.

Independent Variable: ["Pandemic-related educational changes","Pre-existing systemic issues in education"]

Dependent Variable: ["Sense of subjectivity (freedom of choice, agency, responsibility, interpersonal contacts)"]

Controlled Variables: ["Participant group (students with SEN, teachers, parents)"]

Strengths

• Focuses on a critical and often overlooked aspect of user experience: sense of subjectivity and agency.
• Provides rich qualitative data from multiple stakeholder perspectives.

Critical Questions

• To what extent do current educational technologies inadvertently perpetuate or exacerbate systemic issues that limit student agency?
• How can design processes actively involve students with special educational needs in co-designing solutions that enhance their sense of subjectivity?

Extended Essay Application

• Investigate how the design of a specific educational tool or platform impacts the sense of agency and subjectivity of users with special educational needs.
• Propose and prototype design modifications to an existing educational system to enhance user empowerment and address identified systemic barriers.

Source

Being the Subject of Education – Pandemic and Post-Pandemic Experiences of Students With Disabilities, Their Teachers and Parents · International Journal of Special Education (IJSE) · 2023 · 10.52291/ijse.2023.38.43