The genesis of the Action Research Project (ARP) started from the case studies developed during the ‘Theories, Policies and Practice’ module reflecting on current my teaching practice as part of. The case studies were titled: ‘Manifesto for Site Research’, ‘Situated Learning’ and ‘The Value of Process’. The project idea started to take shape during the ‘Inclusive Practice’ module where I explored the notion of positionality as a means to introduce students to a socially engaged practice working more closely with residents of the studio selected site for the academic year. The module led to a briefing document that would scaffold students’ explorations of positionality and a studio co-production of a manifesto setting out the principles for how we would engage with residents. In ARP, the briefing document formed one pedagogical approach that I wanted to study, the others were the resulting manifesto and the basing of the studio on site for most of the first semester. The research question that I would like to answer with the research project is: How might co-production be embedded into a socially engaged pedagogy?

Going back to the case studies reflecting on teaching practice from ‘Theories, Policies and Practice’, there was an aspect of teaching delivery and course requirement, specifically one of the Learning Outcomes which focuses on ‘Enquiry’ that I thought could be improved.

LO1: The ability to undertake substantial research and critical analysis to support the

development of design briefs and proposals in relation to broader social, cultural, ethical and environmental contexts.

My observations after two years of teaching the design studio was that after the one or two site visits, students largely carry out their research enquiry at the university through a desktop study. As a course which foregrounds social and racial justice in its description, I wanted to explore ways of bringing closer to the people they would be speculatively designing for.