Labor-based Contract Grading: A Case Study of Inclusion in a Design Research Course

Case study: Cynthia Lawson Jaramillo (Parsons School of Design)

Abstract

While university administrators are eager to “reopen the campus,” undergraduate students seem to be resisting a “back to normal” impulse that many educators associate with on-campus teaching. Instead, these learners, most of whom experienced at least one full year (in high school and/or university) of remote teaching and learning, continue to need faculty to meet them where they are – both socio-emotionally as well as in their diversities as learners. Furthermore, since the summer of 2020, many U.S.-based universities have become host to increased calls for anti-racist curricula and systemic changes towards racial justice. What strategies do faculty need to deploy to effectively bridge this particular historical moment in higher education? How do we meet the demands of administrators that aspire to that 2019 “normalcy” while supporting students who insist on hybridity; and both during a time in which masks, continued Covid-19 testing, and other policies potentially and continuously remind both faculty and students about their lived trauma? How do the structures that have guided university teaching for decades need to change to address equity, inclusion, and social justice goals? This case study details the deployment of a labor-based contract grading rubric in a required undergraduate design research class. The rubric is a pared down version of one first construed in 2019 by scholar of teaching and anti-racism Dr. Asao B. Inoue. Initially established with the intention of assessing writing… [in] socially just ways [that] may provide a way to address the violence and discord seen in the world today,” Dr. Inoue’s rubric is an excellent match to the continued, and even heightened, divides of access, equity, and inclusion in higher education. Furthermore, the adapted version documented in this case study afforded great clarity, to students and faculty, on how to thrive in the course despite ongoing life challenges (especially related to the Covid-19 pandemic and mental health.)

The decision to change the grading rubric to a seemingly radical approach was intended to meet students where they may be – as students and as young adults in this point in history, and with a principal goal in effectively supporting a diversity of learners (as there are multiple paths towards any given grade) – one bridge of inclusion to be designed into a semester-long class. The presentation will discuss the specifics of adapting the rubric to a design research course, its framing in the syllabus, the opportunities & challenges it afforded throughout a 15-week university semester, and students’ feedback about it (as captured in end-of- semester anonymous course evaluations as well as interspersed in-classroom anecdotal documentation.