Mapping participatory co-design in digital education: A systematic scoping of practices and principles

This study investigates participatory ‘co-design’ practices for digital education in the UK.

As governments accelerate the digitalisation of public services, including education, policy agendas and public infrastructures are increasingly shaped by private tech companies. Participatory co-design – an approach that seeks to include educators and other relevant stakeholders in the design of digital tools – offers a promising alternative. However, there is a pressing need to understand how participatory co-design is being practised in education, what forms of participation exist, what challenges they face, and whether they meaningfully involve those they claim to empower. This project will conduct the first systematic scoping of participatory co-design practices in the space of digital education in the UK. It will map existing initiatives, assess methods and stakeholder engagement, and identify outcomes, challenges, and effective strategies.