Imagining the Future as Different: Introducing a System for Participatory Evaluation

Transformation of the dominant Higher Education Paradigm is necessary if design is to shape a diversified, collective ability to think and act responsibly in the world. This research paper underpins the introduction of a new Participatory Evaluation System (PES) by setting out the contextual, methodological and theoretical positioning of the assets and activities tested within the pilot. Interrogating the potential for academic evaluation as a Futures-making act, this System Design questions the purpose, positioning and potential for evaluation to become a mechanism for systemic and systematic transformation. As a proposition to actively assist the wider pedagogy, or curricula, moving and acting for adaptation, the PES employs Design Thinking practices within a Systems Thinking methodology. It imagines a capable, educational architecture to prompt discussion around how teaching and learning effectiveness is measured, what this could influence and the ways that a new model might hold space for management to anticipate change, instead of reacting to change. Systems Thinking facilitates alternative perspectives and possibilities for re-framing, not solving, problems that organisations face. Invigorating and regenerating a Design Education environment with an intervention that is holistic, effective and useful, the Participatory Evaluation System seeks to build an infrastructure that encourages staff to explore risk, and to embrace uncertain behaviour within the performative space of the present, whilst creating sustainable routes for the future.