Truth and Historical Amendment: Critical Mending in the Classroom

Jaime Chao Mignano is a Senior Practitioner Specialist on the JusticexDesign (JxD) project, and an ongoing leader in the project's conception and development, including developing too ...

JusticexDesign: Developing a Sensitivity to Designed Injustices

Banner image courtesy of Agnes Gómez and her 5th grade students at Sacred Heart School (School year: 2019-2020). Agency by Design and Justice ...

Developing Perspective Taking through Maker-Centered Learning: Sneak Peek at the Early Childhood in the Making Playbook

Hi! I’m Vic, and I’m really excited to tell you about the awesome work that early childhood teachers in Hong Kong have been doing as part of the ...

Members of the Agency by Design Community Reflect on the Maker Ed Convening

Earlier this fall, the Maker Ed Convening was hosted by the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. In this fieldnote post, several members of the Agency by Design community ...

Linking Episodes of Learning Through Student Reflection

Thinking and Learning in a Maker-Centered Classroom online course co-instructor, Julie Rains, describes a lesson designed to foster interconnected episodes of learning and student thinking in her e ...

What Might It Take to Make Thinking a Crucial and Visible Aspect of Our Maker-Centered Classroom?

Thinking and Learning in a Maker-Centered Classroom online course co-instructor Julie Rains describes her self-imposed creativity cha ...

Taking Apart to Build Stories of Change

This piece is based on a workshop titled “Taking Apart Racism: Using Maker-Centered Practices to Break Down Systems of Oppression,” led by Jaime Chao Mignano and Mark Perkins at t ...

Incorporating Maker-Centered Learning into the Early Years Classroom

Victoria Educational Organisation educator and Head of Curriculum Studies Lisa Golds provides an introduction to the Agency by Design: Early Childhood in the Making initiative a ...

Agency by Design Oakland: 2018-2019 Fellowship Update: The Intersection of Making, Repair, and Teacher Inquiry

Agency by Design Oakland Senior Leader Ilya Pratt provides an update on the Agency by Design Oakland Fellowship program, with an emphasis on the social justice and healing power o ...

Agency by Design in Translation: Exploring the Complexities of Sharing Maker-Centered Practices Across Cultures

Educators Rita Camargo, Simone Lederman, and Paola Ricci of Instituto Catalisador in São Paulo, Brazil describe their journey towards translating the Agency by Design thinking routines into Po ...

Making Across the Curriculum Takes Off in DC

Educators Jim Reese, Carole Geneix, and Jaime Chao Mignano describe how the Agency by ...

The AbD Making Moves: A Thumbnail History and Introduction

What do the Agency by Design maker capacities look like in action, and what moves might we encourage to support the development of these capacities? Former Agency by Design Principal Investigat ...

A Take Apart Toolkit: What we learn from unmaking

This piece is the first in a series of Field Notes which can be read as a Take Apart Toolkit of sorts, including how to use Take Aparts to engage in deep analysis, to increase accessibility, to ...

Cultivating Relationships with Makers Within Our Communities

Members of the Agency by Design: Early Childhood in the Making team visited the Boston Mini Maker Faire at the Boston Children's Museum to learn more about the work of maker ...

Voice and Choice: Developing a sensitivity to what—and who—is not represented

Where are we coming from? ...

Introducing the New Agency by Design Website

Welcome to the new Agency by Design webs ...

How Can Understanding What We Value as Educators Shape What We Assess in Our Classrooms?

What do we want our learners to be like when they leave our classrooms at the end of the year? What does authentic learning look like in a maker-centered classroom? Your response to these questions ...

Agency by Design in Translation

Agency by Design Project Manager Jessica Ross visits Bilbao and puts the Spanish translations of the team’s thinking routines into action. ...

Just “Hacking Around”: Bringing New Meaning to a Storied Word

In this blog post, Agency by Design online course instructor Jane Jessep explores the storied meaning of the word “hack” by reflecting on her own experiences “hacking around” in the 196 ...

Noise as a Maker Practice

Former Project Zero Artist in Residence Peter Woods describes the ways in which noise music may be understood as a form of maker practice. ...

Introducing the 2016-2017 Agency by Design Oakland Fellowship

Brooke Toczylowski, Lead Coordinator and Coach for the Agency by Design Oakland Fellows, provides an overview of the educators who will be partnering with the Agency by Design project as they w ...

Building a Maker Educator Learning Community in Pittsburgh

Guest Author Jeff Evancho, the Project Zero Programming Specialist at the Quaker Valley School District, describes the process of establishing the Pittsburgh Maker Educator Learning Community, ...

Framing a Value-based Approach to Documentation and Assessment for Maker-Centered Learning

Synthesizing recent conversations between AbD and the Oakland Leadership Team, AbD researcher Andrea Sachdeva proposes a values-based stance on documentation and assessment in maker-centered le ...

Launching a New Phase of Research for Agency by Design: Exploring Documentation and Assessment Strategies for the Maker-Centered Classroom

The Agency by Design team announces a new phase of research: exploring documentation and assessment strategies to support maker empowerment across all learning environments. ...

When a Ship is not a Ship—It’s a Sabre-toothed Cat! A Story of Maker Empowerment and Collective Agency

Ilya Pratt, AbD Oakland Leadership Team member and Design+Make+Engage program director at Park Day School, tells a tale of maker empowerment and collective agency through the story of Kyle and ...

Exploring Complexity in Qualitative Research: Designing a System for Collaborative Analysis

Agency by Design research assistant Sarah May explores the complex nature of working with qualitative data based on her experiences collaboratively coding and analyzing AbD’s interview transc ...

Developing Professional Learning Communities to Support Maker-Centered Learning

AbD Senior Practitioner Jessica Ross discusses the role of professional learning communities in supporting the work of maker-centered educators. ...

Maker – Person, Identity, or Culture?

Agency by Design project manager Jen Ryan examines the use of the word maker and offers an alternative reframing for an emerging field. ...

Tinkering Towards a Definition of Tinkering

How do you define tinkering? In this post, Agency by Design principal investigator Shari Tishman tinkers towards a definition of tinkering that considers standard text book definitions, example ...

Setting the Stage: Creating a Maker-Centered Learning Environment through Narration

Students in AbDLC member Tatum Omari’s Class at Cragmont Elementary School in Berkeley, CA use narration and patterned blocks to tell the story of their ideas about complex systems. ...

Reconsidering Failure in Maker-Centered Learning

Agency by Design researcher Edward Clapp questions the use of the word failure in maker-centered learning, especially as making activities begin to find their way into schools where “failing� ...

Introducing the AbDLC

On November 15, 2014, the Agency by Design research project initiated a national learning community of 30+ maker and design educators. In this post, AbD research Edward Clapp introduces the Age ...

Looking Forward and Looking Back on AbD’s Action Research with the OLC

As AbD moves into a new phase of action research, Jessica Ross reflects on the project’s work with the Oakland Learning Community. ...

Exploring the Role of the Arts in Maker-Centered Learning Experiences

Participants at the Arts Education Partnership National Forum consider the role of the arts in maker-centered learning experiences. ...

Curiosities, Collections, and Curating: Considering Maker Portfolios

AbD researcher Jessica Ross elaborates on her role in the Open Portfolio Project by asking the question: What advice can we offer young makers as they document their making throughout their lif ...

Hacking Simple Systems: The Tale of an Incomplete Soccer Uniform

Oakland Learning Community Tatum Omari’s builds on her experience with system redesign to hack her daughter’s soccer gear. ...

Agency (and Comedy) by Design

North Oakland Charter School Teacher and Agency by Design OLC member Tatum Omari describes how her experiences with power tools and doorknobs expanded her vision of everyday objects. ...

Maker Empowerment Revisited

Agency by Design Principal Investigator Shari Tishman takes a dispositional approach to redefining “maker empowerment.” ...

Making Circuits Work: A Learning Journey

Agency by Design researcher Jessica Ross explores circuitry by engaging in a hands-on journey to build a flashing LED light from scratch. ...

A TEDx Talk about the Maker Mind: Why Having a Sensitivity to Design Matters

Agency by Design project manager Jen Ryan describes her experience discussing the “maker mind” at TEDxDirigo. ...

From Maker Space to Maker Campus

Boston-based architect David Stephen discusses his experiences developing “Maker Campus Master Plans” with various members of Agency by Design’s Oakland Learning Community. ...

Maker Empowerment in the Making!

Oakland Learning Community member Ilya Pratt describes her experiences working with the concept of “Maker Empowerment” at a recent Agency by Design workshop in Oakland, CA. ...

Maker Empowerment: A Concept Under Construction

Agency by Designer project Director Shari Tishman introduces the concept of “maker empowerment” as a potential outcome of maker learning experiences. ...

Understanding Agency Part II: Putting an Abstract Concept into Action

AbD researchers describe how their use of agency “vignettes” help them gain new understandings around the concept of agency. ...

Designing and Making with English Language Learners

Thi Bui teaches art and multimedia at Oakland International High School, a public high school for immigrants students’ where command of the English language is one of the last things to ...

Maker Movement in the Media

Agency by Design researchers have undertaken a review of scholarly literature to further our understandings of the various concepts connected to our study. ...

Understanding Agency Part I: What is Agency?

Part one of a series of posts on the concept of agency, this post asks the fundamental question: what is agency? ...

A Celebration of Learning

On Tuesday, May 6, 2014 educators, administrators, parents, and friends representing communities throughout the East Bay area came together at Studio One Arts Center in Oakland, CA to celebrate ...

Making Space Happen in K-12 Schools

What can K-12 schools do to establish design thinking and maker spaces on their campuses? In this blog post, AbD team member Wendy Donner discusses the ways in which two schools in Oakland are ...

The Maker Mind: Taking a Closer Look at the Way Makers’ Minds Work

How do makers make meaning of their making? What are the cognitive capacities associated with making? Flux Foundation artists and educators Jess Hobbs and Catie Magee introduce us to the “mak ...

A Culture (and Economy) of Making and Sharing

The maker movement is no doubt still trending. But what’s driving this resurgence in the inclination to make? And is it a part of a larger socio/economic shift to a shared, participatory cult ...

Identifying Core Outcomes of Maker and Design Thinking Education: Fostering a Sense of “I Can Do That!”

The Agency by Design team has been searching for answers to the big question: “What are the core outcomes of maker and design thinking educational experiences?” Bruce Hamren at the Athenian ...

Developing a Sensitivity to the Design of Teacher Learning Communities

A community of teachers and researchers work together in Cambridge, MA and Temescal, CA to learn more about how students understand design in the world. ...