Transmogrifying Coding into a Social Studies Technology Tool: Using Participatory Design with Engineers and Social Studies Educators to Design Data Visualization Tools for Social Studies Data Literacy Education

Authors

• Bahare Naimipour, University of Michigan, Ann ArborFollow
• Jessica Zhang, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
• Tamara Shreiner, Grand Valley State University
• Mark Guzdial, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

Author ORCID Identifier

0000-0002-7839-2118

Abstract

Our work aims to inform, design, and create data visualization tools that are meant to be integrated specifically into social studies classes. In this essay we discuss the use of participatory design methods to learn what social studies teachers (both pre-service and in-service) want in their classrooms and test the usability of real tools with these participants. Through this approach we iteratively engage our users, and they inform the design and development of learning tools for the learning and instruction of social studies data literacy. Using a social construction of technology lens, we describe the scaffolding embedded in our tools through social studies teachers’ perceptions of usefulness and usability in the data literacy tools they explored. Through this analysis of the data, four major themes emerged that we suggest considering when designing engineering tools for K–12 social studies teacher users. Finally, we discuss how our results resonate with prior research and guide the future direction of our work.

Recommended Citation

Naimipour, B., Zhang, J., Shreiner, T., & Guzdial, M. (2026). Transmogrifying Coding into a Social Studies Technology Tool: Using Participatory Design with Engineers and Social Studies Educators to Design Data Visualization Tools for Social Studies Data Literacy Education. Journal of Pre-College Engineering Education Research (J-PEER), 16(1), Article 4.
https://doi.org/10.7771/2157-9288.1381