by Jean Ryoo, Exploratorium; Molly Shea, Exploratorium

Value Mapping is an activity that’s great for kicking off a partnership by “mapping out” partners’ shared values, goals, strategies, and learning outcomes. Designed as part of the California Tinkering Afterschool Network, this activity emerged as a way to help researcher and educator partners to support equity in the research-practice partnership. Follow the activity guidelines below with your group to co-develop a shared set of research questions, articulate a common language, identify shared areas of inquiry, and support an equitable relationship among collaborators.

Historically, research directions have been developed with little input from educators, program leaders, or community members who are ultimately charged with the task of using research results. Research-practice partnerships are meant to disrupt this imbalance to create more relevant and usable research. However, forming strong, equitable partnerships takes work. Researchers and educators often come together from different valued learning goals and outcomes, languages, and experiences that can shape differing ideas about teaching, learning, and what challenges or opportunities exist. Using this Value Mapping activity with group members can reveal differences in perspectives and help address underlying power imbalances and surface key tensions.

The guide includes steps for Value Mapping with examples of how the activity has been used in various settings:
Value Mapping Activity Guide: PDF