Design-Based Research—A Framework for Participation and Action in Educational Research

Design-Based Research (DBR) is being implemented more broadly in educational research in Germany as a way of finding solutions for complex situations in education and ensuring their applicability for practitioners. The objective of DBR is to achieve a product that can be used in the field and a contribution to scientific theory through the process, including a broader generalization to other contexts. DBR has overlaps with Action Research (AR), including participatory aspects and emphasis on the voices and reality of people in the field. The process is open-ended and can involve several iterations until a solution is found that is convincing from the different participating perspectives. In this article, we discuss the relationship between DBR and AR and the potential of DBR as a way to advance participative qualitative and mixed-methods research in educational science. We present a project with two schools in Hamburg, Germany, as an example of DBR in education. It is too early for concrete results, but we will give an insight into the expectations, hopes, fears and first experiences of different participating parties at the onset of the project.