Cultural Dimensions of Ethics in Design: Indigenous Knowledge & Online Course Media

Author: Brian Lorraine, Simon Fraser University 

What are the questions we might not be thinking to ask? In terms of cultural dimensions of ethics in design, many important considerations may be ‘hiding in plain sight’. As I continue to reflect on the issue of design ethics in relation to the handling of Indigenous Knowledge in recorded course media, the anxious feeling of uncertainty around what sort of protocol should be followed still persists.

Moore (2021) explains that in the case of design situations, how design problems are framed correlates to the nature of possible solutions identified, and “thus directly impacts what problems designers address—or not” (para. 6). The struggle, though, in the context of higher education institutions fraught with inherent colonial structures and mindsets, is that we may not be well equipped to effectively problematize design ethics with regard to Indigenous cultural knowledges and practices.

For example, dimensions of ethics identified by Moore and Tillberg-Webb (in press), such as care ethics, duty or rights-based ethics, virtue ethics, and principle-based ethics may not offer an adequate standpoint within which issues related to decolonial practice or “Indigenizing” fit into. First Nations protocols existed on the land and in local communities prior to the arrival and imposition of western forms of education and design practices. 

Simply put, if there isn’t a compartment that properly suits issues around digital dissemination of oral histories and Indigenous knowledges/ways of knowing, it likely requires a distinct dimension. Attempting to fit these ethical considerations into a pre-defined dimension feels like subjugation of Indigenous knowledge and practice, an all-too-common reality that would perpetuate further harm if repeated.

At the same time, turning away from the clear need to address this cultural dimension of ethics in design leads down a pathway of what has been described as the perfect stranger position (Findlay, 2023). 

The perfect stranger position is a way of relating that promotes a kind of relational blindness, objectification, and othering of Indigenous Peoples, histories, ways, and knowledges. This distance makes empathic relating impossible and prohibits healing, transformation and ultimately, reconciliation. (p. 4)

In response to this, Findlay combines her Squamish philosophy and values with Contemplative Education to suggest a way of being that she calls, imperfect friend. “Becoming an imperfect friend is a process of education in that transformation of all aspects of self is required: mind-body-heart-spirit/soul.”

As I reflect on the design case described below, I continue to think about what it means to be an imperfect friend bringing relational aspects into my design practice and having the humility and making time for seeking out guidance from Indigenous knowledge holders about their local protocol with regard to handling recorded oral histories. Certainly, this comprises aspects of ethics of care, duty, and justice, but it may be best situated as its own unique dimension.

Design Scenario

The design case of a fully online Indigenous Ethnozoology course led to a realization of the need for critical reflection on the process by those involved. Over the period of an 8-month redesign and development, a tension became very clear early on. The original course author is a Squamish knowledge holder and had developed a significant volume of recorded lectures comprised of recounting oral histories of various animals, which are juxtaposed with western scientific understandings.

The instructor inheriting the course to teach future iterations is a professor of white settler descent within the Indigenous Studies department at Simon Fraser University (SFU) who has extensive experience conducting land-based research within and in partnership with northern and remote Indigenous communities. After engaging with the Centre for Educational Excellence (CEE) to embark on a collaborative redesign of the course, the instructor made it clear that the desire was to retain the recorded Indigenous knowledge, with permission, and honour the knowledge holder by maintaining the format of the recordings.

As the lead on the design team, I was conflicted. While the video content had been recorded with high quality equipment, they were from a period of remote instruction and were quite lengthy. My first impulse was to explain a distilled version of Sweller’s cognitive load theory in relation to transient information in recorded media (Wong et al., 2012) to the instructor. I also felt it important to relate my own personal experience with lack of student engagement in lengthier video segments, as well as pointing out findings from Guo, Kim, & Rubin (2012) suggesting chunks of less than 6 minutes in duration.

At the same time, everyone agreed that it is important to follow protocol in relation to Indigenous knowledge holders and the telling of oral histories. There was no shared understanding, however, of just what that protocol is. This speaks to a gap in learning design frameworks or approaches. The design team did not have a road map to follow and all manner of questions arose, personally, as to what an appropriate course of action would look like.

As someone on a journey of discovering Metis family history, facing my own conflicted feelings of the paternalistic nature of revision and editing of oral history came to the surface. Ultimately, decisions were made to only remove content that either was semester-specific, and therefore outdated, or was determined to have moved away from Ethnozoology and into the realm of Archeology. Videos were also divided into chunks of shorter segments, but each topical series was housed on the same content page in the LMS to ensure oral history stories remained proximally intact.

Figure 1. Screen capture: Existing course LMS page with linked lecture videos, required readings, and supplementary materials together.

Figure 2. Screen capture: New course design with lecture videos in short segments embedded together on a Canvas page.

To capture the design process in a visual manner, a graphics specialist on the design team created an infographic to depict the revisions to all aspects of the course. An array of considerations around ethical design in the context of organizations and systems that are still deeply, inherently colonial have been surfaced through the process of this design case – and ongoing critical reflection is the only way to begin to untangle the implications.

Figure 3. Infographic: Design decisions around course content, showing significant video editing and repackaging.

As I continue to reflect on this design and have further conversations with all involved, my thoughts return to the idea of an imperfect friend. If conventional design practice can be framed as having a perfect stranger standpoint, we perhaps are in the process of moving towards one possible solution regarding design ethics in this particular scenario. 

References

Findlay, Denise Marie (2023). Becoming the Imperfect Friend: Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and Contemplative Pathways to Healing and Reconciliation in Higher Education. Journal of Contemplative and Holistic Education: Vol. 1: Iss. 2, Article 7. Available at:

Guo, P. J., Kim, J., & Rubin, R. (2014). How Video Production Affects Student Engagement: An Empirical Study of MOOC Videos. L@S 2014.

Moore, S. L. (2021). The Design Models We Have Are Not the Design Models We Need. The Journal of Applied Instructional Design, 10(4). 

Moore, S. L. and Tillberg-Webb, H. (in press). Professional ethics: Design practices for an embedded approach. (Preprint)

Wong, A., Leahy, W., Marcus, N., & Sweller, J. (2012). Cognitive load theory, the transient information effect and e-learning. Learning and Instruction, 22(6), 449–457.