Undergoing Transformative Experiences by Designing a Lenape Learning Experience

Abstract

Early recorded history of Pennsylvania (USA) is deeply rooted in the relationship between the Lenape tribe and the Europeans who settled Pennsylvania. Facing a dormant language, the Lenape Nation of Pennsylvania asked the authors to assist friends and members of the Lenape Nation to use Lenape. Designing with a Lenape Chief and Clan Mother, a team of four designers as part of a graduate instructional design studio, set out on an 8-month design journey to design a Lenape spirituality and prayer learning experience. Invited to transformative experiences of the possible, the design team engaged in a moment of use approach for design and designed for a clear and simple purpose – use Lenape phrases and words in daily life. Following a narrative inquiry methodology, our research question was: how did a design team undergo our invitation to transformative experiences of the possible as they designed the Lenape spirituality and prayer learning experience? We went into the Lenape design project feeling that the design studio would provide the space for transformative experience to occur. We came out of the Lenape design project believing the design studio did. We also discovered the importance of all-collaborative practice to inviting transformative experience of the possible.