ABSTRACT
An ongoing partnership between a university and local school serves as the background for an introspective examination of the author’s positionality in place and what other academics may bring to community projects in areas related to creativity and digital technologies. The notions and rhetoric around design thinking and computational thinking are interrogated here as they emerged in the project ‘Robot for Mayor 2030’. The analysis could be understood as a historical and situational inquiry pointing towards the post/decolonisation of academic research with local communities. More specifically, the chapter argues that the leaders of design and technology projects run the risk of (however inadvertently) colonising the minds and spirits of vulnerable groups. The study discussed here suggests that how teachers and students engage with design and technology is shaped by what they create (or make), which is both a product and produces what and how they feel, think and build their identities.
