A Meta-Framework for Frameworks
Students: Elda Solomon, Alisha Sharma
The RDS Scholars Program teaches its students about what frameworks are, how to use them, and how to create their own. Frameworks are a broad concept, and two people can have completely different examples come to mind when considering one. The core of all frameworks created through the RDS Scholars program is responsibility. Being tasked with defining responsibility in a certain context and guiding other people toward more responsible actions can be daunting. Our Meta-Framework for Frameworks group created a resource for future RDS Scholars to use — a framework to guide creating a framework.
This group worked closely with faculty involved in the RDS Scholars program to first understand, from a more general perspective, the challenges in framework creation that could be addressed in their final product. Our scholars took these conversations and used these ideas as their final product started taking shape. Their focus then shifted to students who had the experience of creating frameworks before, and they created a survey to send to last year's RDS Scholars. The results from this survey helped them understand not only the challenges of framework creation, but the various routes that can be taken while trying to overcome them.
On Day 1 of the DataSci+AI Forum, our Meta-Framework for Frameworks group presented their final product — a website that walks the user through a flowchart of questions, leading them to receive their own customized plan for creating a framework. Through this tool, users are introduced to principles that should be emphasized based on their context, while also including less obvious principles that are still integral to responsibility as a whole. We are excited to see this framework in action with next year's RDS Scholars cohort!
If you are interested in taking a look at the final framework, follow the link here.
Written by Emily Durning