Territorial educational governance and Design Research: the role of conjecture maps in the design phase

Abstract

This paper is situated within the field of Design Research and examines the design phase using conjecture maps as proposed by Sandoval (2014), here understood as a systemic modelling device for complex educational contexts. The aim is to discuss the methodological affordances of this tool during the pre-implementation phase, that is, prior to iterative cycles and empirical validation, through the analysis of an illustrative case concerning territorial educational governance.
Drawing on documentary analysis related to the Scuole Aperte project in the city of Bergamo, four recurrent critical nodes were identified: school leadership, renewal of parent committees, financial stability, and polycentric educational governance. These issues were subsequently reformulated in transformative terms and formalized into four conjecture maps. The mapping process made it possible to articulate the high-level conjectures, translate them into organizational embodiment choices, and distinguish between observable mediated processes and expected outcomes.
The findings highlight both the epistemic and methodological function of conjecture maps: they make the internal coherence of the design explicit, transform operational problems into structural system variables, and render visible the interdependencies across the micro-, meso-, and macro-levels of the educational context. The paper can therefore be framed as methodological research focused on prototypical modelling and proposes an extension of conjecture mapping to the logical construction phase of design, opening perspectives for future implementations and for further developments in the field of territorial educational policy.