Equitably Consequential Making among Youth from Historically Marginalized Communities

作为加强非正式环境中学习的整体战略的一部分，推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）计划资助创新研究，方法和资源，用于各种环境。随着时间的推移，青年人持续参与STEM导向的制作，如何支持青年人致力于更强大的STEM相关项目，在历史上被边缘化的社区青年中进行这种制作经验的结果，或者支持这些目标的制作经验的设计特征，这些研究很少。该项目计划进行一系列研究，以开发：一个基于理论和数据驱动的框架，以实现公平后果的决策;一组相关的个人层面和项目层面的案例，其中包含范例（以及相关的挑战），可供研究人员使用和从业者指导该领域;以及一套用于在实践中识别公平后果决策的初始指导原则（含指标）。该项目将产生一个公平后果框架，制定实施指导原则，这将有助于建立基础设施，促进增加所有青年人的学习机会，特别是那些在科学、技术、工程和数学领域历来代表性不足的青年人。通过研究，该项目旨在围绕公平结果的制造，在面向科学、技术、工程和数学的制造者从业者、研究人员和青年人中建立能力，以扩大主流的制造规范，为青年人带来更具变革性的成果。项目研究将以几个问题为指导。 青年在创造有助于支持平等的空间方面（在当下和随着时间的推移）学到了什么？什么样的创客空间设计特征支持（或反对）年轻人以公平的方式进行创作？青年在不同环境和时间尺度上在STEM决策方面的个人和社区成果是什么？公平后果决策的最显著指标是什么，它们是如何形成的，如何在实践中确定这些指标？该项目将使用访谈研究和批判性纵向民族志研究这些问题，并嵌入青年参与性案例研究方法。该研究将在研究实践伙伴关系中进行，涉及密歇根州立大学，格林斯伯勒的北卡罗来纳州大学和4个地方，STEM和面向青年的兰辛和格林斯伯勒的空间，服务于STEM历史上代表性不足的群体，特别关注来自低收入和非洲裔美国人背景的青年。

As part of its overall strategy to enhance learning in informal environments, the Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL) program funds innovative research, approaches and resources for use in a variety of settings. There are few empirical studies of sustained youth engagement in STEM-oriented making over time, how youth are supported in working towards more robust STEM related projects, on the outcomes of such making experiences among youth from historically marginalized communities, or on the design features of making experiences which support these goals. The project plans to conduct a set of research studies to develop: a theory-based and data-driven framework for equitably consequential making; a set of related individual-level and program-level cases with exemplars (and the associated challenges) that can be used by researchers and practitioners for guiding the field; and an initial set of guiding principles (with indicators) for identifying equitably consequential making in practice. The project will result in a framework for equitably consequential making with guiding principles for implementation that will contribute to the infrastructure for fostering increased opportunities to learn among all youth, especially those historically underrepresented in STEM. Through research, the project seeks to build capacity among STEM-oriented maker practitioners, researchers and youth in the maker movement around equitably consequential making to expand the prevailing norms of making towards more transformative outcomes for youth. Project research will be guided by several questions. What do youth learn and do (in-the-moment and over time) in making spaces that work to support equity in making? What maker space design features support (or work against) youth in making in equitably consequential ways? What are the individual and community outcomes youth experience in STEM-making across settings and time scales? What are the most salient indicators of equitably consequential making, how do they take shape, how can these indicators be identified in practice? The project will research these questions using interview studies and critical longitudinal ethnography with embedded youth participatory case study methodologies. The research will be conducted in research-practice partnerships involving Michigan State University, the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and 4 local, STEM- and youth-oriented making spaces in Lansing and Greensboro that serve historically underrepresented groups in STEM, with a specific focus on youth from lower-income and African American backgrounds.