Equitably Consequential Making among Youth from Historically Marginalized Communities

作为加强非正式环境中学习的总体战略的一部分，推进非正式STEM学习（AISL）项目资助了用于各种环境的创新研究、方法和资源。随着时间的推移，年轻人持续参与STEM导向的制作，如何支持年轻人致力于更强大的STEM相关项目，历史上边缘化社区的年轻人的这种制作经验的结果，或支持这些目标的制作经验的设计特征，很少有实证研究。该项目计划开展一系列研究，以发展：一个基于理论和数据驱动的框架，以促进公平的后果制定；一组相关的个人层面和项目层面的案例，带有范例（以及相关的挑战），可以被研究人员和从业者用来指导该领域；以及一套初步的指导原则（带指标），用于在实践中确定公平的后果。该项目将形成一个具有实施指导原则的公平决策框架，这将有助于建立基础设施，为所有年轻人，特别是那些在STEM领域历史上代表性不足的年轻人提供更多的学习机会。通过研究，该项目寻求在stem导向的创客实践者、研究人员和创客运动中的年轻人之间建立能力，围绕公平的后果制造，扩大主流的制造规范，为年轻人带来更具变革性的成果。项目研究将受到几个问题的指导。在创造空间以支持公平创造的过程中，青年（在当下和随着时间的推移）学到了什么，做了什么？创客空间设计的特点是支持（或反对）年轻人以公平的方式进行创作？在不同的环境和时间尺度下，青少年在stem方面的个人和社区成果是什么？做出公平结果的最显著指标是什么？它们是如何形成的？在实践中如何识别这些指标？该项目将使用访谈研究和批判性纵向民族志以及嵌入青年参与性案例研究方法来研究这些问题。这项研究将在研究实践合作伙伴关系中进行，其中包括密歇根州立大学、北卡罗来纳大学格林斯博罗分校以及兰辛和格林斯博罗的4个当地、以STEM和青年为导向的制作空间，这些空间为STEM领域历史上代表性不足的群体提供服务，特别关注来自低收入和非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.