Trajectories of Family Learning Through Making

• In Event: Pathways, Trajectories, Ecologies, Oh My! Bridging Theories and Methods for Studying Youth Learning Lives

Abstract

In this paper, we present findings from a six-month comparative case study tracing trajectories of family participation in a museum space dedicated to maker activities. There has been much recent interest in making as a social learning process. The creative process of making, characterized by “messing around” (Ito et al., 2009) at the crossroads and fringes of disciplines such as science, technology, engineering, art and math, has recently developed into a recognized cultural, social, technological and economic movement. Motivated by a resurgence of interest in DIY (do-it-yourself) culture, and prompted by the introduction of new technologies, physical computing and fabrication, the movement has grown to embrace the potential for creativity and innovation made possible at the intersection of the physical and digital. The making movement has evolved to support a community of shared learning and practice among makers, both remotely, through widely distributed publications and online creative communities, as well as locally, through the development of makerspaces, hackerspaces, tech shops, and fab labs. These spaces are becoming recognized sites of learning (Honey & Kanter, 2013), as groups composed of diverse ages, genders and backgrounds are motivated to learn with and from one another how to use and combine materials, tools, processes, and disciplinary practices in novel ways. One such site has been developed at the Children’s Museum of Pittsburgh. MAKESHOP is a supportive informal learning environment designed for productive family participation in authentic making experiences.

While the Maker Movement has been well documented through popular publications, and spaces dedicated to making are popping up in schools, museums, libraries and science centers, the learning research community does not yet have empirical evidence of the current phenomenon of making as a learning process, how makerspaces function as contexts for learning and to what ends. Furthermore, an extensive literature considers the learning and disciplinary practices that result from family engagement with conventional museum exhibits (e.g., Ellenbogen et al., 2004), but little is known about family learning and creative use of digital and physical media technologies within designed learning environments (National Research Council, 2009), fundamental to maker culture.

To begin to answer these central questions with respect to making, learning and families, we are conducting a six-month comparative case study tracing trajectories of family participation in making as a social learning process. Using MAKESHOP as the touchstone makerspace for family participation, four families’ participation in making are being documented through regular interviews and time point surveys, observations, artifact collection and photographic and video recording, both within the Museum and across participants’ learning lives. Analytically informed by the learning ecologies (Barron, 2006) and communities of practice (Lave & Wenger, 1991; Nasir & Cooks, 2009) frameworks, we have found contrasting examples of productive learning trajectories that vary in the ways in which cognitive, social, dispositional and material resources are activated across time, context and social arrangement. The results of this study will inform an understanding of making as a learning process, as well as the design of meaningful creative learning experiences for children, youth and families.

Author

• Lisa Brahms, University of Pittsburgh