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Navigating Interest-Driven Learning Pathways: How Parents Broker Out-of-School Time Opportunities for Their Children

Tue, April 12, 8:15 to 9:45am, Convention Center, Floor: Level One, Room 103 A

Abstract

How do adult caregivers serve as learning brokers who cultivate youth’s interest development and participation in the local learning ecology? Working with the community arts and technology based organization in a research/practice partnership, we developed and piloted the “Parental Awareness and Decision-making Around OST Creative Technology Programs” instrument which include a comparative program description think-aloud, semi-structure interviews and survey with the goal of understanding (1) how parents and supporting adults in youth lives become aware of organizationally hosted creative technology learning opportunities for their children (identifying their information gathering needs and habits); and (2) developing a better understanding of the decision-making criteria that parents use to support their children’s attendance in technology-rich programming. We also interviewed supporting adults (parents, mentors, caregivers) about how they find found out about creative technology programs, and had them weigh pragmatic and logistical factors that influence whether they support a youth's participation in a program.

Findings highlight the important enabling role adults play in supporting youth’s participation (age <13) in OST learning opportunities. In particular we see evidence of the “learning broker” role identified by Barron and colleagues in their case study analysis characterizing the roles adults plays in a youth’s technology fluency development (Barron et al. 2009, 2012). In their typology, a learning broker “seeks learning opportunities for child by networking, the Internet, peer networks, and other information sources. This adult signs child up and provides necessary support for endeavor.” In our study we saw this brokering support articulated as logistical (e.g. transportation to a site, registration); financial (program fees, bus fares, material costs), transactional (tapping personal networks for opportunities, recommendations, reviews, and advice) and sourcing (searching for appropriate high quality, programs, activities and events).

Not surprisingly, we found that a common sort criteria adult caregivers used to judge the appropriateness of a creative technology program was their perception of a child’s interest in the topic. Parents of tween-aged youth frequently mentioned they would have discussions and involve their child in the decision-making. We coded for these interest considerations and found that parents described interest in terms of four dimensions – matching, exposing, connecting and deepening. We will expand upon these in the poster and discuss the family engagement implications of these findings in terms of designing parental communication supports for learning pathways to extend children’s interests.

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