"He Knows a Lot of Things": Youth Meshwork Mapping in Making Spaces

• In Event: 14.015 - Making Spaces for Youth From Nondominant Communities: New Approaches for Supporting Equitable and Consequential Experiences

Abstract

Purpose
This research draws from a larger study on literacy practices in makerspaces. Makerspaces present opportunities for multidisciplinary STEM learning (Sheridan et al., 2014). Access to information and providing opportunities for youth to explicitly construct their own networks of information and expertise is crucial for their participation. Makerspaces contain networks of distributed expertise that support individual makers; we wonder how youth understand, create, and access networks of expertise in these spaces. Representations of these networks can highlight how relationships to different expertise and practices might support youth STEM learning in schools. We reposition networks as “meshworks” (Ingold, 2011) to better capture the complexity of relationships between people, places, and knowledge. Here we present findings from an intervention intended to support youth from nondominant communities in mapping their meshworks of expertise and knowledge to support their making.

Perspective
We share an interest in understanding how spaces are constructed and re-organized by youth participants (Calabrese Barton & Tan, submitted). Moving through and within makerspaces involves navigating complex webs of people, resources, and expertise (Sheridan et al., 2014). We leverage the idea of “meshworks” (Lefebvre, 1991), considering makerspaces as “meshworks of interwoven lines” (Ingold, 2011, p. 63), to account for shifts in practices and relations over time, how making supports practices unrecognized in school (Buchholz et al., 2014), and how youth practices shape and define these spaces (Gutiérrez, 2012). Our question is: In what ways can we support youth in developing their making practices using iterative representations of their meshworks of expertise?

Methods/Data
For this study, we observed (102 hours) in an adult makerspace to understand how networks of expertise shape the work and community. We then used design-based research to study how youth represent their meshworks of expertise. We present results of our analysis of the intervention with youth in two makerspaces who iteratively generated meshwork representations.

Results
We asked youth to think about where they go for help. Youth mentioned individuals--“my dad”-- and particular locations--“library.” As they shared, they generated categories like “Scheduling,” “Life Skills,” and “Legal.” Iterations of the mapping representations led to connections between those life/school categories and the their making. Alonzo, who initially listed his dad as someone who “knows a lot of things,” listed him as an expert in construction, cars, and electronics, positioning him as an expert for the purposes of making. Our findings suggests that these representations can evolve over time, opening new avenues for seeking information and discovering what knowledge and skill is valuable in making. In the poster, we will present how adults use their networks and the ways youth meshworks evolve through their work in makerspaces over time.

Significance
Making meshworks explicit helps youth makers identify and expand the ways their existing connections to sources of information, positions them as part of a field of experts, and allows for new connections. Using meshworks as a way to understand how youth co-construct spaces can expand ways of understanding STEM participation and practices beyond the dominant perspectives (Vossoughi, Hooper, & Escudé, 2016).

Authors

• Brian E. Gravel, Tufts University

• Eli Tucker-Raymond, TERC

• Aditi Wagh, Tufts University