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"We Are All Scientists Here": How Museum Program Design Supports Youth's STEM-Linked Identities

Sat, April 29, 10:35am to 12:05pm, Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center, Floor: Meeting Room Level, Room 221 C

Abstract

In this paper, we present findings from the larger Longitudinal Study of Connected Learning, which examined youth interest development, persistence in learning, civic participation, and their development of future selves. Our analysis focused on youth involved in a STEM museum internship program during high school and (for some) into college. For these youth, we examine the relationship between the museum program design and their conceptions of and identity work in STEM fields. In particular, we focus on what it meant to be recognized as a “STEM person”, participate in STEM, and pursue interests in these fields.

Our work is motivated by a concern with the persistent underrepresentation of large populations of youth in fields of STEM (NRC, 2015), and by the growing body of research that demonstrates the ways K-12 learning environments overwhelmingly reconstitute constrained notions of what it means to participate in and be “good at” STEM (Calabrese Barton et al., 2012; Carlone et al., 2014; Eisenhart & Allen, 2016). Although out of school time (OST) STEM learning programs suggest greater potential for supporting robust notions of STEM practices and providing opportunities for youth to engage in STEM-linked identity work (Adams & Gupta, 2013; Adams, Gupta, & Cotumaccio, 2014; Bell et al., 2009), we still need work in this area that identifies what aspects of program design might lead to these desired outcomes. Such research has potential to inform our approaches to STEM learning within K-12 environments and support our understandings of what learning opportunities foster youth identity work in STEM across spaces.

We draw from Holland and colleagues (1998) when considering how youth engage in identity work. Using their development of figured worlds, we view STEM as a “socially and culturally constructed realm of interpretation” (p. 52) that has particular actors, actions, and outcomes that are valued over others and a collective understanding of appropriate actions. How youth talk about STEM, who is good at STEM and why, provides an indicator of their figured worlds of STEM. Further, as youth “author” (Bakhtin, 1981; Holland et al., 1998) STEM-oriented selves, they draw on figured worlds to do so (e.g. emphasizing involvement in research).

Drawing on student survey and interview data, we used case study methodologies (Yin, 2013) to analyze the ways in which 15 youth (8 females, 7 males) from underrepresented backgrounds participated in one STEM museum internship program. We developed case displays of (1) the museum program activities named by the youth; and (2) for each youth, a case display of their conceptions of STEM, their involvement in STEM, and their self-identifications as a “STEM person.” Our findings suggest that program opportunities to educate the public, conduct research, work closely with mentors and current scientists supported youth in having robust notions of STEM practices. Youth described feeling that they “belonged” and seeing science as something that “everyone does” through inquiry of the lived-in world. Such findings have implications for the design of learning spaces that bolster participation and sense of belonging for youth in STEM.

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