A Self-Made Woman: Materiality of Maker Portfolio Practices for STEM Identity Development

• In Event: Sheraton Roundtable Session 23
  In Roundtable Session: Navigating Affect and Constructing Identity in the Learning Sciences

Abstract

At a time, when higher-education and job application processes are calling for youth maker portfolios in admission applications, portfolios promise to broaden access to fields where women have been traditionally underrepresented, such as engineering. Since the majority of portfolios submitted to MIT are by men, there is a need to broaden self-identification of women as technical makers. Unpacking the transformation of a young technology-averse woman into an electrical engineering college major, we present the role a portfolio practice and a physical project played in this transformation through a mediated discourse analysis. This showed that portfolios are not only digital objects but are objects with material lives that transform the identity of the maker and the object over time.

Authors

• Anna Keune, Indiana University - Bloomington

• Kylie A. Peppler, Indiana University - Bloomington