Makerspaces, Makers' Places: The Public Ethos of Maker Culture in Education

• In Event: Making and Mobilizing Possibilities for Public Education: Four Studies of Literacy Learning Across Contexts

Abstract

Objectives: This study frames literacy practices as moving utterances of adolescents’ inventions through Do-It-Yourself (DIY) and Do-It-Together (DIT) approaches. Involving art professionals, media producers, teachers, educational researchers and middle and high school students in the Southern Ontario region, the research project exemplifies how the maker movement in education creates social and spatial mobility. That is, the two main objectives of the research are to 1) revitalize literacy approaches in light of multimodal pedagogical activities and considering current assessment demands; and 2) develop assignments in line with modal understandings and applications (e.g., film production, coding, video game design).

Theoretical Framework: This research is informed by maker culture mindsets (Dougherty, 2013; Peppler & Bender, 2012) to conceptualize maker literacies through participatory DIY and DIT approaches. Maker epistemologies outweigh elementary tool and technology use by propelling student learning in holistic ways—supporting physical, mental, and emotional growth (Dougherty, 2013). In view of this integrated approach, further research is needed not only on students’ development as crafters, but also on the ways that makerspaces create greater mobilities for young people. Viewing makerspaces as communities of practice (Halverson & Sheridan, 2014), we situate adolescents’ engagements with making as entryways into new digital and non-digital spaces. Applying Lefebvre (1974), we will examine how young people in our maker-oriented research study work across hybrid spaces that offer greater mobility and spaces that the imagination seeks to change.

Methods: We opted for a qualitative framework as to reveal in-depth data accounts of student, teacher, and art professional renderings of ‘making.’ Conducting fieldwork over 8 months, we collected ethnographic observations of 100 middle and high school students’ multimodal practices and participant-made productions. We also recorded focus group interactions between teachers and art professionals on maker culture. The chosen research methods are participatory and empowering, giving participants the necessary space to enact their agency and learn from their peers.

Data Sources: Data include transcriptions of focus group discussions, multimodal student productions, and teacher feedback on assessment and curriculum needs. Working with a team of researchers and analysis specialists, we processed data using the qualitative data analysis software Atlas.ti.

Results: This research points to evidence highlighting how adolescents express their creativity and communal drive (Halverson & Sheridan, 2014) through making. That is, students experience agentive ways of knowing and doing, fostering further engagement in learning. Teachers’ and art professionals’ insights on making allow for deeper understandings of curriculum needs in terms of assessment and instruction.

Scholarly Significance: The significance of this research is twofold. First, we suggest ways of developing holistic learning through creative practices that imply mobility. Second, we show ways students can engage in participatory work (Broderick, 2014), and how such participatory opens up spaces for affect and engagement in literacy learning. Educational researchers will find in this presentation concrete opportunities to think ideologically about the ways that maker pedagogies create mobilities for students.

Authors

• Amélie Lemieux, Brock University

• Jennifer Rowsell, Brock University