The Case of Chris: How Mentoring in a STEAM Program Supports Undergraduate Learning
Mon, April 8, 12:20 to 1:50pm, Metro Toronto Convention Centre, Floor: 600 Level, Room 606Abstract
This paper presents a qualitative case study of undergraduate mentor learning. Our work is grounded in sociocultural perspectives that emphasize individuals with unique histories interacting to learn as they participate in shared endeavors (Cole, 1996; Herrenkohl & Mertl, 2010; Vygotsky 1987/1934). In STUDIO, we use ways of knowing, doing, and being to describe and analyze the broad learning that takes place. What we mean by knowing and doing is knowledge and practice in mentoring, and being includes concepts such as students’ interests and affective orientations in relation to knowledge, other participants, and students’ future selves. We take a community of learners approach, adapting a reciprocal model of mentoring to create an environment where interest driven learning supports individuals to work together to make new knowledge while creating their community, thereby contributing to sociopolitical change as well as individual change (Politics of Writing, 2017).
This study is situated in STUDIO, a STEAM (Science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics) after-school program located in a CBO. The CBO and a public university partner to provide broad, informal learning opportunities in STEAM for youths and undergraduate student mentors to contextualize STEM knowledge inside their everyday experiences.
This qualitative case study discusses how one mentor, Chris, developed new ways of knowing, doing, and being over the course of designing and enacting his curriculum called the World Through Food (Anderson-Levitt, 2009). Data include Chris’s written reflections, two semi-structured interviews (at two different points in time), researcher field notes and reflective memos. Thematic coding across data sources informed the development of key areas Chris identified as points of challenge and growth in his account of his own learning.
Iterations of thematic codes resulted in two broad aspects of Chris’ development in knowing, doing and being. First, designing and facilitating the World through Food lead Chris to redefine the practice of asking questions. He reflected that his questions for the youths were initially centered on his interests and expertise (what he called “pocket questions”) before World Through Food. Through the process of facilitation, his questions became more refined, less rigid, and more responsive to the youths’ immediate thinking and ideas, thereby stimulating new knowledge for youth and for him.
Furthermore, Chris reported using the practice of writing reflections as a tool to expand his own learning across different contexts. Carefully listening and then reflecting about moments when youths shared about their religion helped him to learn about different cultures and people. Beyond STUDIO, he reported using this reflective practice during his experience of shadowing professionals in his field of choice to make sense out of why and how they made certain decisions.
This case study provides a more in-depth example of how an undergraduate student not only becomes knowledgeable in mentoring and furthers his STEM knowledge but also develops as a person who understands the importance of responsive listening, and reflecting about his and others’ knowledge, culture, and religion. It addresses the need for research on undergraduate students’ development as whole people in higher education.