Responsive Facilitation and Iterative Design: An Approach for Engaging Underrepresented Youth in STEM

• In Event: 51.078 - MTCC Roundtable Session 21
  In Roundtable Session: 51.078-4 - Tensions and Possibilities for Reimagining Equity-Based Design Research

Abstract

Makerspaces have been characterized as “democratizing” spaces that provide opportunities for all – to tinker, make, and learn through creative and playful exploration (Hatch, 2014; Sheridan et al., 2014; Stevens et al., 2016). The democratizing power of making is often based on assumptions that making activities and makerspaces are naturally inclusive of all. While research has shown that makerspaces can be rich with opportunities for STEM exploration, engagement, and learning (Bevan, 2017), equity in these spaces is usually discussed in terms of increasing access and opportunities for minorities and girls to join in and participate in STEM-making activities. Questions about how interests and values align and the driving forces for participation have not been adequately considered when designing to engage underrepresented populations in making.

This paper examines the design of a dance makerspace, an environment designed to engage pre-teen and teenaged girls in STEM through making activities by drawing on their interests and familiar practices. The 4-week camp challenged participants to combine dance-making and technology by working in groups to choreograph projects that explained science phenomena using kid-friendly electronic elements (i.e. LED lights, Arduino boards, conductive clay), and other tools and materials. In this environment, where there was no set curricular content, needs and interests were likely to shift based on what youth were learning, how their projects were advancing, and the decisions they were making. It was important to be able to follow their lead, to allow them to follow their ideas, and to attend to emergent ideas, issues and pathways of exploration. Both the program design and its facilitation had to be responsive. This paper examines a responsive approach to design that was participant-centered and grounded in a commitment to attending to the needs and interests program participants as those needs and interests shifted and emerged. In a responsive approach to design, the design remains open and subject to revision (Gutierrez & Vossoughi, 2010). Researcher and facilitators attend to what is happening in the space, focusing on the experiences of participants and what youth need to remain engaged, and redesign the learning ecology as needed.

Drawing on data from multiple iterations of the camp, including design documents, facilitator notes and memos, and video excerpts of youth project groups, I look at how Responsive Facilitation and Design, as a dynamic form of design-based research, contributed to meaningful STEM engagement for underrepresented youth. Using a framework based on three types of engagement (behavioral, cognitive, and affective) as defined by Fredricks, Blumenfled & Paris (2004), I share how two aspects of the design, the activity structures and the feedback cycle, influenced meaningful engagement, share principles for designing for equity in informal interest-driven spaces, and discuss some of the unanticipated and emergent themes and tensions that arose as youth interest strayed away from planned activities.

Author

• Dionne N Champion, TERC