The Role of Material Resources in Identity Development in Creative Computing Activities

• In Event: Materiality and Sociomaterial Practices in Learning, Designing, and Making

Abstract

Purpose
Researchers have highlighted how access to various resources in the learning environment can influence this identity development. We specifically examine the role of tools and materials in making and tinkering experiences with computing. The context of our study is a family learning program where whole families create and learn together using creative technologies like the Scratch programming language and the Makey Makey invention kit (Author, 2016). (Program name blinded for review.) Our research questions are:
(1) How does the family learning program provide access to material resources in the learning environment?
(2) What kinds of shared meanings and values do these material resources take on as families take them up?
(3) What qualities of these material resources influence children and their families’ identity development in the context of computing?
Perspectives
Using the lens of “figured worlds” from Holland and colleagues (1998) and building on the framework of “identity resources” by Nasir and Cooks (2009), we especially explored the role and characteristics of material resources within the family learning environment to understand how they contributed to family members’ developing a sense of connection to and identification with computing. Material resources are the ways that the physical environment such as its arrangement and artifacts enable someone to develop a connection to an activity (Nasir and Cooks, 2009).
Methods and data sources
We focused data collection on an implementation hosted in a community center. Six families participated, with kids ages 7 to 13 years old. All children qualified for free/reduced lunch. We primarily used ethnographic methods and collected multiple forms of data such as field notes, individual and group interviews, and video recordings. We use a comparative case study approach (Yin, 2013) to describe two family’s experiences with the material resources in the family learning program.
Results and substantiated conclusions
Using family case studies, we highlight three qualities of material resources in the family learning program. The material resources were malleable, or were easy to create with and customize. The material resources were tinkerable, or easy to get started and to experiment. Additionally, while some materials were new to families, some of the material resources were familiar, or families had some expertise and level of competency with some of the materials. We also discuss how other relational and ideational resources were important in framing the use of the materials.
Scholarly significance
In the figured world of the family learning program, there was a “lamination of spaces” bringing together family, community, and computing and opening up new possibilities for how parents and kids saw themselves and each other in the context of computing. The material resources and their malleability, tinkerability, and familiarity allowed family members to explore the possibilities with computing for themselves. We believe this has important implications for how we design learning environments that enable participants to engage with computing and how material resources can play an important role in welcoming and engaging non-dominant groups in not only making projects, but also making possible selves in the context of computing.

Author

• Ricarose Roque, University of Colorado - Boulder