Posthuman Perspectives on Children’s Digital Play and Engagement in a Children’s Museum (Poster 42)

• In Event: AERA Poster Session Thursday 1:45 p.m.
  In Poster Session: Innovative Designs and Novel Lines of Inquiry in Formal and Informal Learning Environments

Abstract

The present study utilizes a posthuman, new materialism framework to ground an ethnographic exploration of children’s digital play experiences in a children’s museum. The study took place in the STEM focused exhibits of a large children’s museum in the Southeastern United States over the course of a year of non-participatory observations. Findings indicate the central role of human and nonhuman interactions and actions in facilitating, encouraging, and sustaining children’s activities within an exhibit space. In addition, this study’s findings also draw attention to particular environmental, physical, spatial, material, and familial constraints that served to constrain child visitors’ opportunities to employ or act in ways that realized their agentic role during exhibit play revealing important considerations for design and educational supports.

Author

• Angela L. Eckhoff, Old Dominion University