Food as a Catalyst for Positional Fluidity among Youth and Caregivers in the Participatory Design of a Food-Culture STEM Demonstration in a Science Center

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Abstract

Given the inequity to access, identification, and participation with STEM, scholars and practitioners in informal science education (ISE) are eager to find new ways to engage the expertise of historically underrepresented groups in the co-creation of learning experiences. We present critical food pedagogies as a strong approach to draw out community expertise. When engaged as a domain for interconnected learning, food catalyzes a positional fluidity allowing for shifts in expertise among youth staff and caregivers in an intergenerational participatory design project. We discuss three positions through which participants shifted: as STEM participants, as embodied material experts, and as cultural critics and commentators. We discuss the implications of utilizing critical food pedagogies toward centering historically-underrepresented ontoepistemologies in ISE.

Author

• Phebe Chew, New York Hall of Science