The social and cultural production of a “misfit”

• In Event: Social Issues and the Learning Sciences

Abstract

Situated learning theory defines learning as legitimate peripheral participation for newcomers in communities of practice. This study contributes to situated learning theory by examining the ways in which legitimacy is conferred or denied on newcomers to the STEM fields. We examine the social and cultural work necessary to produce a particular delegitimizing identity—that of a “misfit”—showing how such an identity is dependent on both moment-to-moment discursive work and institutional classification schemes that become naturalized over time, and which undergird complex ecologies that torque newcomers’ trajectories of membership into STEM fields.

Authors

• Frederick A. Peck, University of Montana - Missoula

• Kevin O'Connor, Lafayette College

• Christian Lopez Mercado, University of Central Arkansas

• Susannah Meyers, University of Montana - Missoula