Overarching Longitudinal Study: The Role of Informal STEAM Programming in Adolescent Identity and Interest Development

• In Event: "STEAM" Programs: Equitable Approaches to Transdisciplinary Informal Environments

Abstract

Objectives: We still lack adequate longitudinal accounts of learning and becoming—especially with respect to how transdisciplinary learning experiences might productively shape extended life pathways. This ethnographic longitudinal study examines how transdisciplinary STEAM programs are situated within a wider ecology of science learning ,participation, and identification processes for adolescent youth—across settings, communities, and pursuits. The focal research question is: How does participation in transdisciplinary programs relate to students’ background and their understanding of STEM and how it relates to other aspects of their lives?

Perspectives: Ecological perspectives on learning help us understand how STEM learning and identities develop across time and settings in response to opportunities and barriers to ongoing participation (Ito et al., 2013; Barron & Bell, 2015). This research informs our understanding of the variegated cultural learning pathways traversed by adolescent youth (Bell et al., 2012; Nasir et al., 2020) across developmental timescales after their participation in specific STEAM program experiences. We leverage anthropological accounts of epistemic practices to understand how more expansive accounts of the arts-and-sciences support more equitable connections to everyday life and pursuits (Bell, 2012).
Methods: This study employs cross-setting ethnographic research techniques—ethnographic interviews and analysis of participant artifacts and autoethnographic data sources—to build case studies (Yin, 2008) of the cultural learning pathways of adolescent youth. In this analysis we report on the first wave of data collection from a multi-year study.

Data: This longitudinal study across countries draws on ethnographic interviews and artifact analysis from participants from four STEAM programs for adolescents: an audio engineering and digital media production program in London; a youth digital journalism program in Oakland, CA; a technology and tinkering space in LA, CA; and a week-long program of workshops, talks, and activities focused on a particular STEAM topic in Dublin, Ireland. Each program integrates epistemic practices and disciplinary tools from across the arts and sciences, but over different time spans and to further different learning goals, allowing the project to surface both differences and commonalities in STEAM programming.

Results: Our cross-case analysis revealed two themes. First, young people bring stabilized interests and expertise to transdisciplinary STEAM programs, which they have developed through interaction with networks of family, community members, school, online communities, and/or other out-of-school programs. These programs equip young people with intellectual resources and epistemic practices to use in other learning settings, such as more specialized language to advocate for environmental policies within their schools. Second, the affordances of transdisciplinary STEAM settings specifically helped participants engage with science in ways school had not. Those interviewed often compared the sociomaterial configurations, their own positionality, and/or the power dynamics of these settings to those in schools.

Scholarly Significance: This research helps educators better understand how to support culturally diverse young people to develop lasting STEM-engaged identities. It suggests ways to design more expansive learning arrangements that build on young peoples’ funds of knowledge, interests, and identities. It also illustrates how transdisciplinary STEAM programs can support young peoples’ community and civic involvement and expand their imagined possible futures.

Author

• Abigail Rhinehart, University of Washington - Seattle