Report
Making Culture: A National Study of Education Makerspaces
2019
Abstract
Makerspaces and “maker learning” have captured the attention of education leaders and advocates for education reform. Many teachers, principals, superintendents, and board members are developing and investing in such spaces and programs as potentially transformative pathways for student learning. The landscape of makerspace literature consists primarily of well-intended playbooks, technology explainers, and how-to guides for designing the definitive makerspace. The greatest potential impact of education makerspaces, however, lies not in the equipment or procedures of making, but rather in the culture they enable, nurturing and promoting learning through creation, collaboration, and individual agency (control, autonomy, and choice). This cultural focus has been largely absent in other research and publications on making.
This study offers a detailed examination of the cultures of learning emerging in makerspaces across the United States and offers recommendations for those seeking to create an inclusive, vibrant, and collaborative culture of learning through making. It is the result of linguistic analysis of detailed interviews and observations from 30 sites across the country focused on formal, kindergarten through high school student participation, learning mindsets, and community connections within the context of education makerspaces.
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Details
- Title
- Making Culture: A National Study of Education Makerspaces
- Creators
- Youngmoo E Kim - Drexel University, Electrical and Computer EngineeringKareem Edouard - Drexel University, Teaching, Learning, and CurriculumKatelyn Alderfer - Drexel UniversityBrian K Smith - Drexel University, Information Science (Informatics)
- Number of pages
- 21 pages
- Resource Type
- Report
- Academic Unit
- Teaching, Learning, and Curriculum
- Identifiers
- 991022043392904721