CAREER: Theory and Pedagogy within University Makerspaces

Makerspaces continue to become more common as equipment capabilities increase while cost decreases, and within universities in particular makerspaces provide opportunities for hands-on training and creative project-based experiences for students. However, the operational culture, including staffing practices and policies, sometimes results in makerspaces that are not welcoming to certain populations, specifically women and people of color.

This is a serious problem because all learners need access to modern tools, problem-based pedagogies, and real-world training so that the future STEM workforce fully engages the US population in the modern economy. This CAREER project, across three diverse settings, is situated in the opportunity to dig deeper into research on pedagogies within makerspaces as well as student-staff interactions.

This understanding can inform the development of pedagogical and instructional tools to support an inclusive makerspace environment, specifically best practices for student engagement in the makerspace, hiring and training practices for makerspace staff, policies to promote equity and inclusion, and professional development practices. The proposed work will broaden participation in engineering through the creation of more inclusive practices in makerspace environments.

This CAREER research will use grounded theory to develop and propose a critical lens focused on interactions and pedagogy within university makerspaces. This purposeful and explicit focus on inclusion in university makerspaces is central to future US competitiveness; otherwise, the structural inequities that exist in higher education, specifically within engineering, will continue to be reproduced in educational environments and the future workforce.

Research points to the importance of interactions between individuals in these spaces and suggests these could be linked to an inclusive/exclusive environment. Since most students enter the space for coursework, the pedagogy matters as well. This project will be guided by the following research questions:

• How do majority and marginalized engineering students interact with makerspace staff within university makerspaces? • What does pedagogy look like in university makerspaces? • How do interactions and pedagogy impact who is and is not participating in university makerspaces?

Findings from this study will begin to fill the void of knowledge about how pedagogical moves and interactions within university makerspaces can contribute to an inclusive environment. Specifically, the theoretical lens created in this study can synergistically inform instructional tools and practices that will be informed by best practices in curriculum, pedagogy and evaluation.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.