(Re)making Whiteness: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Equity-Based Maker Literature Peter J. Woods Recently, critical scholars have challenged the white, masculine foundations of the maker movement. That challenge has inspired others to create avenues for marginalized individuals to join these spaces. However, immediately jumping from critique to action often produces unintended consequences (Yancy, 2016). With this in mind, I pose the following research questions: how does diversity and equity-focused maker education literature position marginalized students in relation to making and makerspaces? And how does this positioning challenge or reinscribe whiteness? To approach these questions, I conducted a critical discourse analysis on fourteen different articles about equity in making. Findings show that these studies position marginalized subjects outside of the boundaries formed by maker culture and then invite subjects to either join in or redefine the boundaries of making. While beneficial, this process enacts what Ladson-Billings (2017) defines as the social funding of race and, in part, reinscribes whiteness within making culture.
Fostering Information Literacy Through Autonomy and Guidance in the Inquiry and Maker Learning Environments Lo Lee The study investigates high school students’ information practices and educators’ guidance during inquiry and maker learning. Self-Determination Theory and Imposed Query offer theoretical lenses in exploring students’ information practices in the learning environments that support learners’ choices and interests within the standards-based curriculums. Students engaged in a variety of information behaviors, such as information seeking, use, evaluating, creating, and sharing. Information searching and credibility judgment were some of the most challenging but helpful activities for students to complete their projects. Students enjoyed production-centered activities. When given a wide range of options for information creation in the maker unit, students seemed to be both excited and overwhelmed. Educators offered different strategies to scaffold students’ information practices and learning, striving to achieve a balance between providing guidance and allowing student autonomy and choice. Overall, students were appreciative and found the guidance beneficial; yet, they felt some guidelines were restrictive. The study suggests educators be intentional in providing guidance that is flexible and not too restricted or controlled. The ongoing research investigates the optimal environments for learners to exercise autonomy over their information practices and learning while feeling supported and guided.
Holding Values in Tension in a Technology Enhanced After School Club Robbin Riedy In this paper we reflect on our experiences designing for and supporting learning around technology enhanced making in an play based after school club (STAR). We examine various tensions related to the values we wanted to support in this making space and we draw on critical approaches to care to understand our design and facilitation decisions as we grappled with these tensions.
