Cultures of Making: An Exploration of Equity in Different Contexts of Youth Making in Schools

Abstract

This dissertation studies young people participating meaningfully in making practices in three different contexts, to better understand how we can design for cultural plurality and situate equity for each population of learners at the center. What creative processes and products are central to creating a framework for maker cultures that treats diversity as an asset? How do we leverage the funds of knowledge afforded by a constellation of intersecting cultural practices? For the Doctoral Consortium, I focus on two participants - twin brother and sister—in a predominantly white, male, and wealthy youth makerspace, to demonstrate how gendered inequities shaped significantly different experiences for boys and girls in the same space. Often in literature equity is discussed in the context of studying people of color. But in examining a relatively privileged space, I highlight how dominant culture can also benefit from equity-centered design and facilitation. I use this work to inform best practices for the design of equity-centered youth makerspaces.