Informal science educators and children in a low-income community describe how children relate to out-of-school science education

Abstract

ABSTRACT Children in low-income neighbourhoods experience an intersection of socio-structural factors that delimit their engagement with out-of-school (informal) science education. Using Bourdieu’s framework of habitus, this paper explores how informal science educators and children in a given low-income community in western Canada described the attitudes, dispositions, and experiences that influence the informal science education practices of children in the community. Participants in the study included 32 children (aged 9–14) attending 4 different subsidised community clubs (each of which incorporated some science programming), 5 science centre staffers, and 11 community club program leaders. This multi-method study uses habitus as a thinking tool that bridges theoretical and methodological domains. The study employed various data sources in order to develop rich descriptions of participant perspectives; these sources included individual dialogues, focus groups, a statement sorting exercise, and participant responses to pilot data. The paper outlines the synergies and contrasts in the perspectives of children and informal science educators regarding the place of informal science education in the lives of local children. Despite certain consistencies between educator and child accounts, educators underestimated the level of interest children had in out-of-school science education and the range of self-/home-directed science activities in which children were participating. The paper ends by examining the implications of adults’ attempts to hide the word science from children during informal science activities and makes suggestions regarding the provision of informal science education in other low-income contexts.