The Maker Movement: From the Development of a Theoretical Reference Framework to the Experience of DENSA Coop. Soc

Abstract

AbstractThe Maker Movement, which has for years received much attention, still presents many economic, social and educational implications that are ripe for investigation. The movement’s community of practice can be defined as “a knowledge-building community” (Scardamalia and Bereiter, The Cambridge handbook of the learning sciences, pp 97–115, 2006) as cited in Martin (Martin, J Pre-Coll Eng Educ Res (J-PEER) 5(1):4, 36 2015). This apt definition, which refers to the hyper complex, connected society that engendered it, opens up new possibilities in the field of education. The main goal of this reflective paper is linked to the creation of a theoretical framework that could explain and support the movement’s background. This will lead to an analysis of three different pedagogical models (Célestin Freinet, Loris Malaguzzi, Bruno Munari) that have much in common with the Maker Movement. We focused our study on the most positive traits of makers: social inclusion, democracy and the failure-positive/collaborative approach. Considering the importance of the European Union’s Key Competences, our aim was to create a bridge between the “maker mindset” (Dougherty, Design, make, play, pp 9, 25–29, 2013) and these competences, in order to consider the possibility of introducing the movement into the national curriculum. The point of contact between the two can be the basis for promoting active citizenship, grounded, naturally, in the Key Competences. Subsequently, to test our analysis in the first part of our reflection, we look at the experience of DENSA (Developing Edutainment for New Skills and Attitudes) Coop. Soc.