Surfacing the complex conceptions of equity across making and tinkering spaces
Information and Learning Sciences
ISSN: 2398-5348
Article publication date: 31 July 2023
Issue publication date: 9 August 2023
Abstract
Purpose
Relatively few studies have examined the perspectives of informal learning facilitators who play key roles in cultivating an equitable learning environment for nondominant youth and families in making and tinkering spaces. This study aims to foreground the perspectives of facilitators and highlight the complexities and tensions that influence their equity work.
Design/methodology/approach
Interviews were conducted with facilitators of making and tinkering spaces across three informal learning organizations: a museum, a public library system and a network of community technology centers. This study then used a framework that examined equity along dimensions of access to what, for whom, based on whose values and toward what ends to analyze both the explicit and implicit conceptions of equity that surfaced in these interviews.
Findings
Across organizations, this study identified similarities and differences in facilitators’ conceptualizations of equity that were influenced by their different contexts and had implications for practice at each organization. Highlighting the complexity of enacting equity in practice, this study found moments when dimensions of equity came together in resonant ways, while other moments showed how dimensions can be in tension with each other.
Practical implications
The complexity that facilitators must navigate to enact equity in their practice emphasizes the need for professional development and support for facilitators to deepen their conceptions and practices around equity beyond access – not just skill building in making and tinkering.
Originality/value
This study recognizes the important role that facilitators play in enabling equity-oriented participation in making and tinkering spaces and contributes the “on the ground” perspectives of facilitators to highlight the complexity and tensions of enacting equity in practice.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors want to thank Lila Finch for organizing this interview study. This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. (2005764).
Citation
Roque, R., Hladik, S., Moreno, C. and Hayden, R. (2023), "Surfacing the complex conceptions of equity across making and tinkering spaces", Information and Learning Sciences, Vol. 124 No. 7/8, pp. 221-239. https://doi.org/10.1108/ILS-10-2022-0115
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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