A Year at the Improv: Iterating Identity and Agency Through Making in an Elementary School Makerspace
Sandra Becker, Michele Jacobsen · 2019 Conference of the Canadian Society for the Study of Education · 2019
In this presentation, results from a year-long design-based research study with a grade six teacher and her class of 27 students will be shared. The research took place in a classroom and a school makerspace, where students could design, ideate, and construct prototypes using high and low tech materials and tools. The purpose of the research was to determine how teachers, in developing makerspace knowledge, pedagogy, and practice might support their students. A researcher and the teacher collaboratively planned, enacted, and reflected on three iterations of making, which focused on curriculum topics in science, mathematics, and social studies. Data showed that both the teacher and her students, in navigating the figured world of makerspace, were able to take advantage of situational opportunities to improvise with artifacts, social discourses, and cultural structures. These improvisations in the makerspace carried over to the classroom, leading to a sense of agency and identity on the part of both the students and their teacher, where they saw themselves and each other as capable, thoughtful makers and learners.