The Roles of Student Staff in Engineering Makerspaces
Audrey Boklage · 2023
In recent years, substantial resources have been invested into makerspaces in the community, K-12 schools, and higher education based on the underlying assumption that their creation will lead to experience that ignite interest, engagement, and persistence in engineering. University makerspaces are thought to have the potential to support entrepreneurship, innovation, and design, alongside the undergraduate engineering curriculum [1]. Despite this pedagogical potential, research tents to focus on the organization and operation of the makerspace (e.g., the design and layout, the type of equipment, the role of administration) [2], [3]. One opportunity to dig deeper into the research on makerspaces is an exploration of the pedagogy with the makerspace, specifically, the role of student staff in these spaces. In this work in progress paper, we seek to understand how student staff interact with one another, other students, as well as university faculty and staff within the context of academic makerspaces. In partnership with a makerspace at two large, public institutions in the Southwest, we conducted twelve interviews with students who held various staff roles within the makerspace. The interviews were conducted in Fall 2021 and Spring of 2023 and lasted between fifteen and forty-five minutes in length. A team of two researchers used a qualitative analysis approach to identify themes and findings from the interviews in the Summer of 2023.The analysis of this data begins to uncover the ways in which students interact with others in makerspace as well as the various roles they occupy and their contributions to the space. Findings include the intersection of hierarchy within the space among student staff and spaces of inclusion or exclusion. Implications are discussed and include how these findings can inform education research practice in informal spaces such as academic makerspaces and formal spaces, such as classrooms, where student interaction occurs.