Centring students’ roles in promoting inclusion: An ethnographic evaluation of an informal STEM education program
Karie Jo Peralta, Sloan Eberly Mann, Madalyn Coss, Deicie Sawyers · Equity in Education & Society · 2025
This article presents findings from an ethnographic evaluation of an informal STEM education program that was informed by the maker movement and intended to foster the inclusion of students that have been marginalised historically from STEM fields, particularly individuals from low-income families and communities of colour. The purpose is to describe students’ roles and the conditions that supported them in promoting inclusion in the 12-session program that occurred from the years 2021–2024 at four sites and included five cohorts of mostly children from ages 11–13. Based on a qualitative, thematic analysis of field notes from participant-observation, informal interviews with program participants and staff, photos, and videos, three student roles emerged, including reinforcer, demonstrator, and witness. Additionally, three structural conditions of open participation, iteration, and parallel engagement were found to facilitate these roles. This project builds on the emerging, specialised body of literature on making and tinkering in informal education by recognising how students play a part in creating inclusive makerspaces and by identifying the conditions that make their contributions possible.