This paper examines what new materialist and posthumanist frameworks can offer learning science research in diverse maker learning environments. We explore what is gained by grappling with the entanglements between humans, non‐humans and more‐than‐humans. To do this, we draw on Karen Barad's ethico‐onto‐epistemology and agential realism where she redefines connections to the shared world by attuning to the entangled matter that is created within intra‐actions. We use this framework across four international cases: digital media camps, a university‐level classroom‐based makerspace, a Saturday outdoor makerspace workshop and a classroom‐based museum makerspace. Each case study attends to how intra‐actions enact agential forces in maker education research—forces that posthuman and new materialist frameworks help us see. In so doing, these case studies challenge many of the assumptions prevalent in the learning sciences about mattering and its implications in research sites.
This article describes a research project that investigated the development of pre-service teacher identity, with an emphasis on meaning-making and articulation of personal values. The methodology is primarily arts-based. Data for the research consisted of: (1) participant-created three-dimensional constructions that symbolized their emerging values and identities; (2) accompanying written reflections that provided the context of the constructions and elaborated on the personal symbolization of the material culture involved. With this article, we hope to initiate further conversations around teacher education, professional development, and arts-based learning, with particular attention to dialogue about the teaching self.
This article addresses key components of posthumanism and maker literacies by reporting on empirical data from two makerspace research sites. Using posthuman methodologies, we suggest practical considerations of the relational autonomy of materials through entanglements between humans, non‐humans and more‐than‐humans in makerspace classroom settings. We propose answers to the following research questions: How do materials manifest their relational autonomy in makerspaces? How could the relational autonomy of materials impact maker literacies pedagogy? With this article, our contribution warrants researchers to think about the unpredictability of maker work through posthuman methodologies and how maker projects can help speak against the failing student rhetoric in literacy education.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.