“We actually made something and solved a problem”

Exploring relationships between middle school engineering culture and girls' engineering experiences

Datos Bibliográficos

ID21392772
AutoresAerin W Benavides (0000-0001-9876-0216, Department of Teacher Education and Higher Education The University of North Carolina at Greensboro Greensboro North Carolina USA, autor de correspondencia), Edna Tan (0000-0002-4583-4557, Department of Teacher Education and Higher Education The University of North Carolina at Greensboro Greensboro North Carolina USA), Angela Calabrese Barton (0000-0002-9555-5214, Department of Educational Studies University of Michigan Ann Arbor Michigan USA)
Año2023
Volumen107
Número1
Páginas149-179
Fecha de publicación2023-01-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaScience Education (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0036-8326 • E-ISSN: 1098-237X
EditorialWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/sce.21770
OpenAlexW4297174459
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas4
Referencias citadas50

As historically construed, both engineering culture and school science culture marginalize girls. With the focus on engineering in the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS), engineering education researchers have called for a more targeted investigation of how girls at the K‐12 level engage in engineering. This study investigates, through critical participatory ethnography, how 6th grade girls engaged in an Engineering for Sustainable Communities unit (EfSC) guided by conceptual frameworks centered on Cultural Ways of Learning and Rightful Presence. Three in‐depth cases are presented that explore the kinds of engineering problem spaces girls chose to address through iterative design of functional prototypes. Findings reveal, first, how anchoring engineering in girls' embodied experiences supported new forms of participation, new roles for embodied experiences and new making present practices, thereby solidifying a more equitable culture. Second, as the girls moved and hybridized embodied community/STEM ideas and resources, they organized and put into action (through decisions made while “doing” engineering) their values, ideals and desires and that of their communities. Third, we found signifiers, themes, symbols and practices of an emergent engineering culture in which girls positioned themselves as able. These effected engineering for social‐spatial justice using a technically rich and socially specific iterative engineering process which seeded a rightful presence for girls in middle school science

Embodied cognition · Engineering design process · Engineering education · Engineering ethics · Epistemology · Ethnography · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Science education · Sociology · Career Development and Diversity · Engineering · Innovative Education and Learning Practices · Mechanical Engineering · Psychology · Teaching and Learning Programming