Understanding Equity of Access in Engineering Education Making Spaces

Idalis Villanueva Alarcón, Robert Jamaal Downey, Louis Nadelson, Yoon Ha Choi, Jana Bouwma-Gearhart and Chaz Tanoue
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Idalis Villanueva Alarcón: Department of Engineering Education, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
Robert Jamaal Downey: Department of Engineering Education, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611, USA
Louis Nadelson: College of Education, University of Central Arkansas, Conway, AR 72035, USA
Yoon Ha Choi: Biological Sciences, STEM Transformation Institute, Florida International University, Miami, FL 33199, USA
Jana Bouwma-Gearhart: College of Education, Oregon State University, Corvalis, OR 97331, USA
Chaz Tanoue: Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Department, Utah State University, Logan, UT 84322, USA

Social Sciences, 2021, vol. 10, issue 10, 1-17

Abstract: The goal of our exploratory study was to examine how management and staff in engineering education making spaces are enacting equitable access amongst their users (e.g., students). We examined six different making space types categorized by Wilczynsky’s and Hoover’s classification of academic makerspaces, which considered scope, accessibility, users, footprint (size), and management and staffing. We reviewed research memos and transcripts of interviews of university makerspace staff, student staff, and leaders/administrators during two separate visits to these places that took place between 2017 and 2019. We inductively and deductively coded the data, and the findings suggested that equity of access was situational and contextual. From the results, we identified four additional considerations needed to ensure equitable access for engineering education making spaces: (a) spaces designed and operated for multiple points of student entry; (b) spaces operated to facilitate effective student making processes and pathways; (c) threats to expanded access: burdens and consequences; and (d) elevating student membership and equity through a culture of belonging. Together, the findings point toward a need for developing a more nuanced understanding of the concept of access that far supersedes a flattened definition of access to just space, equipment, and cost.

Keywords: access; equity; makerspaces; engineering; making spaces (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A B N P Y80 Z00 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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