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Youth-focused community and citizen science (CCS) is increasingly used to promote science learning and to increase the accessibility of the tools of scientific research among historically marginalized and underserved communities. CCS projects are frequently categorized according to their level of public participation and their distribution of power between professional scientists and participants from collaborative and co-created projects to projects where participants have limited roles within the science process. In this study, we examined how two different CCS models, a contributory design and a co-created design, influenced science self-efficacy and science interest among youth CCS participants. We administered surveys and conducted post-program interviews with youth participation in two different CCS projects in Alaska, the Winterberry Project and Fresh Eyes on Ice, each with a contributory and a co-created model. We found that youth participating in co-created CCS projects reflected more often on their science self-efficacy than did youth in contributory projects. The CCS program model did not influence youths’ science interest, which grew after participating in both contributory and co-created projects. Our findings suggest that when youth have more power and agency to make decisions in the science process, as in co-created projects, they have greater confidence in their abilities to conduct science. Further, participating in CCS projects excites and engages youth in science learning, regardless of the CCS program design.
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Jamming power: Youth agency and community‐driven science in a critical technology learning program
Abstract In dialogue with science education and learning sciences research, in this article we develop a disciplinary‐specific view on youth and community agency for community‐based technology education. Cultivating agency is a central principle in our design and empirical study of the Young People's Race, Power, and Technology Program (YPRPT), a program designed to engage youth in critical inquiry about the technologies impacting their local communities. In this article, drawing from our multiyear partnership with a community‐based youth organization, we examine how agency was supported and constrained as a function of the practices we engaged in as a research team committed to participatory and justice‐centered education. Our findings illustrate ways that the emergence and enactment of agency, at both individual and community levels, works to interrupt, subvert, and creatively “jam” systems of power. We argue that cultivating agency in community‐driven science and technology learning requires an honest reckoning with the deeply entrenched racial and economic oppression in the United States. We contend that it is equally essential to commit to learning from, co‐designing with, and working in solidarity alongside the youth and communities that are most impacted by technologies that mediate our experiences—toward unveiling, resisting, and reimagining their powerful roles in our collective lives.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1855494
- PAR ID:
- 10419059
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley Blackwell (John Wiley & Sons)
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Research in Science Teaching
- Volume:
- 60
- Issue:
- 8
- ISSN:
- 0022-4308
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 1723-1754
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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