skip to main content
US FlagAn official website of the United States government
dot gov icon
Official websites use .gov
A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States.
https lock icon
Secure .gov websites use HTTPS
A lock ( lock ) or https:// means you've safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

Explore Research Products in the PAR
It may take a few hours for recently added research products to appear in PAR search results.


Title: “I'm a little less inclined to do it”: How Afterschool Programs’ Culture Impact Co-Design Processes and Outcomes
The importance of considering local context and partnering with target users is well established in co-design. Less common is an examination of the adaptations needed when deploying the same co-design program across heterogenous settings to maximize program efficacy and equity. We report on our experience co-designing educational games with six culturally and socioeconomically diverse afterschool sites over two years, and insights from interviewing ten program administrators across all sites. We found that even within the same afterschool program network, site differences in organizational culture and resources impacted the effectiveness of co-design programs, the co-design output, and expectations for student engagement. We characterize our afterschool partners into different archetypes – Safe Havens, Recreation Centers, Homework Helpers, and STEM Enrichment Centers. We provide recommendations for conducting co-design at each archetype and reflect on strategies for increasing equitable partnerships between researchers and afterschool centers.  more » « less
Award ID(s):
1906753
PAR ID:
10441227
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ;
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS '23)
Page Range / eLocation ID:
1263 to 1276
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. ; ; ; ; (, Proceedings of the 17th International Conference of the Learning Sciences - ICLS 2023)
    Community-based afterschool programs are valuable spaces for researchers to codesign technologies with direct relevance to local communities. However, afterschool programs differ in resources available, culture, and student demographics in ways that may impact the efficacy of the codesign process and outcome. We ran a series of multi-week educational game codesign workshops across five programs over twenty weeks and found notable differences, despite deploying the same protocol. Our findings characterize three types of programs: Safe Havens, Recreation Centers, and Homework Helpers. We note major differences in students' patterns of participation directly influenced by each program's culture and expectations for equitable partnerships and introduce Comparative Design-Based Research (cDBR) as a beneficial lens for codesign. 
    more » « less
  2. (, ASEE Annual Conference proceedings)
    null (Ed.)
    As the number of afterschool technology-rich maker learning programs for youth increases, it is important to investigate effective assessment tools that can be used to assess program impact at scale. We studied results from a series of surveys using two deployment modes with 94 youth who participated in programs at an afterschool maker learning center. We found that retrospective surveys that ask youth to reflect on shifts in their attitudes after completing a program are more effective than the same surveys deployed twice, pre- and post- a program. These results confirm input from youth interviews in which they expressed dislike of repeating the same surveys before and after a program and difficulty with answering self-assessment questions without a point of reference. 
    more » « less
  3. ; ; ; ; ; (, Frontiers in Education)
    This case study describes the iterative process used to develop a virtual coaching program for out-of-school-time (OST) educators, particularly those who work in afterschool and library settings. The program, called ACRES (Afterschool Coaching for Reflective Educators in STEM), used a design-based implementation research (DBIR) approach to consider issues related to scale-up. Afterschool and library settings are complex systems that include supports and barriers that require adaptation for implementation. Throughout the design process, program developers worked to identify the essential elements of the program that should be maintained across contexts, while attending to the diverse needs of individual OST settings. Survey and interview data were collected from the full range of stakeholders throughout the implementation process to verify the importance of the essential elements to the professional learning model, and to gather early indicators of the program’s potential related to three key concepts for successful scale-up of programs: sustainability, spread, and shift. Conclusions are shared in relation to how these types of results support the scale-up of programs, and the strengths and gaps in the process used to apply the DBIR approach in our work. 
    more » « less
  4. ; ; ; ; (, International Journal of Mentoring and Coaching in Education)
    Purpose The purposes of this study were to describe the roles mentors enacted as part of an afterschool science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) program and how those roles varied across three sites and to explain those differences. Design/methodology/approach The authors used a comparative case study design and collected data primarily from interviews with program mentors and observations of the sessions. Findings The authors found that the mentors played four roles, depending on the school site: teachers, friends, support and role models. Mentors interpreted cues from the environment in light of their own identities, which ultimately led them to construct a plausible understanding of their roles as mentors. Research limitations/implications The authors identify four mentoring roles that are somewhat consistent with prior research and demonstrate that the roles mentors enact can vary systematically across sites, and these variations can be explained by sensemaking. This study also contributes to research on mentoring roles by elaborating each identified role and offering a framework to explain variability in mentor role enactment. Practical implications The authors recommend that mentoring program directors discuss the roles that mentors may enact with mentors as part of their training and that they engage mentors in identity work and also recommend that program managers create unstructured time for mentors to socialize outside STEM activities with their mentees. Originality/value This study contributes to mentoring research by using sensemaking theory to highlight how and why mentoring roles differ across school sites. 
    more » « less
  5. ; ; (, Afterschool Matters)
    This practice-oriented article presents a comprehensive framework for strengthening cultural responsiveness in afterschool STEM programs, grounded in the design and implementation of Math CEO— a university-community partnership engaging Latinx middle school students in Southern California. The framework centers on six dimensions: student-centered learning, interpersonal relationships, critical thinking, relevance and language, social justice, and cultural diversity. These are applied across three interconnected domains: program structure, curriculum, and pedagogical practices. Through detailed examples and a case study, the article illustrates how culturally responsive practices can be embedded into informal math activities to foster student engagement, cultural identity, and deeper learning. highlights the importance of mentor training and curriculum development as strategies to ensure these practices are applied consistently and sustainably. 
    more » « less
  • Citation Formats
  • MLA
  • APA
  • Chicago
  • BibTeX
  • Save / Share this Record
  • Send to Email