Supporting learners’ agency in constructing and using STEM knowledge is critical not only for fostering deeper learning, but also for making STEM education more equitable and inclusive. Informal learning environments like museums and science centers often prioritize agency within hands-on and interactive learning experiences, but few studies have defined what agency looks like within these spaces. The current study uses theoretical understandings of epistemic agency as a lens for understanding families’ experiences in science centers. A team of researchers, exhibit designers, educators, and museum facilitators collaboratively generated a working definition of agency in the context of families’ science center visits, and created a reflection tool to help museum practitioners notice observable aspects of agency in families’ interactions at STEM exhibits.
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What do we mean by “agency”? A framework and tools for supporting visitors' agency in museums and science centers
Agency is a central value within museums and science centers, but it has not been defined and operationalized in ways that can guide museum practice or support inclusion for new audiences. In this project, an interdepartmental group of science center staff co‐created a conceptual framework for noticing and supporting visitors' agency. The framework includes four interconnected aspects of agency: physical environment, social engagement, choice and autonomy, and relevance and empowerment. Conceptualizing agency as multifaceted led to more expansive approaches for supporting it, allowing staff to move beyond open‐endedness to consider a wider range of supports and structures that can make museum experiences more inviting and inclusive. The framework informed the development of practical tools for use by exhibit/program developers and facilitators. Tools are freely available and guide museum staff in questioning current practices and integrating the four facets of agency into planning, prototyping, and observation of interactive experiences.
more » « less- Award ID(s):
- 2046141
- PAR ID:
- 10552246
- Publisher / Repository:
- Wiley-Blackwell
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Curator: The Museum Journal
- ISSN:
- 0011-3069
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Reform-based instruction that fosters all students’ intellectual engagement and sensemaking is possible. However, it is not yet prevalent across many science classrooms. To gain more insight into how to design and enact science instruction supporting students’ intellectual engagement, this investigation centered on understanding how to design and implement science lessons for promoting students’ intellectual engagement as epistemic agents who shape knowledge building happening in the classroom. We examined a middle school science teacher's design and implementation of four lessons that she did as part of a PD focused on fostering productive science talk in science classrooms. Our analysis revealed that her efforts in fostering opportunities for students’ epistemic agency were evident in both her lesson design and implementation. Her responsiveness to students’ thinking/intellectual engagement throughout the lesson implementations via principled improvisations supported opportunities for students’ epistemic agency. Her efforts allow us to understand how the design and implementation of science lessons with the focus of opening space and maintaining this space by being responsive to students’ thinking are critical for fostering students’ epistemic agency. These findings can provide implications for professional development efforts that seek to develop teachers’ capacity for reform-based instruction in science classrooms.more » « less
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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.
