STEM Interest Development and Learning Across Home, School, and Out-of-School Settings

There are significant gaps in our scientific understanding of how and why youth learn science, technology, engineering and technology (STEM) across the range of settings in which they participate in cultural practices. At the same time, there are missed opportunities in educational practice to orient to the educational capital youth bring to the classroom when they learn complex subject matter. We report on the affordances and challenges of pursuing a collaborative partnership model between learning scientists and classroom teachers focused on: (a) conducting field research on social and cultural processes of learning across settings along developmental timescales, and (b) the development of science curricula and instructional techniques that attend to the interests, identities, and cultural practices of learners. The partnership model can help achieve several aims: (a) the research can become focused on challenging issues of educational practice and local improvement, (b) there can be increased human capacity of all participants to work on contemporary challenges in education and on improving our scientific accounts of learning, and (c) strong relationships between university researchers and K-12 teachers and staff can be established and leveraged for scientific and local gain. This kind of partnership model leads us to rethink the working relationships between practitioner and researcher communities and how scientific knowledge can be improved through investigations that directly relate to practice. At the same time, such partnerships need to pragmatically attend to the inherent instability of the participating groups and the competing evidentiary expectations associated with the fields of practice and research.