Exploring Teachers’ Transitions to Maker-Educators
Abstract: In this paper, the authors share the trajectory of in-service teachers as they shift to becoming maker-educators. The teachers were part of a joint research initiative between a Canadian Ministry of Education, another public provincial agency and a research lab at a Canadian university. The aim of the research was to encourage teachers to examine their current classroom pedagogy (activities, assessment strategies, use of digital tools) in light of the 21st-century skills and competencies students will need in our digital, connected and innovation-focused world. Over the course of the first year (we are now into the second year of the project), teachers implemented maker tools and pedagogies in their classrooms, so that collaboratively we could learn about best practices, challenges and the affordances of this approach in education. Through the use of case study methodology and our Movement to Maker analysis framework, we explore three teachers’ development from pre-’maker educator’ to ‘maker-educator.’ We define maker-educator as a teacher who uses maker pedagogies and tools in his/her classroom to promote student-centered and inquiry-based learning and the development of 21st-century skills and competencies.