Share Paper: Crafting the Maker Educator Identity: Examining Teacher Identity Exploration Using Epistemic Networks

  1. Mark Petrovich, Drexel School of Education, United States
  2. Amanda Barany, Drexel School of Education, United States
  3. Mamta Shah, Elsevier, Inc., United States
  4. Aroutis Foster, Drexel School of Education, United States
Friday, April 2 10:35-10:55 AM Room 3

Abstract: This work offers insights into three teachers’ processes of exploring and enacting identities as maker educators in an environmental science context. Invent with Environment was a maker-based after school program in an environmental education center where three educators worked with researchers to incorporate maker-based activities into their instruction. Researchers collaborated with the educators to encourage their active self-reflection as a part of identity exploration of maker educator roles. The teachers’ reflective data across three sessions of professional development and instructional sessions were collected and deductively coded for identity constructs defined by the Projective Reflection theoretical framework. Teachers’ patterns of connection-making ...