At the International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS) held at CU-Boulder in June 2014, five doctoral alumni presented a special session in honor of Distinguished Professor Margaret Eisenhart. The session, “Reimagining Cultural Forms, Ethnographic Methods and Researcher Responsibilities in Studying Engineering and Science Learning: Honoring and Building on the Work of Margaret Eisenhart,” was presented by Karen Tonso (1997, EFPP), Associate Professor Emeritus of Education at Wayne State University; Cory Buxton (2000, C&I Science), Professor of Educational Theory and Practice at the University of Georgia; Jrène Rahm (1998, EPSY), Professor of Educational Psychology and Adult Education at the Université de Montréal; Heidi Carlone (2000, C&I Science), Associate Professor of Teacher Education and Higher Education at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro; and Angela Johnson (2001, EFPP), Professor of Teacher Education at Saint Mary’s College of Maryland.
Having begun their careers under the guidance of Professor Eisenhart, the group reflected on how her work had allowed them to develop new lines of thought in their own research. Renowned for her work in educational anthropology and ethnographic research methods, Professor Eisenhart has challenged researchers to value the knowledge gained through conventional ethnographic methods, such as participant observation, while at the same time imagining new tools and frames to interpret the diverse, complicated, and entangled qualities of modern life. In order to understand the ways in which people make sense of their worlds, it is important to consider their participation not in static cultures of which they are members, but rather in complex webs of social, cultural and political structures that influence their identity formation while they in turn impact the changing dimensions of those structures.
Tonso, Buxton, Rahm, Carlone and Johnson shared stories of their four studies in STEM education that took up Eisenhart’s challenges to use ethnographic methods in ways that reimagine cultural forms, bring new tools to examine the interconnectedness of learning and identity, and attend to the ethical obligations of researchers. Through studies that examined identity development, the influence of race, social class, and gender on learning opportunities, the meaningful incorporation of resources in an after-school program, and the use of actor networks as a practice of design in a multi-site ethnography, the group shared how Eisenhart’s contributions extend to theorizing, methodological strategies, and empirical results that provide a unique vantage point on how people learn and become, in science and engineering practices and beyond.
Click here to access the symposium of papers.
Pictured from left to right: Karen Tonso, Jréne Rahm, Cory Buxton, Angela Johnson, Heidi Carlone, and Margaret Eisenhart
Related Faculty: Margaret Eisenhart