“We Were on the Same Level”: Young Engineering Researchers Taking Up Agentive Positions in a Diverse Learning Community

Abstract

This study reports on the design and enactment of a summer engineering research experience for high school students focused on increasing interest and knowledge and removing barriers to participation and preparedness for underrepresented students through expansive framing of program experiences and opportunities for consequential engagement. A cadre of twelve outgoing eighth-grade students drawn from one Title 1 district learning to participate in photovoltaics engineering research and collaboratively designing a community solar engineering project over a period of six full-days. These Youth Scholars were intentionally embedded within a larger cohort of summer research participants including undergraduates, teachers, and international graduate students. Though all participants were novice in solar energy engineering, all were positioned as both learner and contributor. This design-based research study addressed the question: What were the affordances and constraints of being positioned as a learner and a contributor in a diverse cohort of novice engineering researchers?