Acknowledging and Shifting the Dynamics of Power: Building Equitable Partnerships Among Informal STEM Learning Practitioners, Researchers, & Communities

In partnership with Pueblo Collab LLC., a community-centered consulting organization, this project will enhance understanding of how ISL (Informal STEM Learning) practitioners and researchers can and should form equitable partnerships in service of supporting lifelong STEM learning in informal learning environments. We will also examine how community intersects with partnerships and the different levels or scales of community with which these partnerships of researchers and practitioners engage. This two-phase project will focus on the initial processes of building equitable ISL partnerships between practitioners and researchers by engaging in intentional exercises for co-thinking around issues of equity and power in ISL work. In Phase One, the core project members will test and refine the processes examining their own and each other’s practices before widening the lens. In Phase Two, an expanded group of ISL and ISL-adjacent practitioners and researchers will be engaged.  This project exists to intentionally challenge the dynamics of power that often prevent equitable engagement between those who participate in both ISL research and practice.

Photo: Equitable Partnerships Project Co-Is from L-R: Daniel Aguirre, Ashanti Davis, Elysa Corin, Debbie Siegel

Project Team: Elysa Corin, Ph.D. and Debbie Siegel, Ph.D.