New Ways of Evaluating, New Ways of Being: STEAM Zines and Non-Formal Learning

Abstract

Places in which art and science come together have proven to be fertile grounds for imagination, creativity, and the prototyping of ideas where different forms of inquiry and exploration become possible. Choosing effective conceptual frameworks and tools to better understand and support the learning in these vital spaces, however, can be a serious challenge. This dissertation explores transdisciplinary approaches to learning across non- formal spaces through a series of three critical case studies. In the first case study, zines (small DIY booklets) are trialled as an accessible and culturally responsive research tool for reflective evaluation. In the second case study, the zine methodology is deployed as part of a pan-European project examining transdisciplinary learning outside of the classroom in five European countries. The final case study focuses on the design, implementation, and evaluation of a creative coding and robotics workshop series with families seeking protection in Ireland. This series, called Tech Scéal, reveals key learnings from intergenerational learning workshops designed with and for families living in Direct Provision, an emergency housing scheme for people seeking protection in Ireland. Each case study – the zine methodology development, the Pan-European study utilising zine reflections across Europe, and the community creative coding workshop series with families in Direct Provision – benefitted from meaningful transdisciplinary collaborations over time, demonstrating that even in extraordinary circumstances complex learning processes can be designed, nurtured, and evaluated. These critical cases each underscore the urgent need for honouring, understanding, and supporting multiple ways of knowing and being. They are each sites of art-science or STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art/activism, mathematics) learning, transdisciplinarity approaches that can provide fresh pathways for marginalised and underrepresented communities to engage across disciplines in ways which can unsettle dominant knowledge structures. These cases provide the field with novel accessible evaluation tools and flexible new approaches to meeting the needs of underserved learners in multiple contexts. In a time of extraordinary change, this thesis offers an opportunity to push ourselves towards a more radically inclusive (re)imagining of learning outside of the classroom – one which supports learners, practitioners, and researchers in making meaning and enacting change.