A thematic analysis of the maker movement in cyberspace across cultural contexts

Abstract

The Maker movement in education evokes a spectrum of reactions from it being the panacea for engineering and design education to a fad that will be forgotten shortly. The theoretical inquiry we embarked upon this semester aimed at identifying both the potential opportunities and gaps the Maker movement presents for education. We started the inquiry from a perspective that this sort of approach to education has the potential to democratize engineering and design education through the use of co-working spaces (like Makerspaces). We collected evidence to support such a claim by understanding how Makerspaces are perceived in the United States and other cultural contexts, how academic literature espouses the virtues of Makerspaces, and finally connecting these virtues to developmental and educational theory. The study culminated in making connections between these areas and identifying the gaps that remain. Finally, we recommend lines of investigation that may help us better understand the potential benefits of Makerspaces in education.