Leah Buechley on Diversity in Maker Ed Extra Credit

Leah Buechley - Crunchbase Person Profile

Describe some of the problems she discusses regarding implicit bias in STEM and Maker Ed.

  • Who are the makers? Who are shown as makers on magazine covers? 85% men and boys, 15% women and girls, 0% people of color.
  • Underrepresented minorities.
  • Editorial staff- men 87%, women 13%, people of color 0%
  • Article authors- men 85%, women 15%
  • Audience- men 80%, women 20%, median age 44, 97% college degree
  • Money- Robot kits (100-200$)- a particular type of people who can afford these kits.
  • Responders had a median income of $106,000, more than 82% of American households make
  • Basically, makers are “rich, white guys”
  • Projects- electronics 56%, vehicles 31%, robots 26%, rockets 8%, music 5%
  • 2013 Computer science degrees- women 14%, Hispanic 6%, African American 4%
  • Google tech employees- 17%, Hispanic 2%, African American 1%
  • Make promises to celebrate making in all forms, open to everybody, accessible for everyone.
  • “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”
  • So much promise to bust up these typical patterns, connect people, promise not fulfilled.
  • Money- received funding, people getting all this money are the same old suspects.
  • Every child a maker- this ecosystem is not reaching every child.
  • Tired of telling young women and children, Hispanic, African American to be like rich white men.
  • The biggest problem is what you don’t see, so many awesome things that don’t get showcased.

Describe some of her counter-examples.

  • Showing these maker projects that we don’t get to see on the cover of the maker magazines.
  • She uses an example of low rider cars and the engineering behind them but their magazine does not get the funding that maker magazine does.
  • An artist who uses environmental studies makes basket weaving sculptures.
  • Grand Master Flash- hip hop- genius maker story
  • Pottery made of dirt- what it takes to decorate a structure like that/ STEAM education
  • Electronics and paper, pop up book

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