Making sense of making: critical issues in the integration of maker education into schools

This article considers growing calls for the integration of so-called ‘maker technologies’ and associated ‘maker’ practices into schools and other formal education settings. Moving on from the largely celebratory literature in this area, the article seeks to further explore the tensions between the educational potential of maker technology and the realities of its use in school and classroom contexts. In particular, the article focuses on fundamental – but so far little acknowledged – tensions surrounding the social, cultural, political contexts of maker education, alongside the epistemological and pedagogical characteristics of maker technologies as tools for learning. It is concluded that maker education must not be seen as a ready fit with formal schooling. Instead, teachers and schools are likely to require sustained support to make the most of maker technologies within the demands and constraints of contemporary school contexts

"In the case of maker technologies, it is clear that importing devices, applications and practices into schools, classrooms and formal curriculum plans is insufficient grounds for sustained, substantial adoption. Instead, we need to better understand the social, cultural, political contexts of maker education, alongside the epistemological and pedagogical characteristics of maker technologies as tools for learning. This implies working out ways of adjusting assumptions of teaching and learning with maker technology. This also implies exploring ways that maker technologies might be reconfigured for use within schools." (Authors, in Conclusions)