ABSTRACT
This chapter explores how self-initiated making and tinkering activities offer opportunities for girls to engage in literacy practices associated with science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) that challenge gender stereotypes and deficit views of girls as STEM learners. Our analysis is informed by situated views of literacies and learning as embodied activities that encompass not only knowledge and skills but also identities that are enacted and dynamically developed within specific contexts. We draw in particular on Carrie Paechter’s conception of the local production of masculinities and femininities. We use a case study of two sisters and a friend engaged in tinkering activities with an old inkjet printer to illustrate how their projects contributed to new technological understandings, offered new forms of authorship and agency, and allowed them to co-construct capable identities as makers. Our analysis suggests that in tinkering with tools, materials, and representations, girls can also “tinker” with gender scripts and identities, creating new pathways for STEM learning.
