If the idea of studying + designing justice-oriented STEAM learning with families + community organizations excites you…
I am currently recruiting a prospective PhD student who is excited about exploring justice-oriented youth learning + development within community groups, children’s museums, + informal STEM+STEAM programs.
Are you curious about about structures and contexts for supporting youth brilliance, creativity, innovation, and joy outside of school classrooms?
Are you passionate about STEM or STEAM learning as a way to make change in the world and as a way to work towards our future survival as a species?
Do you get frustrated about the ways adults in power think about and position youth?
Do you want to get involved in national and international conversations about justice-oriented approaches and designs in STEM+maker education?
Do you want to join a community of thinkers and designers who see justice-centered partnership with families and communities as the core of our work?
Are you looking for a program where you can embrace joyful disruption and creativity in your research on youth learning and development (e.g., exploring music, TikTok, anime, crafting, digital design, street art, activism, or other unique “informal” contexts as sites of youth learning and development)?
If you are interested in working with me, please apply to the Indiana University Learning Sciences PhD program and include my name on your app/cover letter.
I have opportunities for doing research on youth learning and development in STEM or STEAM education and in the context of a larger inequitable world, research on designing programs and tools to support this process and/or to support youth desires to change systems within that larger world, and research on developing new institutional collaborations to work towards these kinds of goals together with youth, families, and communities.
Who I’m looking for:
I am looking for candidates who seek a transformative re-imagining of the world in partnership with youth and their families and communities. I am also looking for candidates who have the ability to write well, and who enjoy learning about and working alongside other people. If you are happy to receive critical feedback and continue pushing yourself consistently, and if you consider yourself to be someone who takes initiative and feels passionate about investigating human experiences in the world, my lab could be the place for you to grow into the critical researcher and justice-centered designer you’d like to become.
Note: Projects you would work on as my doctoral advisee would be co-determined with me. During Year 1, we will be analyzing existing data while also establishing new research sites. By Year 2, you will have opportunities to collect your own data and determine your own research questions, funded by me. The work would likely involve some or all of the following depending on your interests:
- Partnership co-design and data collection with a local metropolitan children’s museum, with a traveling makerspace program, with youth maker families in Indiana (depending on your preference, your time could be spent either in Indianapolis and/or the southern rural “Uplands” area), and/or international partners depending on future funding
- Travel for conferences domestically and internationally
- Paper publications every year
- A ton of weekly co-writing sessions with me (I’ll buy the snacks / you bring the playlist)
Day Greenberg 