“Back Then it was Only Men Who Worked in These Kinds of Fields”: Observing Little Sparks Through the Prism of Affect and Gender in Maker Literacies Research

Abstract

This article delves into moments of affect, puncturing the exchanges between an early career 2SLGBTQ+ researcher and a group of Canadian adolescents, mostly composed of girls, who developed a ClayMation video to take the pulse of emerging vibrancies in maker literacies. Among these dynamisms came the matter of gender in the research project. Adopting a dynamic framework that builds on affect theory coupled with queer phenomenology to frame an affective researcher positionality, the author addresses implications of de/constructing gender with/in maker literacies work. To situate her queer positionality, she explores the possibility of coexisting truths in the relationalities that took place in space‐multiplicities of the makerspace, and during moments where she was driving to the research site, going home, taking part in conversations, or drafting notes. Related student data are presented through posthuman vignettes comprised of situated dynamisms between recorded open‐ended interviews, adolescent maps inspired by Hamon's situated geographies, field notes, and digital compositions. Implications for research and practice include: ways of becoming‐with data otherwise and attending to affective phenomena in the context of maker literacies, with the overall aim of de/constructing gender binaries. The author concludes with research and practical implications for literacies work, specifically in co‐constructing methodologies and designs that help reimagine more equitable maker literacies futures.