Although informal science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) learning (ISL) can serve as a critical catalyst for inclusive lifelong STEM education, research indicates that participation in ISL has been inequitable, especially for girls, youths of Color, and youths from low-income communities. To address perpetuated inequities and realize youths’ rightful presence in and through ISL, their lives should be placed at the core of informal STEM education knowledge and practice. This dissertation aims to identify and imagine justice-oriented pedagogical practices by investigating ‘youth-initiated moments,’ instances in which youths made visible their bids for rightful presence in and through their ISL experiences, and by exploring how their educators supported and amplified these bids. Using a participatory critical ethnography based on a research practice partnership (RPP) project, I generated three sets of data: reflective conversations, educators’ portfolios, and researcher ethnographic documentation. I analyzed these data with RPP youths, educators, and researchers. Each of the youth-initiated moments consists of three features: youths’ actions of disruption and transformation, educators’ and peers’ responses, and bids for rightful presence. I then identified three types of youth-initiated moments: reorganizing social and physical representations within the learning space, creating activities that matter to youths, and foregrounding the sociopolitical dimension of learning. By further examining educators’ engagement before, during, and after the moments, I identified pedagogical practices for making space, which supported the emergence and amplification of youth-initiated moments: educator-designed space making, taking up youths’ disruption and reorganizing ISL opportunities with youths, and co-creating new ISL opportunities with youths. I discuss the insights and implications of this study for STEM education research and practice toward the creation of equitable and just ISL spaces in which youths have and expand their rightful presence as legitimate participants, re-organizers, and constructors of their ISL opportunities and future.
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