“Grandma says I am a little scientist.” Apprenticeship, Photo-Storytelling, and Identity

Abstract

To participate in everyday STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Math) and
perhaps aspire to be a STEM professional, children need to develop a “STEM
person” identity as welcome and capable investigators. This identity development
can begin at home where a family lives its culture of values, attitudes, and inter-
ests. In this two and half year case study, I used auto ethnography to explore my
dual identities as a science educator and grandmother to guide my granddaughter’s
explicit early STEM identity development as she baked Sabbath bread with me. I
modeled and mentored her through activity, conversation, and a photobook/read-
ing technique. The book became a memory support and an identity artifact as a
record of what we did. It also allowed for her voluntary revisiting of the experience to repeat the storytelling of herself as an emergent, able STEM participant. The study suggests that I did contribute to my granddaughter’s science identity development, learning to adapt to her growth. The photo stimulated storytelling, now readily available to most families, might be a transferable technique to support STEM identity building in welcoming children into our community of practice as everyday scientists. Critically, family photos are images of a family’s culture, as were mine.