Researching the materiality of communication in an educational makerspace : The meaning of social objects

This chapter aims to contribute to theorising and empirical research on the materiality of communication in a novel technology-rich educational setting called a ‘makerspace’. It argues that the knowledge is pivotal for understanding and supporting communication and learning in a makerspace environment where the students independently navigate and integrate knowledge from different resources and domains using a range of material artefacts during their design and making activities. Material objects and materiality in general in educational processes are closely intertwined with power, politics and ideology and hence urge more research attention at least from the perspectives of educational equity and educational change. The chapter investigates how the materialities of an educational makerspace mediate the communication processes among students and their teachers during their design and making activities. In explicit mediation, intention is overt, and the materiality as a stimulus means is ‘obvious and non-transitory’.Peer reviewe