UK (Sheffield) (Makerspaces in the Early Years)

In the Sheffield MakEY project, pop-up makerspaces were organised in two nurseries and two primary school settings.

The first setting was a nursery school that caters for 90 children aged 3-4. The nursery serves diverse racial and ethnic communities, and many children speak English as an Additional Language. The second setting was a nursery unit with 45 children aged 3-4, that is part of a primary school in a primarily White, working class area of the city that is one of the most socially deprived nationally. The third setting was a Year 2 class in an inner-city Church of England (faith) primary school, with 28 children aged 6-7, the majority of whom were White. There was some diversity in the class with regard to socio-economic status, but many of the children came from middle-class families. The fourth setting consisted of two parallel Year 3 classes in a primary school, with 60 children aged 7-8 in total. The school was ethnically diverse, and located in an area of the city that has indicators of social deprivation. Makerspaces took place over a period of 4-5 days in each setting.

Data collected included fieldnotes, video recordings made by adult researchers in addition to still images and children wore Go-Pro cameras. Permission was not granted to share images and videos of children, but anonymised data are shared.