The Science Identity of Informal Educators in a Professional Development Program

In an increasingly globalized world, the ability to engage with science meaningfully to make decisions on small and large scales is essential to be an informed citizen and to create a more equitable world. To engage with science, people need to develop a science identity. In this study, science identity, or feeling like a science person, includes the development of science knowledge (competence), ways of talking about and doing science (performance), an interest or other motivation to engage with science (investment), and recognition of oneself and/or by others as being a science person (recognition). Informal science education institutions, like science museums, are places where learners can follow their curiosities and access science learning in distinctly different ways than they may have experienced in a classroom setting. Informal educators in such spaces play instrumental roles in facilitating these learning experiences and may impact the development of learners’ science identities. While informal educators may influence the way learners develop a science identity (or sense of being a “science person”), informal educators themselves are not frequently the subject of science identity research, researchers choosing instead to focus on young learners in the space, such as students on a field trip visit. However, science identity development of the informal educators is equally important to understand because how an informal educator’s sense of being a science person develops will have a direct impact on how they interact with and facilitate the identity development of museum visitors. Thus, the changes that institutions wish to see in the visitor experience must begin with changes in the informal educators themselves. I was interested to explore how informal educators developed a science identity while participating in a professional development program. I asked two major questions in this study: (1.) How did informal educators’ identities as science people chang