What to “make” of school: Revealing the conflicting institutional logics of grassroots making and formal education

This article explores the experiences and opinions of young makers and their parents regarding the integration of maker technologies, activities, and spaces into their schools. By utilizing institutional logic theory as an analytical lens, conflicts between the values, goals, and norms of making and schooling were revealed. The findings suggest that participants view engagement with making as peripheral to, or incommensurate with, the core institutional logic of formal education. While participants showed interest in formalizing maker education, they generally concluded that making could not, and perhaps should not, be integral to school. The authors believe that the findings will help educators address these conflicts and create more sustainable, integrated, and authentic maker-based programs.