Shirin Vossoughi is an assistant professor at Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy, where she draws on ethnographic methods to study the social, cultural, historical, and political dimensions of learning and educational equity. As an Iranian immigrant and the daughter of political exiles, she is invested in the creative development of educational settings for youth from migrant, immigrant, and diasporic backgrounds. Building on her work as a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University and at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, Vossoughi partners with Meg Escudé and Paula Hooper to study afterschool tinkering programs that blend scientific inquiry, literacy, and the arts. She takes a collaborative approach to research, partnering with teachers and students to study the conditions that foster educational dignity and possibility.

Paula K. Hooper is an assistant professor of instruction at Northwestern University’s School of Education and Social Policy. She worked as a senior science educator and learning scientist at the Exploratorium from 2008 to 2015. At the Exploratorium, she designed and implemented inquiry-oriented science professional learning experiences for K–8 teachers, administrators, and museum educators, with a focus on classroom discourse practices that support all learners’ engagement in scientific sense making. Her experiences as an African American educator have influenced her commitment to research and teaching that addresses issues of equity and inclusion through building an approach to inquiry that is informed by constructionism and the use of programmable tools for making. Her work with Shirin Vossoughi and Meg Escudé identifies the emergence of math and science ideas within makerspaces that are designed for equity. She served from 2012 to 2015 as a member of the National Research Council Committee on Strengthening Science Education through a Teacher Learning Continuum.

Meg Escudé is the director of Community Youth Programs at the Exploratorium in San Francisco, where she serves as the program director and collaborative educator in the Tinkering Afterschool Program and XTech Middle School program as well as in professional development projects for afterschool educators. She works to design liberatory learning experiences for youth at the intersection of art and STEM. She has collaborated with Shirin Vossoughi and Paula Hooper on a unique research+practice partnership that greatly informs her development of equity-driven pedagogical practices. Prior to her work at the Exploratorium, Escudé moved to her father’s native Argentina in 2004. While traveling from Patagonia to Brazil with the circus, she completed a photographic essay about that nomadic community. She strives to create educational settings that honor the diverse ways in which children and youth express their brilliance.