The Role of Parents in the Development of Youths’ Interest in an Engineering Workshop

Abstract

Parents support and facilitate youths’ interest in informal education settings; however, this has not been fully explored in all informal contexts. We investigate how family interactions influence youth interest during an informal engineering workshop, analyzing one family’s interactions using video-based ethnomethodology. Findings show that parents help facilitate the development of situational interest and further sustained involvement by bringing in new information and encouraging participation through connecting interests to the workshop.