TY - JOUR AU - Godec, Spela AU - Patel, Uma AU - Archer, Louise AU - Dawson, Emily PY - 2020 DA - 2020/10/06 TI - Young people’s tech identity performances: why materiality matters JO - International Journal of STEM Education SP - 51 VL - 7 IS - 1 AB - Identity provides a useful conceptual lens for understanding educational inequalities in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). In this paper, we examine how paying attention to physical and digital ‘materiality’ enriches our understanding of identity work, by going beyond the spoken, written and embodied dimensions of identity performances that currently dominate the area of STEM identity scholarship. We draw on a multimodal ethnographic study with 36 young people aged 11–14 carried out over the course of one year at four UK-based informal STEM learning settings. Data collection included a series of interviews, observations and youth-created portfolios focused on STEM experiences. Illustrative case studies of two young men who took part in a community-based digital arts centre are discussed in detail through the theoretical lenses of Judith Butler’s identity performativity and Karen Barad’s intra-action. SN - 2196-7822 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/s40594-020-00249-w DO - 10.1186/s40594-020-00249-w ID - Godec2020 ER -