Steven Weiner is a senior research analyst at the Center on Reinventing Public Education in Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College. As a qualitative researcher, Steven brings an interdisciplinary lens to understanding transformative change within educational systems. His previous research has leveraged elements of organizational theory, design studies, learning sciences, and foresight methodologies to explore the institutional challenges schools face when adopting innovative educational practices. As a doctoral student, Steven received the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Research Fellowship and was named a University Innovation Fellow by the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University. Steven began his career as a high school physics teacher and later helped envision, design, and run a community-centered educational makerspace at a major US science center. Steven holds a BA in Classical Studies from the University of Florida and a PhD from Arizona State University’s College of Global Futures.
My research integrates systems thinking, design practices, and foresight methodologies to help uncover the embedded beliefs and unspoken assumptions underpinning individuals' visions of the future, especially within highly entrenched educational institutions. I have also investigated how these same tools may help organizational leaders reimagine and redesign these institutions.
During my doctoral studies, I explored this phenomenon in the context of maker education. As a social movement, making emphasizes passion-driven, collaborative, project-based learning based on the knowledge, skills, and practices associated with engineering, such as prototyping, technical problem solving, and the use of digital fabrication technology. Through my work with the Maker Educational Pathways Research Group, I have studied how the maker movement has developed as a competing educational paradigm that conflicts with the traditional schooling system, the power it has in shaping the identities of young adults, and its implications for education reform efforts.