Not Just Along for the Ride: How Families Drive Early STEM Learning

At the Center for Equitable Family STEM Learning, we’re excited to share a new research report: "Agentic Interest Development: How Spanish- and English-Speaking Caregivers from Low-Income Communities Leverage STEM Programs to Support Family Goals and Interests."

This report captures over a decade of collaborative work with Head Start families, educators, and community partners. It’s grounded in a simple but powerful idea: Families are not passive participants of STEM learning experiences. They are creative, resourceful agents—shaping their own learning, supporting their children’s development, and pursuing goals that matter deeply to them.

In this blog, we offer an overview of the report, highlight key findings, and reflect on what these mean for those working in STEM education. For a deeper dive into the research and stories from families, you can download and read the full report here.

The Head Start on Engineering Initiative

"We use [the engineering design process] every day with Emilia, in different ways not only when she is playing. Today we went on a hike, and she was trying to get through the rocks, and we had to think about problem solving. How she could make it around some rocks without getting stuck. She gets pretty upset when things are not going the way she wants to, so we say slow down and we talk about solutions. There is always a solution, and we can figure it out.” — Parent participant

This research is part of the Head Start on Engineering (HSE) initiative—an ongoing collaboration focused on supporting early engineering learning through bilingual, family-centered programming. Since 2014, the project has partnered with families and staff from Mt. Hood Community College Head Start, offering hands-on activities, caregiver workshops, educator training, and shared learning experiences like visits to the local science center.

Our goal has always been to center families and co-create learning opportunities that reflect their strengths, interests, and lived experiences. Each year, families explore a variety of playful, imagination-based engineering challenges, like designing a cozy structure for a family of baby chicks or planning a taco party for friends and relatives.

Each iteration of the program has been refined based on ongoing feedback from families and educators, ensuring that the experiences are not only educational but also joyful, relevant, and responsive to community needs. Through this process, we also partner with staff and families to investigate how families develop STEM-related interests during HSE and how these interests continue beyond the program.

Exploring STEM Interest Development in Early Childhood

"Estamos interesados en participar para pasar más tiempo juntos como familia y pasar tiempo en actividades que la ayuden a desarrollarse.” [We are interested in participating to spend more time together as a family and to spend time with activities that help with her development.] — Parent participant

Over the course of the HSE initiative, our understanding of STEM interest development has evolved. We began with a common assumption: that interest starts within the individual child and can be “sparked” by the right experience. But what we’ve seen again and again is that STEM interest is not an isolated process—it’s shaped within the context of the whole family. Caregivers play a central role in supporting and extending their children’s interests through everyday activities and shared experiences.

We’ve also learned that families connect STEM topics to what matters most to them—strengthening relationships, addressing learning goals, building confidence, or spending quality time together. For many caregivers, STEM is not an abstract subject but a tool for solving problems, nurturing curiosity, and supporting their children’s growth in meaningful ways.

Importantly, each family’s interest development journey is unique. Some build on existing passions while others discover new possibilities along the way. These diverse trajectories reflect families’ values, challenges, and aspirations. They also underscore the need for programs and research approaches that are flexible, responsive, and grounded in real life.

Recognizing the Importance of Family Agency

"I think the most memorable or meaningful thing was our connections … We are concerned about the trauma healing. I see a healing coming from being involved in this. We did not have a lot to relate to their lives. They had been through tough things. With this we are able to bond in a way that’s not so serious or thinking about the past. We have a great future we are working on with the program and focused on moving forward.” — Parent participant

This new report advances our understanding of early childhood STEM interest development even further. It highlights the ways that families demonstrate agency—using their own goals, knowledge, and resourcefulness to shape how they engage with STEM programs like HSE. Rather than seeing families as recipients of education, we look at how these families actively leverage opportunities to support what matters to them.

Our research draws from in-depth case studies with 12 families who recently participated in the HSE program. We followed their journeys before, during, and after the program, learning how they interpreted the experiences, what connections they made to their existing interests, and how they used the program to pursue their family goals.

We call the new perspective that emerged from this work agentic interest development. It’s a way of understanding how people use available resources, including STEM programs like HSE, to pursue their own interests, build on what they already value, and navigate challenges in their lives.

In our study, we found that every family brought existing interests to the program. And across the board, families demonstrated powerful forms of agency in building on and extending these interests:

• Leveraging the program to pursue their family’s goals, like building stronger relationships or addressing a child’s developmental needs
• Making creative connections between the engineering activities and other family interests—from music and gardening to managing emotions and solving everyday problems
• Navigating challenges to remain engaged and keep moving toward what mattered most to them

These stories reveal not just how interest develops but how powerfully and purposefully families shape that development.

What This Means for Educators and Researchers

First, we need to move beyond deficit-based assumptions. Families from low-income and multilingual communities are not waiting for us to teach them how to engage in STEM. They are already doing it—on their terms, in their contexts, and often in ways that go unrecognized by traditional measures.

Second, we should design programs and studies that center family perspectives. That means listening closely to caregivers, recognizing their goals as legitimate and valuable, and building flexible programs that can adapt to what families want and need—not just what we think they should learn.

Third, we need to rethink how we study interest. Instead of treating it as a static trait or outcome, we can understand interest as dynamic, evolving, and situated within systems of family, culture, and community. And we can explore how agency plays a central role in shaping interest development.

We hope this work offers valuable insights for anyone designing or studying STEM learning experiences. To explore the full set of stories, methods, and recommendations, download the research report here.

Acknowledgments

This work was made possible through the efforts of many incredible collaborators, including Mt. Hood Community College Head Start, University of Notre Dame, Oregon Museum of Science and Industry, IRCO Greater Middle East Center, and AB Cultural Drivers. We’re especially grateful to the families who shared their time, stories, and insights throughout the project. This work was made possible through the support of the National Science Foundation (Grant No. 1515628, 1906409, 1906433, 1930848), Oregon Community Foundation, Collins Foundation, Boeing Corporation, University of Notre Dame, and Juan Young Trust. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in these materials are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the funders.