Biography

Ananda Marin is an assistant professor in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies. Dr. Marin is a learning scientist and received her doctoral degree from Northwestern University. She explores questions about the socio-cultural dimensions of learning and development in everyday and intergenerational contexts. In one line of work she examines the practices that children and families use to reason and build knowledge about the natural world. She is particularly interested in (1) how families coordinate attention and observation while participating in science activities, (2) how mobility and place structure activity and (3) cultural variability in sensemaking practices such as question-asking and explaining. She also investigates Native American participation in STEM and cultural models of self as related to senses of capability and competence. Across her scholarship, she takes a participatory approach and employs a variety of research designs and methods including: community-based design research, cognitive tasks, studies of everyday practices, content analysis, discourse analysis, interaction analysis and video-ethnography. Through her work she aims to answer basic research questions about development, innovate methods, and design teaching and learning tools that contribute to the goals and well-being of Indigenous and non-dominant communities.