Life In A Drop Of Water: A Participatory Design Project To Tackling Educational Poverty

Educational poverty, a significant and far-reaching phenomenon, demands attention due to its profound impact on the economy and society. Extensive research, including cross-sectional studies and time series analyses, reveals that these disparities are closely linked to gender, ethnicity, disability, geographic location, and economic status. The situation becomes more complicated if we consider that students from challenging social environments face a high risk of not acquiring essential skills such as mathematics and their mother tongue. They are also barred from scientific careers and have great difficulties with scientific literacy. Triggering processes in society to allow everyone access to public, quality education is a significant challenge for mathematics and science education research. The current contribution primarily discusses an action research approach to promote a participatory design project to create a pond for communities living in underprivileged areas. The goal is to promote a scientific culture in education, with a specific focus on the role of adults in reducing educational poverty.