From short excursions to long-term projects: agency, interest and productive deviations in school

Students’ interest pathways are fashioned not only from existing educational resources and opportunities, but importantly also by extending beyond them. In this study, we conceptualise these extensions as productive deviations and engage in a comparative analysis of various productive deviations we have identified in our ethnographic study of seven 5th and 6th grade FUSE Studios – an alternative learning infrastructure for schools. Our analysis shows that the deviations can vary from short term excursions to semester-long projects and can also become the focus of other students’ interests.