Learning and becoming in an after school program: The relationship as a tool for equity within the practices of making and tinkering

El Pueblo Mágico is a social design experiment (Gutierrez & Vossoughi, 2010) in which youth and adults are developing deep and meaningful relationships which facilitate learning that is inclusive, participatory, and robust. This paper focuses on 'Making and Tinkering' practices to examine the relationship that develops as both adults and children engage in the joint activity of making, re-making, and designing artifacts such as 'Squishy Circuits'. Grounded in sociocultural theory, and situated within Nasir's (2012) work, this study draws on a corpus of data that includes weekly observations and interviews over one year, to examine how the M & T activities are socially organized to increase room for feedback, one of the four important aspects of expansive learning contexts (Nasir, 2012). Specifically, I analyze interactions to understand how relationships facilitated by the social organization of the practice of tinkering can be tools in the design of inclusive, equitable learning spaces.