Experiences of students and teachers in Norwegian vocational education partnering with NASA HUNCH

This study explores how Norwegian students and teachers in vocational education experience their school’s partnership with NASA and how the NASA HUNCH program affects students’ motivation for school. The NASA HUNCH program is a partnership between the American space agency NASA and upper secondary schools, with the purpose of supplying NASA with hardware for space missions as well as stimulating students’ interest in science and technology. In this study, we used photo elicitation and focus group interviews with eleven vocational students and three vocational teachers, and we conducted reflexive thematic analysis with an abductive approach to analyse the data. Findings suggest that the NASA HUNCH program can be a motivational boost for students in vocational education, especially because of the high status that surrounds NASA and the real-life assignments that students had to solve. Moreover, the program provides opportunities for gathering students around a common goal, thereby creating inclusive learning spaces. The NASA HUNCH program also generates potential for interdisciplinary learning, but this remained, so far, a theoretical possibility rather than an actual outcome of the partnership.