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Learning contexts and visions for STEM in schools
Jones, Mellita Mary Geiger, Vincent Stephen Falloon, Garry Fraser, Sharon Beswick, Kim Holland-Twining, Benjamin Hatisaru, Vesife
Jones, Mellita Mary
Geiger, Vincent Stephen
Falloon, Garry
Fraser, Sharon
Beswick, Kim
Holland-Twining, Benjamin
Hatisaru, Vesife
Abstract
STEM education is viewed as being vital for economic prosperity and productivity; and can contribute productively to changing technological, economic, and social demands of the twenty-first Century. However, there is limited consensus on how STEM education is understood and taught, and inadequate discussion around its role in addressing global issues such as climate change, health, poverty, food security, and other STEM-related social concerns. In this paper, we identify the contexts adopted for STEM teaching and learning in 47 Australian schools, drawing data from semi-structured interviews with principals and teachers who participated in the Principals as STEM Leaders (PASL) project. These data were categorised according to four visions for STEM education that align with different levels of social justice and activist approaches to STEM teaching and learning. Findings indicate that STEM education in Australia is predominantly enacted through instrumental ‘products and processes’ approaches dominated by robotics and coding. Learning contexts had minimal ‘real-life’ applications and were devoid of social and ethical dimensions of STEM applications that would better equip students with the knowledge, skills, and agency to make informed, socially just decisions about their own and others’ futures, and that of our shared environment.
Keywords
STEM education, social justice, activist education
Date
2024
Type
Journal article
Journal
Book
Volume
Issue
Page Range
1-21
Article Number
ACU Department
School of Education
Faculty of Education and Arts
Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education (ILSTE)
Faculty of Education and Arts
Institute for Learning Sciences and Teacher Education (ILSTE)
Collections
Relation URI
Event URL
Open Access Status
Published as ‘gold’ (paid) open access
License
File Access
Open
Notes
© 2024 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way. The terms on which this article has been published allow the posting of the Accepted Manuscript in a repository by the author(s) or with their consent.