scholarly journals Does the rise of STEM education mean the demise of sustainability education?

2019 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caroline Smith ◽  
Jane Watson
Keyword(s):  
Stem Education ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Sustainability Education ◽  
Education For Sustainability ◽  
Environmentally Sustainable ◽  
Sustainable Future ◽  
Engineering And Technology ◽  
Ecological Paradigm

AbstractIn this article, we outline the key principles of education for sustainability (EfS) that enable us to question the enthusiastic and uncritical promotion of STEM (science, mathematics, engineering and technology) and its offshoot, STEM education, as key contributors to an environmentally sustainable future. We examine the framing of STEM and STEM education as situated in an unproblematised, neoliberal growthist paradigm, in contrast to the more critical ecological paradigm of EfS. We conclude that STEM, and hence STEM education, need to include critical reflection and futures perspectives if they are to align themselves with a flourishing economic, social and environmental future. We provide examples for the classroom that illustrate our contention.

Evolution or Revolution in EE/SE Research? A Collaborative Dialogue From First-Year PhD Students

2016 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 11-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kim Beasy ◽  
Leah Page ◽  
Sherridan Emery ◽  
Ian Ayre
Keyword(s):  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Sustainability Education ◽  
Ecological Systems ◽  
Education For Sustainability ◽  
First Year ◽  
Systems Perspective ◽  
Sustainability Research ◽  
To Come ◽  
Research Frameworks ◽  
New Research

AbstractThe AAEE 2014 research symposium in Hobart provided a privileged space for researchers and practitioners within environmental education and sustainability education (EE/SE) to come together and create dialogues about education for sustainability research. This essay is a critical reflection from postgraduate researchers about the symposium and the EE/SE research landscape more broadly. The authors interrogate contemporary research frameworks and practices, and deliberate on how current perceptions enable and inhibit performance within EE/SE research. The authors ask provocative questions and encourage readers to imagine for themselves what a new research landscape, freed of calcified frameworks and entrenched systems, might look like. The essay then draws on an ecological systems perspective as a means of reimagining EE/SE research within a more emergent landscape that values inclusivity, democracy, collaborative inquiry and curiosity.

scholarly journals Place-Based STEM Education for Sustainability: A Path towards Socioecological Resilience

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 8414
Author(s):  
Martín Bascopé ◽  
Kristina Reiss
Keyword(s):  
Stem Education ◽  
Educational Experiences ◽  
Learning Experiences ◽  
Education For Sustainability ◽  
Southern Chile ◽  
Teachers And Students ◽  
Local Actors ◽  
One Year ◽  
Sustainability Challenges ◽  
Attitudinal Changes

This article analyzes STEM projects conducted in eight schools with children from 4 to 10 years old in southern Chile. The main purpose of the study was to describe and analyze how these projects can affect students’ and educators’ attitudes and create community capacities to tackle local socioecological challenges. We used an ethnographic design with an intentioned coding process of interviews and participant observations to summarize one year of collaborative and transdisciplinary project building. The results describe the main attitudinal changes of teachers and students and give evidence on how these projects create new links and foster collaborations with local actors and organizations that are usually sidelined from educational experiences. Examples of meaningful learning experiences to tackle sustainability challenges were systematized and shared, to inspire new initiatives, raise new voices, and promote active participation of the new generations to foster socioecological resilience.

scholarly journals Antiracism and the Problems with “Achievement Gaps” in STEM Education

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. fe2
Author(s):  
Julia Svoboda Gouvea
Keyword(s):  
Stem Education ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Achievement Gaps ◽  
Recent Scholarship

This Current Insights draws together recent scholarship to motivate critical reflection on the problem of “achievement gaps” in STEM education.

scholarly journals Towards a Discourse-Based Understanding of Sustainability Education and Decision Making

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (21) ◽  
pp. 5902 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anke Meisert ◽  
Florian Böttcher
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Sustainability Education ◽  
Education For Sustainability ◽  
Social Discourse ◽  
Not Given ◽  
Educational Approach ◽  
Complexity Management ◽  
Decision Making Processes ◽  
Sustainability Concept ◽  
Democracy Theory

Based on the indeterminate character of the sustainability concept, a procedural and discursive understanding of sustainability decision making and corresponding approaches for education for sustainability (EFS) is proposed. A set of criteria for teaching strategies to promote sustainability decision making, taking into account the demands of deliberative democracy theory, are presented. These criteria (such as reason, complexity management, critical thinking, etc.) are used to argue for an educational approach that involves the development, justification, and weighting of arguments in combination with an instructional tool called Target-Mat. According to a consequent process orientation, structures for arguing or defining sustainability are not given as authorized standards. Suggestions from previous social discourse are only introduced as controversial pairings—for example, different definitions of sustainability. Examples of student decision-making processes are given to demonstrate the potential of the approach to encourage student reflection and cooperative negotiation that engenders a successive deepening of their argumentation.

scholarly journals STEM EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY OF EARLY CHILDHOOD IN CHINA

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wenxiao Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Early Childhood ◽  
Stem Education ◽  
Picture Books ◽  
Mobile Apps ◽  
Video Camera ◽  
Mobile App ◽  
Early Years ◽  
Education For Sustainability ◽  
Language Background ◽  
And Mathematics

Changes in curricula, publication policy and information technology, notably in China have led to concentrations in the role of STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) education in early childhood and applauded to proliferations of imported up-to-date reading materials and mobile apps in English. This paper proposes a longitude study of a Chinese toddler learning STEM by reading picture books and playing with tablet and suggests new horizons in parenting and in STEM education during children's early years. The present study carried out from 2016, when the participant reached one year old, eligible to learn to speak and to concentrate on the picture books read by parents who had filled a language background questionnaire with information on themselves and the participant. Tablet playing brought about for the two-year-old toddler and collections of STEM books in English was added for the second year. Data collection lasted for two years with an iLab video camera, capturing utterances and motions for five minutes per week transcribed by VoiceScript software. Tests were given quarterly at private home by tapping in mobile app "Bilingual Child Learning" which consists of 20 basic STEM themes before scores were collected. Findings indicate that (1) it is accessible for children of very early years to be engaged in English STEM resources, (2) kids' limited English dominance does not impede learning STEM, (3) and to think in English in early STEM contributes to children's English.

scholarly journals The Microbiologists’ Warning: a Warning from All Microbiologists’ to Humanity

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 99
Author(s):  
Rick Cavicchioli
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Greenhouse Gases ◽  
Human Activities ◽  
Consensus Statement ◽  
Microbial World ◽  
Call To Action ◽  
Environmentally Sustainable ◽  
Sustainable Future ◽  
Production And Consumption

The Microbiologists’ Warning is a Consensus Statement proclaiming that microorganisms are so critical to achieving an environmentally sustainable future that ignoring them risks the fate of Humanity. It aims to raise awareness of the microbial world and make a call to action for microbiologists to become increasingly engaged in, and microbial research to become increasingly infused into, the frameworks for addressing climate change. We must learn not just how microorganisms affect climate change (including production and consumption of greenhouse gases), but also how they will be affected by climate change and other human activities.

scholarly journals Women’s Participation and Factors Affecting Their Academic Performance in Engineering and Technology Education: A Study of Ethiopia

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 2246
Author(s):  
Addissie Melak ◽  
Seema Singh
Keyword(s):  
Women Students ◽  
Academic Performance ◽  
Sexual Harassment ◽  
Technology Education ◽  
Stem Education ◽  
Gender Gap ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Engineering And Technology Education ◽  
Women's Participation ◽  
Engineering And Technology

Academic performance is one of the reasons for gender imbalance in STEM education. This study has two objectives: analyzing women’s participation in STEM education and investigating the factors affecting women’s achievements in Engineering and Technology university majors in Ethiopia. Secondary data have been analyzed to establish women’s involvement in STEM education using enrollment and graduation data and to observe the gender gap. Primary data were collected from 376 women students of engineering and technology. The OLS multiple regression model results reveal that the academic performance of women in engineering and technology education is positively influenced by students’ capabilities to gather information about the institution before joining the university. Interventions followed by institutions for supporting women students, peer learning habits of students, and the accessibility of university infrastructure also positively affect women’s academic performance. In contrast, sexual harassment and the existence of engineering and technology professionals in the family negatively influence the academic performance of women. Hence, educational organizations, governments, and other stakeholders should work to enhance women’s academic performance and reduce the gender gap in STEM education. Engineering colleges must also give attention to students’ psychological, economic, and educational support, try to fulfill infrastructure and learning equipment, and protect students from sexual harassment through strong commitment and regulations.

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