Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-kw2vx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-02-06T16:18:45.090Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 January 2019

Caroline Smith Open the ORCID record for Caroline Smith [Opens in a new window]  and
Jane Watson
Caroline Smith*
Affiliation:
University of Tasmania, Burnie and Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Jane Watson
Affiliation:
University of Tasmania, Burnie and Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
*
*Corresponding author. Email: caroline.smith1@utas.edu.au
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In 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.

Keywords

critical reflectioneducationneoliberalismSTEMsustainability
Type
Feature Articles
Information
Australian Journal of Environmental Education , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , March 2019 , pp. 1 - 11
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abram, D. (1997). The spell of the sensuous: Perception and language in a more-than-human world. New York, NY: Random House.Google Scholar
Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. (2010). Renewable energy: The ATSE STELR stage one project 2010. Melbourne, Australia: Author.Google Scholar
Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering. (2016). About STELR. Melbourne, Australia: Author.Google Scholar
Asafu-Adjaye, J., Blomqvist, S., Brand, S., Brook, B., Defries, R., Ellis, E., … Teague, P. (2015). An ecomodernist manifesto. Oaklands, CA: Breakthrough Institute.Google Scholar
Australasian Science Education Research Association (ASERA). (2017). Professor of STEM education — University of South Australia. Retrieved from https://www.asera.org.au/news/professor-stem-education-university-south-australiaGoogle Scholar
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (2016). ACARA STEM Connections project report. Retrieved from https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/media/3220/stem-connections-report.pdfGoogle Scholar
Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA). (2017). Cross-curriculum priorities: Sustainability. Sydney, Australia: ACARA.Google Scholar
Australian Education for Sustainability Alliance (AESA). (2015–2016). Getting started with sustainability in schools (Resources portal). Retrieved from sustainabilityinschools.edu.auGoogle Scholar
Australian Government. (2017). National innovation and science agenda report. Canberra, Australia: Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
Bauman, Z. (1993). Postmodern ethics. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Bauman, Z. (1995). Life in fragments: Essays in postmodern morality. New York, NY: Wiley.Google Scholar
Berry, T. (1999). The great work: Our way to the future. New York, NY: Bell Tower.Google Scholar
Bybee, R. W. (2010). Advancing STEM education: A 2020 vision. Technology and Engineering Teacher, 70, 30–35.Google Scholar
Carter, L. (2016). Neoliberalism and STEM education. Journal for Activist Science & Technology Education, 7, 31–41.Google Scholar
Carter, L. (2017). Neoliberalism and STEM education: Some Australian policy discourse. Canadian Journal of Science, Mathematics and Technology Education, 17, 247–257.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Catholic Education Melbourne. (2015). Education for sustainability in the archdiocese of Melbourne. Melbourne, Australia: Author.Google Scholar
Davies, J. M. (2012). ESD starts where STEM stops: Integrating the social sciences into STEM. In Lee, Kar-Tin (Ed.), 2nd International STEM in Education Conference (pp. 177–183). Beijing, China. Retrieved from https://eprints.qut.edu.au/67370/Google Scholar
Department of the Environment Water Heritage and the Arts (DEWHA). (2009). Living sustainably: The Australian Government’s National Action Plan for education for sustainability. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.Google Scholar
Dow, P. (1997). Sputnik revisited: Historical perspectives on science reform. A symposium hosted by the Center for Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Education, Washington: National Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Earth Talk. (2018). Technological ‘solutions’ to climate change. Are any ‘geoengineering’ solutions viable or realistic? Retrieved from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/geoengineering-solutions/Google Scholar
Education for Sustainability Tasmania. (2018). Education for sustainability. Retrieved from http://efs.tas.edu.au/Google Scholar
Farmer, S. A., Tank, K. M., & Moore, T. J. (2015). Using STEM to reinforce measurement skills. Teaching Children Mathematics, 22, 196–199.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fenwick, T., Edwards, R., & Sawchuk, P. (2011). Emerging approaches to educational research: Tracing the socio-material. New York, NY: Routledge.Google Scholar
Funtowicz, S. O., & Ravetz, J. R. (1993). Science for the post-normal age. Futures, 25, 735–755.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Garg, K. (2017, February 16). Teaching sustainability in schools haphazard, despite education priority. The Citizen. Retrieved from https://www.thecitizen.org.au/articles/teaching-sustainability-schools-haphazard-despite-education-priorityGoogle Scholar
Gasparatos, A., Doll, C. N. H., Esteban, M., Abubakari, A., & Olang, T. A. (2017). Renewable energy and biodiversity: Implications for transitioning to a green economy. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 70, 161–184.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gillett, M. (1977). Tbilisi declaration. Tbilisi, Georgia: International Conference on Environmental Education.Google Scholar
Hackling, M., Murcia, K., West, J., & Anderson, K. (2014). Optimising STEM education in WA schools. Part 1: Summary report. Joondalup, Australia: Edith Cowan Institute for Education Research.Google Scholar
Hamilton, C. (2015, April 21). The technofix is in: A critique of ‘An Ecomodernist Manifesto’. Earth Island Journal. Retrieved from https://clivehamilton.com/the-technofix-is-in-a-critique-of-an-ecomodernist-manifesto/Google Scholar
Hopkinson, P., & James, P. (2010). Practical pedagogy for embedding ESD in science, technology, engineering and mathematics curricula. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education, 11(4), 365–379.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lee, J., & Hannam, P. (2015, October 27). Alan Finkel appointed Australia’s next Chief Scientist. Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved from http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/alan-finkel-appointed-next-australias-next-chief-scientist-20151026-gkitd7.htmlGoogle Scholar
Malafouris, L. (2013). How things shape the mind: A theory of material engagement. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marick Group. (2016, May 16). A look at the history of STEM (and why we love it). Retrieved from http://marickgroup.com/news/2016/a-look-at-the-history-of-stem-and-why-we-love-itGoogle Scholar
Massey, C. (2017). Call of the reed warbler: A new agriculture — A new earth. Brisbane, Australia: University of Queensland Press.Google Scholar
McMillan, S. (2017). What’s driving our planet’s destruction? Habitat, 45, 6–9.Google Scholar
Monash University. (2018). Retrieved from https://www.monash.edu/education/future-students/short-courses/stem-education/leading-collaboration-through-stem-educationGoogle Scholar
Orr, D. (1999). Education for globalization. The Ecologist, 29, 166–169.Google Scholar
Papuso, I., & Faraby, J. (2013). What is climate-smart agriculture? (Seminar on Climate Change and Risk Management). Retrieved from http://www.slideshare.net/jimalfaraby/climate-smart-agriculture-20675751Google Scholar
Pecen, R., Humston, J. L., & Yildiz, F. (2012). Promoting STEM to young students by renewable energy applications. Journal of STEM Education, 13, 62–72.Google Scholar
Pitt, J. (2009). Blurring the boundaries — STEM education and education for sustainable development. Design and Technology Education: An International Journal, 14(1), 38–46.Google Scholar
Powell, A. (2007, October 11). How Sputnik changed U.S. education. Harvard Gazette. Retrieved from https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2007/10/how-sputnik-changed-u-s-education/Google Scholar
Prime Minister of Australia. (2015). Dr Alan Finkel AO appointed as Australia’s next Chief Scientist. (Media release). Retrieved from https://www.pm.gov.au/media/2015-10-27/dr-alan-finkel-ao-appointed-australias-next-chief-scientistGoogle Scholar
Prinsley, R., & Johnston, E. (2015). Transforming STEM teaching in Australian primary schools: Everybody’s business (Position paper). Canberra, Australia: Office of the Chief Scientist.Google Scholar
Reynolds, P., & Cavanaugh, R. (2009). Sustainable education: Principles and practices. Paper submitted to the 2009 Annual Conference of the Australian Association for Research in Education, Canberra.Google Scholar
Smith, C. (2007). Education and society: The case for ecoliteracy. Education and Society, 25, 25–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, C., Fraser, S. P., & Corbett, M. (2017). Liquid modernity, emplacement and education for the Anthropocene: Challenges for rural education in Tasmania. Australian and International Journal of Rural Education, 27, 196–212.Google Scholar
Smith, C., & Watson, J. (2016). STEM and Education for Sustainability (EfS): Finding common ground for a flourishing future. In Baguley, M., (Ed.), Proceedings of the Annual Conference of Australian Association for Educational Research. Melbourne, Australia: Australian Association for Research in Education.Google Scholar
Smith, C., & Watson, J. (2018). STEM: Silver bullet for a viable future or just more flatland? Journal of Futures Studies, 22, 25–44.Google Scholar
Stein, Z. (2016). Education in the Anthropocene: Re-imagining schools in the midst of planetary transformation. Retrieved from http://www.zakstein.org/education-in-the-anthropocene-re-imagining-schools-in-the-midst-of-planetary-transformation/Google Scholar
Sterling, S. (2001). Sustainable education: Revisioning learning and change. Totnes, UK: Green Books.Google Scholar
Taylor, P. C. (2016). Why is a STEAM curriculum perspective crucial to the 21st century? ACER Research Conference, 89–93. Retrieved from https://research.acer.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1299&context=research_conferenceGoogle Scholar
Taylor, P. C. (2018). Enriching STEM with the arts to better prepare 21st century citizens. AIP Conference Proceedings. 1923, 020002. doi:10.1063/1.5019491.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thiele, L. P. (2013). Sustainability. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.Google Scholar
Thorne, M., & Whitehouse, H. (2017). Environmental stewardship in the Anthropocene (Part One): What have we learned from recent research in North Queensland schools adjacent to the wet tropics? Social Education, 35, 17–27.Google Scholar
UNESCO. (2005). UNESCO and sustainable development. Retrieved from http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0013/001393/139369e.pdfGoogle Scholar
UNESCO. (2016). Global education first initiative. Retrieved from http://www.unesco.org/new/en/gefi/priorities/global-citizenshipGoogle Scholar
UNESCO. (2018). Education for sustainable development. Retrieved from https://en.unesco.org/themes/education-sustainable-developmentGoogle Scholar
Wade, R. (2008). Education for sustainability: Challenges and opportunities. In Coriddi, J., (Ed.), Policy & practice: A development education review (pp. 30–48). Dublin, Ireland: Centre for Global Education.Google Scholar
Watson, J., & English, L. (2015). Introducing the practice of statistics: Are we environmentally friendly? Mathematics Education Research Journal, 27, 585–613.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wesselink, A., & Hoppe, R. (2010). If post-normal science is the solution, what is the problem?: The politics of activist environmental science. Science, Technology and Human Values, 36, 389–412.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiedmann, T., & Lenzen, M. (2018). Environmental and social footprints of international trade. Nature Geoscience, 11, 314–321.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zalasiewicz, J., Williams, M., Steffen, W., & Crutzen, P. (2010). The new world of the Anthropocene. Environmental Science and Technology, 44, 2228–2231.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed