A Scoping Review of STEAM Policies in Europe

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors This is an important and valuable report on the latest developments in the frontiers of STEAM education policy in Europe, and it is of great value and usefulness for the academic community to understand the relevant progress and conduct further research and decision-making accordingly. It would be more valuable to refine the content component for each country and to include in the analysis the expectations of possible policy developments.  

Author Response

Comment 1: This is an important and valuable report on the latest developments in the frontiers of STEAM education policy in Europe, and it is of great value and usefulness for the academic community to understand the relevant progress and conduct further research and decision-making accordingly. It would be more valuable to refine the content component for each country and to include in the analysis the expectations of possible policy developments.  

Response 1: Thank you very much for this comment. Regarding expectations of possible policy development, this is correlated with whether a country regards STEAM as a high priority, is in the process of developing a policy, or does not include it in its policy documents. We have extended the discussion section to reflect this.

Reviewer 2 Report

Comments and Suggestions for Authors

I would like to thank the authors for this piece of work. It gives us a useful preliminary overview of European educational policies in the area STEM and STEAM education. Of course, an analysis of policy documents and reports alone will not give us a precise idea about why the different countries have, or have not, implemented certain educational policies concerning STEM and STEAM education, or whether they have different approaches towards the employment challenges they are facing in STEM-related professions and in the economies' capacity to deal with more complex national, regional, and global issues. Furthermore, one may also question whether a STEM or STEAM education (with STEM nevertheless forming the foundation) is the right educational approach for coming years in the 21st century. It can be argued that many of the problems we are currently facing in Europe and the rest of the world may be traced back to an over-emphasis on science and technology over the last hundred or so years, and that the solution might be to re-ground education in art, culture, and the humanities (rather than for these to merely be integrated into a fundamentally STEM educational approach). It would be interesting for the writers to briefly comment on this alternative way of thinking about the current challenges EU countries are facing: is STEM or STEAM education necessarily the best solution? This may give a different conclusion (and suggest different recommendations) to the results of the study.

Nevertheless, as the writers suggested, the big picture provided by the reported study can be a basis for initiating conversations across EU and in developing a common approach for the region. 

A couple of typos (possibly) to address:

Line 96: Please check if you meant "STEM" instead of "STEAM". In the introduction (lines 16 and 17), the employment concerned mentioned referred to STEM instead of STEAM.

Line 321: Please check if you meant "STE(A)M" instead of "STEAM". On line 360, Belgium is associated with STE(A)M instead of STEAM.

Author Response

Comment 1: It would be interesting for the writers to briefly comment on this alternative way of thinking about the current challenges EU countries are facing: is STEM or STEAM education necessarily the best solution?

Reply 1: Thank you for raising this important issue. We have added the following text in the discussion section:

"While our review acknowledges that current EU policy and funding efforts prioritize STE(A)M education as a strategic response to skills shortages, digital transformation, and societal inequalities, we also recognize that this emphasis is not without tensions. The very notion of STEAM was introduced precisely to address the narrow instrumentalism of traditional STEM by integrating creativity, critical thinking, and cultural awareness. However, as some critics have argued, when the arts and humanities are merely "added on" to an essentially STEM-driven agenda, their potential to reshape educational priorities is limited. (Chapell and Hetherington, 2024)

This, essentially, calls for deeper reflection on whether the current focus on STE(A)M fully addresses the complex social, environmental, and ethical challenges Europe faces. Re-grounding education in culture and humanistic inquiry, rather than simply supplementing STEM with aesthetic elements, may offer alternative and complementary pathways. Future policy work should explore these paradigms more explicitly, including how arts-led or humanities-driven educational models might inform broader educational reform."

Comment 2: Line 321: Please check if you meant "STE(A)M" instead of "STEAM". On line 360, Belgium is associated with STE(A)M instead of STEAM.

Reply 2: Thank you for pinpointing this, we have corrected the reference from STE(A)M to STEAM