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STEM + Arts: STEAM Approach in Education

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A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). This special issue belongs to the section "Sustainable Education and Approaches".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 August 2023) | Viewed by 13709

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Special Issue Editors

Dr. Kylie Peppler

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Guest Editor

Informatics & Education, University of California, Irvine, CA 46814, USA
Interests: arts; computational technologies; interest-driven learning
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Dr. Maggie Dahn

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Guest Editor

Informatics & Education, University of California, Irvine, CA 46814, USA
Interests: arts education and learning; voice and identity development; design-based research

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As STEAM (STEM + Arts) approaches in education become more widespread, conceptualizations of what counts as or constitutes STEAM continue to expand the possibilities for the inherent and designed interdisciplinarity of educational experiences. This Special Issue focuses on STEAM approaches that have transformative potential and transcend the disciplinary possibilities of both STEM and the arts (e.g., Peppler and Wohlwend, 2017). The purpose of this Special Issue is to cover the practical applications and practices of STEAM education that take the mutually beneficial and transformative potential for interdisciplinary approaches that blend STEM and the arts as a starting point. By thinking “within, between, and beyond disciplinary boundaries” for STEAM (Mejias et al., 2020), the articles in this Special Issue should a) define the ways in which STEAM takes shape in particular contexts and b) cover the ways in which such an instantiation of STEAM adds to the field’s evolving understanding of STEAM as an interdisciplinary approach.

We are particularly interested in articles that address:

How new studies of interdisciplinarity are made possible through STEAM approaches;
The ways in which STEAM work with diverse populations promises to advance equity;
New areas for STEAM learning such as new products or processes that may emerge as a result of STEAM pedagogical approaches;
The potential for STEAM to support learning across settings such as home, school, afterschool, and community contexts;
The ways in which STEAM education impacts learners across a lifetime.

We imagine this Special Issue will encourage the provocative discussion of new possibilities for STEAM education that emphasize the interdisciplinary and interconnected ways in which people learn and live in the 21st century. Taken together, we are interested in a Special Issue that explores cross-cutting questions such as: What does it mean for disciplines to combine? How does STEAM create a new space and way of conceptualizing disciplinary learning? What are the problems and possibilities in enacting STEAM approaches? How can STEAM approaches support more equitable outcomes and culturally connected communities?

Dr. Kylie Peppler
Dr. Maggie Dahn
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

STEAM and arts education
STEM education
interest-driven learning
out-of-school learning
scalability and sustainability in education
learning sciences
constructionism
equity
makerspaces
schools
design thinking

Published Papers (7 papers)

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Research

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23 pages, 14721 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Disaggregating Asian Identities through Case Studies of High School Students in Electronic Textiles Classrooms

by Gayithri Jayathirtha and Francisco Enrique Vicente Castro

Sustainability 2023, 15(20), 15128; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152015128 - 21 Oct 2023

Viewed by 1170

Abstract

While most of the identity-related work within STEAM education has examined learners from different marginalized groups, Asians and Asian Americans are some of the least studied identities despite the underrepresentation of several Asian sub-groups within STEAM fields. Educational research has embraced the “model minority” myth, adopted a White-colonial gaze, aggregated Asians into a single “racial group”, and treated it as a dominant group within STEM fields. By resisting the White-centered, colonial simplifications and also conducting ways of engaging with learners that identify with Asian communities, we present four case studies of “Asian” high school students in two STEAM classrooms (which were both implementing an electronic textiles unit) in an attempt to disaggregate and to highlight the diversity and complications in the the otherwise simplified “Asian” identity. We answer the question of how electronic textiles projects support students’ “Asian” identity expression, negotiation, and development. We share how our cases accentuated the role of materiality and pedagogical context in opening possibilities for students to narrate stories of historical, cultural, and familial significance while navigating their complicated “Asian” (or not) identities. We discuss the implications of our findings for the research, design, and practice within STEAM activities to better support the highly diverse and invisibly marginalized Asian-origin students. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue STEM + Arts: STEAM Approach in Education)

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18 pages, 5057 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Personally Meaningful Design: Sound Making to Foster Engineering Practices with Artifacts from Home

by Santiago Hurtado, Teemu Leinonen and Anna Keune

Sustainability 2023, 15(20), 14962; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152014962 - 17 Oct 2023

Viewed by 1306

Abstract

Early engineering experiences can provide young people with experiences that can contribute to developing longer-term interest in the field and addressing dropout issues faced in engineering internationally. One way to engage young people with engineering is through the creation of personally meaningful sound-making projects with everyday materials and electronic kits. Sound making can make it possible for people to connect to their personal experiences and to represent these personal experiences through artistic means while also performing engineering practices, like asking questions, defining and delimiting problems, and developing and optimizing solutions with physical materials that produce sounds. Such design processes are referred to as engaging in the design of personally meaningful projects. However, it remains underspecified what personally meaningful means and, therefore, what aspects to integrate into engineering educational activity and technology designs to foster personally meaningful design opportunities. Building on constructionist perspectives on learning, this qualitative research investigated engineering practices as middle-school-aged youth used electronic construction kits and personal tangible material objects to create sounds. Iterative and thematic analysis of engineering practices of semi-structured interviews and video-recorded youth workshops showed that sound making with personal objects and electronic construction kits is a context for engineering design practices. This study also showed that integrating personal tangible projects that materialize personal histories can foster engineering practices. The findings contribute to our understanding of the theoretical idea of personally meaningful design in constructionism by presenting the importance of integrating personal histories through the design of personal projects with tangible material objects of a person’s life. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue STEM + Arts: STEAM Approach in Education)

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21 pages, 1317 KiB

Open AccessArticle

RISING Strong: Sustainability through Art, Science, and Collective Community Action

by Mairéad Hurley and Joseph Roche

Sustainability 2023, 15(20), 14800; https://doi.org/10.3390/su152014800 - 12 Oct 2023

Viewed by 1109

Abstract

The objective of this research is to offer a qualitative analysis of adult STEAM (science, technology, engineering, the arts and mathematics) learning in a community setting, with a focus on sustainability and climate action. To date, much research on STEAM learning has been directed towards youth and children in formal educational settings. Our qualitative study involving semi-structured interviews with community participants, artists, and scientists over the course of a six-month initiative in Ireland allowed us to develop a rich picture of a multi-faceted STEAM project that held space for both a social change agenda and a learning agenda. In our findings, we identified several contributing factors to transformative learning and changed feelings about climate change, including pride of place, the development of strong interpersonal relationships, and an emerging sense of collective agency through a shared emotional and affective journey. To design for meaningful, community-level climate action, we argue that learning may be supported in, with and through STEAM. Our study also showcases the value of the arts and aesthetic experiences to embrace dissensus when tackling a complex issue like climate change through STEAM education. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue STEM + Arts: STEAM Approach in Education)

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14 pages, 3358 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Documenting Children’s Spatial Reasoning through Art: A Case Study on Play-Based STEAM Education

by Christine Lee

Sustainability 2023, 15(19), 14051; https://doi.org/10.3390/su151914051 - 22 Sep 2023

Viewed by 972

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to examine how children’s art can document emergent sensemaking of spatial reasoning. Spatial reasoning is the understanding of how both people and objects interact with, and relate to, one another. The recent literature has argued for spatial reasoning to be part of multiple domains in STEAM education by highlighting the dynamic nature of spatial thinking relevant in everyday life. The data come from a larger participatory design-based research project that incorporated play, environmental education, and embodiment in a STEAM curriculum. The paper analyzed art created by a focal group of children (6–8 years) as they learned about the kelp forest ecosystem over time. Findings reveal that spatial reasoning is not only an inseparable part of sensemaking in STEAM education, but has implications for environmental education in the elementary curriculum. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue STEM + Arts: STEAM Approach in Education)

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21 pages, 2229 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Supporting and Sustaining Equitable STEAM Activities in High School Classrooms: Understanding Computer Science Teachers’ Needs and Practices When Implementing an E-Textiles Curriculum to Forge Connections across Communities

by Deborah Fields and Yasmin Kafai

Sustainability 2023, 15(11), 8468; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15118468 - 23 May 2023

Cited by 4 | Viewed by 1432

Abstract

While the last two decades have seen an increased interest in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) in K-12 schools, few efforts have focused on the teachers and teaching practices necessary to support these interventions. Even fewer have considered the important work that teachers carry out not just inside classrooms but beyond the classroom walls to sustain such STEAM implementation efforts, from interacting with administrators to recruiting students and persuading parents about the importance of arts and computer science. In order to understand teachers’ needs and practices regarding STEAM implementation, in this paper, we focus on eight experienced computer science teachers’ reflections on implementing a STEAM unit using electronic textiles, which combine crafting, circuit design, and coding so as to make wearable artifacts. We use a broad lens to examine the practices high school teachers employed not only in their classrooms but also in their schools and communities to keep these equitable learning opportunities going, from communicating with other teachers and admins to building a computer science (CS) teacher community across district and state lines. We also analyzed these reflections to understand teachers’ own social and emotional needs—needs important to staying in the field of CS education—better, as they are relevant to engaging with learning new content, applying new pedagogical skills, and obtaining materials and endorsements from their organizations to bring STEAM into their classrooms. In the discussion, we contemplate what teachers’ reported practices and needs say about supporting and sustaining equitable STEAM in classrooms. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue STEM + Arts: STEAM Approach in Education)

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16 pages, 3352 KiB

Open AccessArticle

“Some Angles Are Gonna Be Weird”: Tinkering with Math and Weaving

by Naomi Thompson

Sustainability 2023, 15(9), 7363; https://doi.org/10.3390/su15097363 - 28 Apr 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1083

Abstract

It has been argued that much of how math is taught in schools aligns with a particular epistemology that comes from western mathematicians and philosophers, potentially leading to an undervaluing of diverse skills and abilities. Tinkering, a common STEAM practice, is one way of participating that does not necessarily involve a straightforward path from problem to solution; rather, tinkering may be non-linear, and involve movement back and forth between known and new solutions. This process is not always supported or encouraged in traditional mathematics spaces but may be more available through activities such as crafting. This study examines a weaving workshop with middle-school students, asking the question: When and how do learners tinker in mathematical ways as they learn to weave? Video data were analyzed using qualitative techniques and perspectives informed by interaction analysis and other multimodal analytic techniques. Findings show that youth could be seen tinkering in the workshops in the forms of “negotiating and renegotiating with materials” and “trying unexpected solutions.” Examples from two focal cases break these tinkering forms down in deeper detail and showcase the mathematical engagement made possible by the space to tinker. This work sparks possibilities for designing math learning spaces that honor youths’ personally meaningful ways of doing and being both through the materials used and the practices encouraged. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue STEM + Arts: STEAM Approach in Education)

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Review

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20 pages, 646 KiB

Open AccessReview

STEM, STEAM and Makerspaces in Early Childhood: A Scoping Review

by Kelly Johnston, Lisa Kervin and Peta Wyeth

Sustainability 2022, 14(20), 13533; https://doi.org/10.3390/su142013533 - 19 Oct 2022

Cited by 12 | Viewed by 4535

Abstract

STEM has emerged as a key area of importance for children, highlighting the value and relevance of integrated understandings of science, technology, engineering and mathematics in both educational contexts and everyday life. The need for innovation and creativity is also recognised, which emphasizes the important role the arts can play as STEM is extended into STEAM. This scoping review investigated what is known about STEM, STEAM and makerspace experiences and opportunities for children aged birth to eight. The review found that early childhood experience with STEM, STEAM and makerspaces is an emerging field of research. Findings suggest that STEAM holds more relevance to learning and experiences in the early childhood years, and perhaps across the lifespan. The review also highlights the need to shift the starting point to the earliest of years and create greater intentionality in STEAM experiences with infants, toddlers and preschool aged children, recognizing the relevance of STEAM and maker mindsets in the lives of young children. Additionally, the scoping review identified the value of informal and community contexts as a means to invite broader participation. Such opportunities provide scope to challenge inequity in opportunity and to overcome intergenerational aversion towards STEM/STEAM-related learning. Further research is needed to understand the professional learning needs of early childhood educators and facilitators of STEAM and makerspace experiences. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue STEM + Arts: STEAM Approach in Education)

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