All STEM-Ed up: Gaps and Silences around Ecological Education in Australia

Abstract

Similar to much of the world, the Australian Government has a vision for society to be engaged in and enriched by science which has, as its prime focus, building skills and capabilities in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM). Simultaneously, the Government’s policies and projects, including in education, ignore intergovernmental environmental initiatives, such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES). This article critically analyses the Australian Government’s STEM and climate change education policies and programs, including Citizen Science activities, through an ecological education lens and finds many, and growing, gaps and silences in these areas. It compares the Australian situation with STEM and ecological education-related developments in several other countries. In the context of significant global changes such as the COVID-19 pandemic, this article argues that it is time for the Australian education agenda to take the Government’s international responsibilities seriously, include meaningful engagement with climate change and biodiversity related topics through ecological education in the school curriculum, and discusses what a reimagined school science curriculum could look like.

Becoming future-proof STEM teachers for enhancing sustainable development: A proposed general framework for capacity-building programs in future studies

“…In recent years, there has been an increasing focus on the close relationship between STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education and sustainable development (SD) in school and university education (Bascopé & Reiss, 2021 ; Gough, 2021 ; Krug, 2012 ; Pahnke et al, 2019 ; Suh et al, 2019 ; Ulmeanu et al, 2021 ; Velázquez et al, 2020 ). A primary reason for this increased focus is that STEM education is considered one of the major pillars that support SD through building the capacities of future generations (Pahnk et al, 2019 ).…”

Effectiveness of PBL STEM to Improve Problem Solving Skills

“…Based on previous research on STEM provided a lot aspect such as cognitive, procedural, and attitudinal benefits for students (English, 2023;Jamali et al, 2022;Takeuchi et al, 2020). STEM encourages students to develop problem-solving with science, technology, engineering, and math knowledge and skills (Gough, 2021 STEM education also shows various potentials in developing the literacy needed by students in a 21st-century professional society (Means et al, 2017). STEM education (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) is important in preparing young people to respond to the challenges they face (Nguyen et al, 2020).…”

ESD-based education

“…A push for a STEMagenda not per definition meeting the needs of employers and graduates, nor in the interest of students (A. Gough, 2021). Seeking to better understand expectations, o Engineering as the design of technological constructs and processes.…”

“…Understanding a reimagined science education should be socially reconstructive and transformative, the content transdisciplinary and the pedagogy interactive, projectbased, learner-centred and participatory (A. Gough, 2021), it would be wise to reconsider STEM within the larger realm of ESD. Teachers' autonomy being largely restricted to their classroom and suffering under an accountability too much based on standards (Buchanan, 2015), we noted their resistance to change also relates to the comfort of the traditional.…”

“…During the years the OPEDUCA-concept met ever more support, understanding students shall learn in a transdisciplinary learning environment, steadily researching and integrating real world needs and perspectives to develop competencies that enable them to solve complex sustainability problems in their further careers (Biberhofer & Bockwoldt, 2016;Dlouhá, Barton, Huisingh, & Adomssent, 2013;Kolenick, 2018). Seeing ESD to develop towards a more transformative, cooperative, learner-driven education (Brezet, 2009;A. Gough, 2021;Herranen, Vesterinen, & Aksela, 2018;von Koerber et al, 2018).…”