Introduction to the Special Theme on Re-Imagining the M in STEM: Mathematical Actions for Innovative, Resilient and Culturally Rich Communities

Abstract

In 2018, a report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) announced the global average temperature is currently 1°C warmer now than pre-industrial levels (IPCC, 2018). The report referred to this warming as human-induced, stating human influence has "become a principal agent of change on the planet" (IPCC, 2018, p. 53). Evidence of this change is being felt worldwide with 2018 witnessing life-threatening weather patterns in the USA and South-east Asia, extreme drought in South Africa and unexpected boreal forest fires in the Arctic. Such calls announcing the earth's environmental ecological crises are worldwide and difficult to ignore. How did we get to this situation? Some argue that this ecological crisis stems from a particular view of being in the world, a way of being that privileges individualism, consumerism as progress, and use of non-renewable energy resources as human rights (Barwell, 2018;Bowers, 2017). Acknowledging the crisis leads to questions on the role education can and should play in responding to these ecological challenges. More specifically, we ask how mathematics education, mathematics teacher education, and STEM and STEM education (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) might contribute to understanding and responding. How can the mathematics of STEM and STEM education be re-imagined to contribute to more sustainable practices, more innovative, resilient and culturally rich communities? This Special Theme of CJSMTE explores these questions across national and international contexts, rethinking the role of STEM and STEM education to consider other ways of relating to each other, mathematics and communities.

Education for sustainable development in mathematics education: what could it look like?

“…Therefore, in order to integrate ESD into mathematics education, we will need to reimagine mathematics as a general human concern, to see it as providing an opportunity to learn critical thinking, problem-solving, and contextual understanding, as providing a lingua franca that supports relationships between disparate communities and facilitates learning within other disciplines [44].…”