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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
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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 

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