Louise Archer (University College London, UK)
Research interests: Educational identities and inequalities
Title: Supporting Equity and Inclusion in STEM
Abstract: What causes inequalities in STEM participation and why are these so resistant to change? What can be done to make STEM participation more equitable and inclusive? In this talk I draw on findings and resources from several large research studies, including insights from the 13 year ASPIRES longitudinal study (which tracked a cohort of young people from age 10-23 to identify factors shaping STEM trajectories) and resources and teaching approaches developed by the Youth Equity +STEM project and the Primary Science Capital Teaching Approach project, both of which involved co-designed tools for practitioners to support equitable and inclusive practice.
Bio: Louise is the Karl Mannheim Professor of Sociology of Education at UCL (UK). Her research focuses on educational identities and inequalities, particularly in relation to participation in STEM, across primary, secondary and higher education and in informal STEM learning settings. She has directed numerous large research studies focused on understanding inequalities in STEM participation and has authored over 100 articles, books and chapters. She is particularly interested in co-design work with teachers and educational practitioners and was awarded prizes for the impact of her work in 2019 and 2020.
Senthil Babu D (French Institute of Pondycherry, India)
Research interests: History of mathematics, Science for social change
Title: Mathematical Experience and Alienation: Towards social histories of Practice
Abstract: History of mathematics has informed mathematics education, mostly as pedagogic aids in classroom practices. In this talk, I would like to propose how social histories of mathematical practices can open up interesting ways to understand the processes involved in the making of mathematical experience, and how they become alienable. Such alienability, however, has to be situated in the making of values, studied through the real-world practices of working people, who engaged in activities that were mathematical, as part of their occupations and work, what we call practitioner’s mathematics. Reconstructing the social histories of these practices could then inspire new ways of thinking in mathematics education. In this talk, I would like to explore such possibilities, through the discussion of specific historical cases. The relationship between the measuring rod, labour and land in medieval south India, debates about money and fair exchange in early modern Europe through the writings of Nicolas Copernicus, the collander and mnemonic tables which graded and made values of precious goods such as pearls in early modern south India, and the case of ranking creditworthiness as a way of measuring trust in contemporary microfinance industry and working women are the four cases for exploration. The sites of learning of mathematics, in our view could go beyond conventional classrooms to organized learning spaces of knowledge exchange such as women’s self help groups, artisanal workshops, and groups of working women and trade union spaces.
Bio: Senthil Babu D., is a historian of mathematics based at the French Institute of Pondicherry, in south India, where he is involved in studies concerning Nature, Knowledge and Labour [https://ifpindia.org/research/social-sciences/knowledge]. He is coordinating a research programme in the Social History of Vernacular Mathematical Practices in Medieval South India in collaboration with Chair, History and Philosophy of Mathematics at ETH, Zurich. His book, Mathematics and Society: Numbers and Measures in early modern South India, will be published soon by Oxford Universtiy Press in 2022. He is a member of the editorial board of the series, Verum Factum: Studies in Political Epistemology [https://verumfactum.it/]. He is a member of the Politically Mathematics Collective in India [https://www.politicallymath.in/]
Heba El-Deghaidy (The American University in Cairo, Egypt)
Research interests: Educational technology in teaching and learning, Ethics and STEAM education
Title: STE2AM and Social Responsibility in Higher Education
Abstract: Today’s complex problems, sometimes called wicked problems, are claimed to be a direct result of the Anthropocene. This talk presents contributions from graduate and undergraduate students enrolled in a course offered at a not-for-profit private higher education institution in Northern Africa, on education for sustainable development. Before presenting the findings and students’ project, I will share some global and local challenges that countries are facing related to the 2030 SDGs and the role of education in trying to solve these challenges. While doing so, I will present the main aspects of the learning journey that student went through while enrolled in the course. There will also be reference to what is meant by social responsibility at both the university and individual levels, especially as higher educational institutions could instill a sense of responsibility in students as change agents. The theoretical framework that guides this paper is based on Giving Voice to Values (GVV), an innovative approach to values-driven leadership development (Gentile, 2010) and the sociocultural constructivist framework (Lave & Wenger, 1991). As students work on real life problems in their locality, concepts and skills from the various STEAM disciplines are brought to the forefront as a learning process. An acronym that integrates both education for sustainable development and STEAM education is presented by ‘STE2AM’ as a transdisciplinary approach for learning.
A long-term aim of this talk is to explore how universities, as social institutions, can contribute to human and social development as a means to understanding universities’ social responsibility while aligning their values with societal expectations through educating future generations. Findings indicate that students’ end of course projects could be used as opportunities to voice their values as they develop their responsibilities toward their local communities.
Gentile, M. (2010). Giving voice to values: How to speak your mind when you know what’s right. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. Curriculum site: www. GivingVoiceToValues.org
Lave, J., & E. Wenger. (1991). Situated learning: Legitimate peripheral participation.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Bio: Professor Heba EL-Deghaidy is currently chair of the Department of Educational Studies at the American University in Cairo. Her doctoral degree in science education is from the University of Birmingham, UK. EL-Deghaidy is leading the STEAM education initiative as an international approach to an interdisciplinary learning model. She developed, designed and presented the first Arabic MOOC in STEAM education in Arabic hosted by Edraak. EL-Deghaidy’s research focuses on science teacher education, preservice and inservice. Her publications are in the areas of STEM/STEAM education, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), using educational technology in teaching and learning. Her recent publication is a co-edited book titled ‘ STEM in Science Education and S in STEM: From Pedagogy to Learning’.
Aachey Susan Jurow (University of Colorado Boulder, USA)
Research interests: Social justice education, Sociocultural theories of learning, Learning in movements
Title: Using STEM to Center Community Desires
Abstract: Around the world, we are facing immense challenges to organizing inclusive and equitable forms of living together. Using research and design to support justice projects is, in my view, a moral imperative. In this talk, I discuss the affordances of community-based participatory design projects and their implications for understanding the role STEM can play in advancing justice. I share examples from projects that my collaborators and I have developed to understand how people work together to improve the conditions of their lives – for example, in the social movement for food and economic justice in the U.S. Mountain West. While STEM has not been the focal point of this work, I discuss how it has been an important design tool for advancing consequential learning with communities. An aim of this talk is to invite critical discussion of the ethical, conceptual, and methodological implications of our decisions as to when and how to use STEM in our research with community partners.
Bio: A. Susan Jurow is currently a Professor of Learning Sciences & Human Development program at the University of Colorado, Boulder (U.S.A.), Associate Dean for Diversity, Equity, and Community Engagement, and co-Editor in Chief of the Journal of the Learning Sciences (2021-2024).
Susan’s publications have focused on understanding what counts as consequential learning for people – in schools, in communities, and in institutions of higher education. She has studied mathematics learning in middle school classrooms, learning as part of progressive social movements for justice, and learning and “un-learning” related to organizing for equity in institutions of higher education. Across these diverse contexts, Susan and her remarkable collaborators have foregrounded people’s capacity to organize new futures while simultaneously struggling against entrenched systems of oppression.
Tan Aik Ling (National Institute of Education, Singapore)
Research interests: Teacher professional development, Cogenerative dialogues in science learning, Emotions in science learning
Title: Accessibility of STEM for teachers: What is at stake?
Abstract: STEM education has been a much-researched area of interest in the last decade. The issues related to educational accessibility and policies in STEM education has also gained traction in recent years. While societies worked on increasing accessibility of STEM learning opportunities for students, there is comparatively less attention paid to accessibility of STEM professional development opportunities for teachers. In this plenary talk, I delve into the need for strong STEM leadership in schools so that we can build STEM teachers’ agency, identity, and a sense of belonging to a community. These three aspects are fundamental to meaningful planning, enactment, and sustainability of STEM programs in schools since research has pointed out that teachers’ beliefs and intentions often influence their actions in their practices. I will also share programmes that have been implemented in Singapore to increase accessibility to STEM teachers’ professional development and to build a sustainable STEM ecosystem through partnerships between schools-tertiary institutions-industries.
Bio: Tan Aik-Ling is an Associate Professor and Deputy Head (Teaching & Curriculum Matters) at the Natural Sciences and Science Education (Academic Group), National Institute of Education (NIE), Singapore. She is also a core team member with the Multi-centric Education, Research and Industry STEM Centre at NIE (meriSTEM@NIE). Her research focuses on the scholarship of science teaching and learning, science teacher professional development and STEM education.
Katemari Rosa (Federal University of Bahia, Brazil)
Research interests: Decolonizing education
Title: Who’s the negationist now? A decolonial perspective to the post-truth debate in STEM education
Abstract: In this presentation, I discuss post-truth, negationism, coloniality, and how they relate to science. I will argue that science and STEM education, guided by a white scientific logic that denies knowledge produced by Black bodies, position themselves in this negationist discussion of otherness. I will show examples of knowledge taken as objective facts that are, in reality, produced facts created by a racist community. These manufactured facts continue to be reproduced in STEM education, contributing to perpetuating racism in our society and in our research practices.
Bio: Katemari Rosa is a professor at the Institute of Physics at the Federal University of Bahia, where she is the local Physics coordinator of a Federal Teacher Education Program (PIBID), in Brazil. Her interests involve research and practice in physics teaching and additive manufacturing. Dr. Rosa grounds her work on feminist perspectives, Critical Race Theory, and Decolonial thought. She is interested in discussions involving the intersectionality of gender, sexuality, race, ethnicity, and socioeconomic status in the construction and teaching of science.
Dr. Rosa is on the board of directors of the Brazilian Physics Society. She is also a member of the American Physical Society, the American Association of Physics Teachers, the National Organization of Gay and Lesbian Scientists and Technical Professionals (NOGLSTP) and the Brazilian Association of Black Researchers (ABPN). She coordinates a large national project for building an oral history archive of Black scientists in Brazil and is one the founders of the LBsTem group, an organization for lesbian, bi and trans women in STEM in Brazil.
Sara Tolbert (University of Canterbury, New Zealand)
Research interests: Social Justice, Contextualising science teaching and learning, Feminist science studies
Title: Science education as a social movement
Abstract: In the past decade, we have witnessed and experienced climate disasters, a worldwide pandemic, and countless other wicked socioscientific problems. Entangled in these wicked problems of the Anthropocene is the exacerbation of historical disparities, including racial, gender, and economic oppression. It is undeniable that socio-ecological and socioscientific problems are centrally political problems. What is the role of science and education in a complex, entangled and politicised world? Drawing inspiration from social movements of the past and present, I contemplate what science education might look like if it were (re)imagined as a social movement. What would be the implications for our professional organisations, schools, and communities? Where and with whom would our solidarities lie? I invite participants to think and dream together toward forging a new social movement for science education, in the name of life and love in the Anthropocene.
Bio: Sara Tolbert is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Education at University of Canterbury (UC) in Aotearoa New Zealand, previously Associate Professor in Teaching, Learning, and Sociocultural Studies at the University of Arizona (USA). Sara is a former science teacher and environmental educator, and has worked with students in multilingual contexts in the USA, Aotearoa New Zealand, Mexico, and Guatemala. Her scholarship draws from feminist studies, anti-colonial/critical theory, environmental humanities, science-and-technology-studies, and critical pedagogy to explore possibilities for justice through science and education in the Anthropocene(s). Some of her current projects include Postdigital Pedagogies of Care, Pāngarau Unleashed: a Multiple Case Study of De-streaming Secondary Mathematics, Freire: A Praxis of Radical Love and Critical Hope for Science Education, and Reimagining Science Education in the Anthropocene. She co-leads the Ōtautahi Food Justice Research Collaborative, a UC Community and Urban Resilience initiative, and the UC Learning for Earth Futures research cluster.
