Umeå universitets logga

‘STEAM education’, also known as the addition of 'arts' to STEM subjects, is a newly emerging concept in science education. While responding to the economic drivers which characterise STEM, engaging the Arts may serve to broaden science learning through inter and trans- disciplinary relationships, across a range of contexts and modes of inquiry (Colucci-Gray et al., 2017). Such approach is in line with the growing body of literature in sustainability science, seeking to expand participation in a shared, and unfolding future by encouraging cross-fertilisation between different domains of knowledge, languages, and experiences of the world, which are fundamentally embodied. To this aim, specific attention here is paid to aesthetics and art forms as modes of knowing engaging sensorial and affective dimensions, as they may be deployed across the sciences, arts, and crafts. In this view, complementary approaches to knowing the world may be brought together; for example, to promote deeper understanding of scientific concepts and practices in science, but also to overcome the limitations of cognitivist approaches, by re-appraising the multiplicity of the body’s intra-actions with the material context. Through such dialogue, a variety of epistemological positions may be explored. One which follows the linear trajectory of knowledge accumulation presupposes a reality ‘out there’, amenable to discovery and prediction. Another conception examines verbal and non-verbal language in giving visibility to our actions and perception of the world. Knowledge is relational and agentic, arising in continuity with tools, mind, and body (Barad, 2007). Finally, recognition of complexity of socio-environmental conditions and our inextricable dependence upon the Earth, calls for awareness of oneself in continuous, affective relationship with an ever-changing context (Kagan, 2011). Drawing on such multiplicity, this symposium will explore the potential and limitations of STEAM for a science education vis-à-vis a sustainable future.