SARA TOLBERT. University of Canterbury GERALDINE MOONEY SIMMIE, University of Limerick
Abstract
The SENCER Summer Institute 2023 proceedings reported here are an adapted transcript of a conversation between Sara Tolbert and Geraldine Mooney Simmie on the topic of science/STEM education, democracy, and civic engagement in a fast globalizing and increasingly unequal world (2023, August 29). The dialogue draws from the four SENCER ideals to underpin the importance of what the feminist scientist Donna Haraway called “staying with the trouble,” where the trouble in this case is implicit in the complexity of constantly changing ethical, sociocultural, and political relations between STEM education and democracy. The speakers aim to critically scrutinize the new framing and lexicon centered on STEM learning and civic engagement, including phrases such as “teaching and learning,” “problem-posing,” “civic engagement,” and “inclusion” in STEM education policy texts in Ireland and New Zealand. Drawing from critical, philosophical, and feminist perspectives the speakers argue for an urgent reappraisal of the framing of the problem. We argue for the need to reorient STEM Learning toward an expansive view of education that is relational and emancipatory and a view of democracy that is upstream of the instrumental. The original conversation was edited for ease of readability, inclusion of a planning template, the addition of a number of relevant references, and a summary of key insights