Peter Taylor

Well-recognised as a powerful driver of national economic growth, STEM lies at the heart of calls worldwide for educational reform. In Australia, Chief Scientists are calling for STEM education to better engage students on STEM-related career pathways. In the US, STEM educators are being urged to produce graduates with creative and innovative abilities required of an increasingly high-tech workforce. However, an equally important challenge for STEM education is to prepare young people with general capabilities for active participation in community and professional forums for addressing ethical issues associated with the global impact of science and technology. Education for sustainable development remains a pressing priority. Thus, STEM educators are being challenged to design curricula and pedagogies to develop students’ disciplinary knowledge and skills, as well as their abilities as critical consumers, creative and ethically astute citizens, innovative designers, good communicators and collaborative decision-makers. There is an international wellspring of educators endeavouring to meet this challenge by combining STEM and the arts to produce a multi-literate citizenry and workforce for the 21st century. In this presentation I will outline how two secondary schools in Western Australia are developing interdisciplinary STEAM curricula. In this paper I outline reasons why integrating the arts with science, technology, engineering and mathematics is not just another curriculum fad but an important response to the pressing need to prepare young people with higher-order abilities to deal positively and productively with 21st century global challenges (crises) that are impacting the economy, the natural environment and our diverse cultural heritage.

Recent tragic natural disasters such as the Indian Ocean earthquake (Dec. 26th, 2004) or the Great East Japan Earthquake (Mar. 11th, 2011) made us recognize that all human beings are allowed to live on the earth under the unattainable power of the nature . Especially in terms of the education for the sustainability, the nuclear power plant accident at Fukushima threatened our sustainability of current life style. Not much focus on the education of the radiation literacy and energy resource had been paid before the accident, and existing programs were mainly provided to enhance the understanding of scientific concepts, without paying much attention to the literacy and decision -making ability . In the effort of overcoming the tragedy, new orientation of such curriculum is expected to be developed. This study (1) proposes a spiral curriculum , related to radiation literacy, through which learner can get enough basis of understanding and can sharpen their inquiry ability, which leads to decision making as citizen in democratic society, and (2) reports the effect of the curriculum , after conducting a few lessons situated in the curriculum. For elementary level, we proposed inquiry activities of spectrum of sun light using prism and of invisible light (Ultraviolet) using black light and UV beads in grade 3 . For junior secondary level, we conducted the self -measurement of “invisible environment” such as carbon dioxide and radiation dose. Students recognized by themselves that their school is safe, and complained that they have been left behind without giving proper information or teaching after the tragedy.

Self-study of teaching using qualitative research methods is becoming popular amongst educational researchers in rapidly industrialising countries wishing to resolve the conflicting educational goals of preparing children for the modern world of science and technology whilst also sustaining their engagement in local cultures and languages. How can education respond creatively, ethically and meaningfully to this conflict of interests? Mohandas Ghandi famously entreated his people to “be the change you want to see in the world!” For educators undertaking postgraduate studies, transformative research into one's own teaching practice provides new methods for addressing this dilemma. Transformative research involves radical new ways of thinking and representation. Artsbased methods enable researchers to recover hidden cultural capital as they excavate their autobiographies, identify repressive practices as they politicise teaching, give voice to deep values and feelings as they explore ideals, and develop the skills and passion of professional change agents. This new paradigm research, which foregrounds the researcher’s emerging and complex subjectivity, cannot be validated in terms of the ‘gold standard’ of objectivity which regulates traditional research studies. Instead, alternative quality standards must be drawn from the interpretive, critical and postmodern paradigms which entered the educational research field over the past 30 years. In this presentation I shall draw on successfully completed doctoral studies by professional educators in Africa and Asia to provide practical examples of new research methods and their associated quality standards. The presentation will serve as an introduction to the symposium on transforming cultural landscapes.

Recently Japanese science education researchers have come under the influence of multi-paradigmatic research which has led some to rethink classical established theories of research practice. This has shifted the focus from content to research methodology. I, Hisashi Otsuji, was once deeply engaged in positivistic research using concept mapping, but am now one of those influenced by multi-paradigmatic methodologies. I am engaged in an auto/ethnographic doctoral research based on my personal upbringing within a Mahayana Buddhist background in which I investigate contemporary science education issues through my lens as a practitioner of pre-service teacher training. In the research I have explored hybrid Japanese Mahayana Buddhism which has been influenced by Chinese Taoism, and Zhuangzi, the original pre-sectarian Buddhism from India. Furthermore, I have investigated Japanese science education’s multiple theoretical layers including exploring the research interests abroad. In addition, using a survey I have inquired how the student-centered science classroom tradition has been influenced by Japanese Buddhism. I have reviewed relevant literature to identify hidden Buddhist elements in everyday classroom practice, such as ‘greeting’. I have furthermore drawn comparisons between the Japanese Buddhism concept of the Bodhisattva (a Buddha-like being) and the role of a science teacher. In this presentation I draw on my research to foreshadow a new direction for Japanese science education, arguing that being conscious of the cultural-self and positioning one’s profession culturally can lead to transformation and has the potential to sustain the individual, organization and society.

Auto-ethnographic and narrative inquiry provides opportunities for teachers to reflect the personal with a curriculum dominated identity; a human kind of offering, with research as a living guide to revelation. The relative habitat of self in the context of teaching is a topic still under review, especially as it applies to the storying of self in a collective, professional life-world and the artefacts and icons of systems. I use auto-tales and biography combined with narrative inquiry as literary devices to explore teaching as a lived experience with a human map connected to others. Storying serves as an empathetic bridge to development and invites reflexive practice as we recollect our lives in the context of experience. I explore the medium of poly-vocal writing to evoke and discuss identity among the nature of teaching, calling on crucial literature as referent voices. I explore the medium of poly-vocal writing to evoke and discuss identity among the overt and covert nature of teaching, calling on crucial literature as referent voices.

Critical self-reflection is a powerful tool in any teacher’s arsenal of survival skills. The ability to reflect critically on one’s own pedagogical practice becomes of vital importance when teachers are teaching in cross-cultural circumstances, especially when their cultural background is in the minority. Pedagogical thoughtfulness (Van Manen, 1991) is a form of critical self-reflection that requires understanding of the other’s individual life context. It is concerned with what is best for the other and involves a search for understanding experience. A potent implement for creating pedagogical thoughtfulness is autoethnographic inquiry using a narrative approach. The narrative produced enables the reader (or listener) to deeply grasp the author’s experience and relate this back to their own lived experiences, thus creating pedagogical thoughtfulness and meaningful selfreflection. In this presentation I will present examples of autoethnographic narrative that introduce the listener to the lived experiences of both Australian Aboriginal and NonAboriginal students and teachers in remote Australian cross-cultural contexts.