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Tan, Aik-Ling
- PublicationOpen AccessTheorizing STEM leadership: Agency, identity, and communitySTEM education, when perceived as integrated learning that encompasses knowledge, skills and practices of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, points to a need to re-examine ways of classification of school subjects and learning. Consequently, dilemmas related to integrated STEM education arise. School leaders are faced with the task to organize teams to address issues such as the ownership of STEM, identity issues such as STEM teacher or teacher of STEM subjects, evaluation of STEM programs and resources to support STEM education. The unique characteristics of integrated disciplines demand leaders who understand the unique characteristics and demands of each discipline and to apply them to build a synergistic platform to magnify the similarities and harness the differences for learning. In this paper, we present an argument for STEM leadership to focus on building STEM teachers’ agency, identity and sense of belonging to a community. These three aspects are important for meaningful planning, enactment and sustainability of STEM programs since teachers’ beliefs, intentions, actions and empowerment are known to be instrumental in the success of many educational reforms.
145 60 - PublicationEmbargoProfessional growth of STEM teachers: Viewing from Entrepreneurial Frame
This paper examines professional growth of a STEM teacher from the entrepreneurial frame. Using a personal narrative together with a STEM/science lesson package developed by the participant teacher, we unpack a teacher’s professional growth by interpreting her beliefs and actions using characteristics of entrepreneurial thinking. Our analysis and interpretations revealed that risk-taking forms of behaviour manifest as willingness to take calculated risks to make ‘cold’ calls to different organisations to request sharing or learning opportunities. The motivation to succeed stems from a belief that STEM education can improve the lives of students and that all students can learn. Passion for the discipline of STEM and personal beliefs to uplift students propel the teacher to persevere in her professional development despite busy schedules and conflicting demands of school and home. This study and its findings bring a fresh perspective to the idea of teacher agency from an entrepreneurial lens positioning teachers as self-empowered as compared to individuals who depended on the system to provide enablers for professional growth in the teaching profession. While self-empowerment to enact a curriculum is catalytic, teachers’ capacity for change is circumscribed by teachers’ capacity to act and accumulate practical knowledge. These entrepreneurial actions of successful STEM teachers could be used to facilitate teacher reflection on their professional journey. As the narrative approach sought to present an in-depth examination of the relationship between entrepreneurial thinking and teacher professional growth, the generalisability power of the assertions made is limited. The entrepreneurial thinking framework together with narratives from successful teachers enable teachers to locate where they are in their personal professional development and where they can aspire to move towards in their personal goal settings. Future research can examine teachers’ levels of entrepreneurial thinking and compare them against narratives of their professional growth to distil the behaviours that could lead to growth of entrepreneurial thinking. Curriculum leaders can also use the ideas of entrepreneurial thinking for professional growth to counsel and coach their team.
13 14 - PublicationOpen Access“It feels different when blindfolded”: Developing social empathy through inclusive designs in STEMNarratives about STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education are strongly connected with conversations about developing learners' humanistic knowledge and their ability to listen with understanding and empathy. This is challenging because learners need to find resonance through first-hand contextual experiences with the issues at hand. In this paper, we describe and discuss an activity that was enacted to actively engage 74 teachers from Thailand in constructing a prototype cutting device for the blind to prepare food themselves. This activity underscores important considerations for inclusive design and offers affordances for teachers to develop their learners' inclusive mindsets. Findings were generated from voice recordings of reflections and written reflections collected after the activity. We highlight the importance of creating opportunities for learning to listen and resonate with others' experiences and argue that such STEM activities can offer a platform for learners to develop humanistic qualities such as social empathy.
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