Knowledge Generation in STEM and STEAM Education: Integrative Thinking and Agency

This book examines how integrative practices are conceived, described, and taught within the context of STEA+M education. STEA+M education is far more than a disciplinary expansion of STEM education; it is a paradigmatic shift in educational purpose and practice, offering a framework for rethinking how knowledge is produced, whose voices are legitimised, and what purposes education serves.  The authors argue that teachers must not only understand the knowledge and skills of a specialist discipline but also understand how to integrate and synthesise knowledge in a cross-disciplinary fashion between several disciplines simultaneously. For teachers to effectively integrate multiple educational domains, they must engage students in integrative STEA+M thinking practices such as inquiry-based learning, student agency, and neo-twenty-first century skills. This must occur not only within, but also across, disciplines in an integrated manner, whether this involves multi-, inter-, or trans-disciplinary approaches. This skill is defined as integrative inquiry literacy.