STEM Education: International Perspectives in STEM Education

Curriculum reform globally has called for the teaching and learning of STEM in PK-12 settings. This has implications for research in STEM globally. Education for global citizenship implies shifts from traditional approaches to instruction and learning that reflect effective links between the content to be studied and competencies to be acquired, while attending to relevant local and global issues. Global citizenship and sustainability are aspects of global competencies with emphasis on developing transferable competencies among learners and improving links between classroom STEM learning in the community and workplaces. Issues can be global in scope and scientific in nature with wide implications across varied contexts. For example, climate change, water pollution, depletion of water and energy resources, pandemics, and biotechnologies used to design genetically modified organisms are pan-relevant and contextually anchored topics regardless of jurisdiction internationally. Responses to global challenges require a STEM curriculum that promotes the development of STEM literacy in learners and fosters informed citizenship through participation in decision-making processes focused on positive futures for local and global communities. This chapter provides an overview of some international perspectives in STEM education and recommendations for future curricular arrangements that focus on important global STEM topics.