‘STEM’ education initiatives have garnered significant attention since the beginning of the twenty-first century. Those initiatives are often positioned as vital for preparing students to tackle significant societal and environmental problems. However, likely due to significant influences of dominant sociotechnical dispositifs, most STEM education efforts continue to be narrowly focused on procuring students with technical skills. In this chapter, we report on work that we have conducted with Middle School students that contests dominant approaches to STEM education. In an after-school context, we guided students in conducting critical inquiries into technologies that they found meaningful and influential in their lives. Our goal was to help students develop “technoskeptical” ways of thinking by analyzing the unintended effects of technologies on people and the environment. We also guided students in imagining alternative technological futures that would address the issues they identified during their inquiries. Through our approach, we established foundational practices that support students’ pursuit of socially and environmentally just futures.

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Imagining Just Futures by Thinking Critically About Technology: An Approach in the Informal STEM Education Context

  • Jacob Pleasants,
  • Aaron Cavazos

摘要

‘STEM’ education initiatives have garnered significant attention since the beginning of the twenty-first century. Those initiatives are often positioned as vital for preparing students to tackle significant societal and environmental problems. However, likely due to significant influences of dominant sociotechnical dispositifs, most STEM education efforts continue to be narrowly focused on procuring students with technical skills. In this chapter, we report on work that we have conducted with Middle School students that contests dominant approaches to STEM education. In an after-school context, we guided students in conducting critical inquiries into technologies that they found meaningful and influential in their lives. Our goal was to help students develop “technoskeptical” ways of thinking by analyzing the unintended effects of technologies on people and the environment. We also guided students in imagining alternative technological futures that would address the issues they identified during their inquiries. Through our approach, we established foundational practices that support students’ pursuit of socially and environmentally just futures.