Eric.ed.gov – Teaching EcoJustice in STEM Methods Courses

This article provides concrete critical and ethical responses to dominant educational policies promoting the teaching of STEM fields. Recognizing how dominant discourses of modernity (Martusewicz, et al. 2015) work discursively to constitute STEM, this paper examines and exposes how STEM education is prioritized via funding in teacher education. As well, STEM is prioritized throughout state teacher licensure policies, to the effect that, e.g., all licensed elementary teachers are required to take STEM methods courses. This article provides an example whereby the space that mainstream STEM creates can then be appropriated for radical, EcoJustice Education (Martusewicz et al., 2015). Specifically, this paper shares conceptual research theorizing the inclusion of Ecojustice Education in elementary science methods and elementary math methods courses. Building on the work of social justice education, this article presents several practical considerations for including an EcoJustice perspective. Furthermore, the article suggests the complexities and tensions arising when methods courses include foundations topics. Ultimately, the author suggests and shares a curriculum for methods courses that provides teacher candidates the opportunity to consider mathematics and science content’s usefulness through exposure to a critique of the global marketplace and opens students to a potential for releasing the imagination for social and ecological change.