Slowing Down the Bandwagon: Pause and Reflect on STEM and Inclusion

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 28
  In Roundtable Session: Science for All: Equitable Science Education for Students With Disabilities

Abstract

Current trends in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)
education has given rise to a bandwagon effect resulting in a plethora of STEM initiatives, programs, and products (Rodriguez 2015). The attention drawn to STEM as a metaphoric ‘magic bullet’ to improve the positionality of the US among its global competitors is problematic. We argue that it is time to re-think certain aspects of this bandwagon’s magic bullet rhetoric. In doing so, we use this theoretical presentation to examine what ails the nature of public schooling, we must include what ‘education for all’ means for students labeled with disabilities. We turn to the promise of inclusive teacher education to pursue equity and ethical education for all, in STEM and beyond.

Authors

• Sumi Hagiwara, Montclair State University

• Phillip Andrew Boda, Stanford University