Responding to a Neoliberal and Epistemic STEM Curricular Philosophy

• In Event: Eco-Critical Curriculum Philosophies: Radical Social and Environmental Justice Responses to Climate Change

Abstract

This paper provides concrete critical and ethical responses to dominant educational policies in STEM Education. 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 as both a Eurocentric economic policy and a discursive episteme. Using ecocritical curricular philosophy as a framework for analysis, we describe STEM education policies and recent practices in the media, public education policy, and teacher education policy. By viewing a third strand of STEM policy, specifically apolitical curricular discourse, we suggest an ecocritical STEM education philosophy that responds to the neoliberal successes and epistemic divisions that STEM education has created.

Authors

• Mark Wolfmeyer, Kutztown University of Pennsylvania

• Nataly Z. Chesky, SUNY - College at New Paltz