Jointly published book urges teachers to use critical pedagogies in STEM education

The STEM Education Hub – a project run by King’s College London and the British Council Brazil – collaborated with the University of Cambridge to edit the book. The authors came together last night to celebrate its publication and further discuss the need for teachers to take a social justice approach to teach science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM).

In Critical Pedagogies in STEM Education: Ideas and experiences from Brazil and the UK, the international educators address issues of gender inclusion, decolonisation and racism in STEM teaching and professional settings. They aim to close the gap between research practice, academic debate and classroom practice on these topics by discussing tools that will help teachers develop their own ways of implementing critical pedagogies in their lessons, so that the STEM class can become a space to fight injustices, reduce inequalities and end oppression.

This is part of a wider set of activities led by the STEM Education Hub over the last few years to democratise critical pedagogies. It included an international seminar as well as Girls in STEM workshops, which provided training on gender inclusion to educators in Brazil.

Dr Arthur Galamba, Lecturer in Science Education at the School of Education, Communication & Society at King’s, said: “We are very excited about this publication! This is the first bilingual publication of a critical pedagogy book in STEM education, written to schoolteachers.”

Developing critical pedagogies in school is challenging, as teachers might not understand what it is or can’t figure out what it should look like in practice. The book aims to address those challenges and we hope will support teachers to rethink their teaching.

Dr Arthur Galamba, Lecturer in Science Education, School of Education, Communication & Society