The STEAM Agenda: Using the Arts to Create Opportunities for Learning

Julia Morris is the Visual Arts Education (Secondary) Course Coordinator at Edith Cowan University Western Australia, where she lectures in visual arts curriculum and education.

She researches within the Edith Cowan Institute for Education Research, with key research interests including student engagement, art history, and teacher education, specifically teachers’ self-efficacy and identity. Julia also promotes ongoing opportunities for teachers to sustain in the Arts, co-leading a large-scale artist-inresidence programme with Curtin University and leading the WA cohort of TAP with MGSE.

Abstract

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education has been a highly politicised agenda over the past decade. During this time STEM has been promoted as an authentic and engaging approach to education, particularly as Australia tries to boost its performance in international testing. However, STEM has recently been challenged by STEAM, where ‘art and design’ represent the ‘A’. STEAM advocates for creativity and expression to be included in STEM education so that students can develop critical and creative thinking, skills to prepare them for the global economy. In the past two years, the Edith Cowan Institute for Education Research (ECIER) has researched how the STEAM acronym is defined and applied by teachers. In addition, ECIER sought to apply STEAM education to a regional Western Australian school, where opportunities for the artistic expression and artsbased learning in STEAM gave non-mainstream students a chance to be included in learning with gifted and talented education students. In this presentation the regional school project is used as a case study to identify opportunities and challenges for STEAM education.