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Strengthening the nation’s technological workforce, competing and expanding its relevance in the global economy, and maintaining personal as well as homeland security will be highly dependent on the quantity, quality, and diversity of the next generations of scientists, engineers, technologists, and mathematicians. Production of a diverse generation of human resources with relevant, competitive skills is critical. However, so too is the need to raise an enlightened citizenry with cross-cultural experience and cultural awareness competency, with a broad worldview and global perspectives. These requirements are critical to understanding the challenges and opportunities of scholarly activity in a pluralistic global environment and positioning ourselves to capitalize upon them. Scholars with cross-cultural experience and competency are empowered to adapt and work collaboratively, nationally and globally, with scholars of different races, geopolitical, socioeconomic, and cultural backgrounds. Development of effective strategies to transform science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) departments for inclusion and to broaden the participation in STEM across cultures, socioeconomic standing, race, and gender in higher education has been a dominant topic of pedagogical interest of national priority in the last several decades. However, success in these endeavors is achievable only through systemic change and a cultural shift to address the underlying root causes of socioeconomic disparity, gender, and racial disparities and a paucity of cultural awareness among all educational stakeholders. STEM departments can only be truly transformed for inclusion through the development of sensitive, creative, and student-engaging curricula and targeted recruitment and retention of underrepresented minorities in STEM. Formation of well-coordinated alliances spanning educational sectors, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and community engagement and outreach are also critical to promoting inclusive and broad participation in STEM education.

The first section of the chapter gives an introduction to various challenges, obstacles, and hindrances that prevent a successful transformation of K–12 science education as well as STEM departments in higher education for inclusion. The second section discusses historical perspectives of the University of Arkansas-Fort Smith (UAFS) – the institutional profile, missions, and visions of UAFS as a regional university. Policies and strategies for addressing the socioeconomic disparity, faculty gender, and racial disparities and cultural competency awareness at UAFS are also highlighted in this section. Other approaches including targeted efforts to recruit and retain underrepresented minority students, provision of financial assistance for students from low-income families, and a creative “Math-up” curriculum innovation to promote inclusive and broad participation in STEM at UAFS are highlighted in the latter section of the chapter. Formation of alliances between UAFS, local K–12 school districts, and governmental and non-governmental agencies to promote broad participation in STEM at UAFS are discussed. The last section of the chapter provides recommendations for adaptation and sustainability of strategies and efforts aimed at transforming national STEM departments for inclusion.

Understanding social studies programs at science, technology, mathematics and engineering (STEM) schools is becoming increasingly important as the number of STEM schools grows. This study undertook a qualitative investigation into social studies programs at two STEM high schools. Interviews from social studies teachers, principals, and students were transcribed, coded, and analyzed. Additional data was collected through observation and document analysis. Findings highlighted social studies teachers’ perceptions that a strong social studies curriculum is essential to STEM education; the opportunities of interdisciplinary and technology integration afforded to social studies STEM teachers; and some of the challenges of teaching social studies in a STEM school. The researcher discusses the implications of these findings for stakeholders in the social studies to ensure citizens are equipped with the needed skill, knowledge, and dispositions to compete in a global and multicultural age.

This study analyzed articles from India, Italy and Singapore regarding how science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education is conceptualized in the K-12 setting. The research questions that guided our study were as follows: (1) How is K-12 STEM education conceptualized in literature in other countries? (2) Which STEM subject areas are more documented in K-12 STEM literature? (3) How are K-12 STEM teaching practices implemented?

This study utilized a systematic literature review methodology by (1) creating search terms based on the research questions, (2) choosing databases in which to conduct the search, (3) conducting the search and gathering articles and (4) selecting articles based on inclusion criteria. We chose search terms according to three domains relevant to our study as follows: countries of interest, content of interest and teaching practices. Articles researched were (1) an empirical journal article or literature review; (2) primarily focused on the concept of K-12 STEM teaching practices in one of the countries of interest and (3) written in English.

Findings from the study revealed few articles addressed a conceptualization of STEM; however, the majority of articles agreed upon the importance of STEM teaching methods in the K-12 classroom setting. Science was documented as the top documented area in K-12 STEM literature for India and Italy, whereas technology and mathematics were the top documented areas in Singapore. Comparing K-12 STEM teaching practices, Italy and Singapore were found to focus more on student-centered STEM teaching practices whereas schools in India mostly utilized student-centered teaching approaches.

The parameters of the systematic literature review, such as key terms used in the search and limited scope of countries investigated, were identified as limitations of the study. By expanding search parameters to include other countries or search terms, STEM education can be viewed on a more global scale.

This study will improve the global perspective of STEM education practices.

This study is unique in that it compared the conceptualization and K-12 STEM teaching practices implemented in India, Italy and Singapore.

This study investigates national trends in students’ science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) occupational expectations by using Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) 2000, 2003, and 2006 data. The analyses in this study revealed several noteworthy national trends in STEM occupational expectations. In many countries students’ computing or engineering (CE) occupational expectations changed between PISA 2000 and PISA 2006, while students’ health service (HS) occupational expectations remained constant. In particular, many developed countries experienced downward national trends in CE occupational expectations among top performers in science. This study also found gender differences in national trends in STEM occupational expectations. In many countries boys’ CE occupational expectations decreased between PISA 2000 and PISA 2006, while girls’ occupational expectations remained unchanged in both CE and HS fields. Finally, the gender gaps in CE occupational expectations converged in many countries, but this convergence was not due to increases in CE occupational expectations among girls, but rather decreases in expectations among boys. Because one of the policy goals in many countries is to promote engagement in STEM education and occupations among students, especially academically talented students, the current findings – national declines in CE occupational expectations among top academic performers – will most likely be viewed as problematic in several countries. Future research should use data collected over longer periods to investigate whether students’ interest in STEM education and occupations increased or decreased in a variety of countries, and whether these patterns varied by student characteristics and performance levels. Moreover, future research must focus on factors that can explain the national trends in student interest in STEM education and occupations.

We focus our study on children of immigrants in science, technology, math, and engineering (STEM) fields because children of immigrants represent a diverse pool of future talent in those fields. We posit that children of immigrants may have a higher propensity to prepare for entering STEM fields, and our analysis finds some evidence to support this conjecture. Using the National Education Longitudinal Study (NELS: 88-00) and its restricted postsecondary transcript data, we examine three key milestones in the STEM pipeline: (1) highest math course taken during high school, (2) initial college major in STEM, and (3) bachelor’s degree attainment in STEM. Using individual level NELS data and country-level information from UNESCO and NSF, we find that children of immigrants of various countries of origin, with the exception of Mexicans, are more likely than children of natives to take higher-level math courses during high school. Asian and white children of immigrants are more likely to complete STEM degrees than third-generation whites. Drawing on theories of immigrant incorporation and cultural capital, we discuss the rationales for these patterns and the policy implications of these findings.

This paper investigated the impact a camp on informal science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) had on students' perceptions of STEM fields and careers.

A quasiexperimental design was used to assess students' perceptions toward STEM fields and careers. Secondary students (n = 57) who participated in the STEM summer camp completed STEM projects, went on lab tours and attended panels during the one- or two-week residential camps. Students completed a STEM Semantics survey to assess their perceptions prior to and after attending the camp. Descriptive statistics, Cohen's d effect sizes, paired sample t-tests and Pearson's correlation were conducted to analyze the data.

Results suggested that although there was no significant change in students' dispositions toward each individual STEM field, there was a statistically significant improvement of students' perceptions of STEM careers (p = 0.04; d = 0.25). Furthermore, the results of the Pearson's correlation indicated that there was a statistically significant positive association between perceptions of a STEM career and perceptions in science, mathematics and engineering.

This suggests that various components of the informal learning environment positively contributed to students' perceptions toward STEM careers. Implications from the study indicate that when students are engaged in hands-on science or STEM PBL activities and have opportunities to be exposed to various STEM careers, their perceptions of STEM pathways will improve.

These results may influence future curriculum and the organization of future STEM camps by encouraging teachers and camp directors to integrate practical hands-on STEM projects and expose students to potential STEM pathways through lab tours and panels of STEM professionals.

The White House Initiative: Educate to Innovate (2009) outlines the need for school age children (P-12) to focus more intentionally on Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math or STEM. The arts and other developmentally appropriate activities (i.e., blocks, painting, music, etc.) are added to STEM to create STEAM. Specifically, this chapter focuses on Technology, Engineering, and the Arts within the contexts of Science and Mathematics in the early childhood setting. By allowing children the time to explore and create, young children will wonder about the world around them. The chapter concludes with suggestions for early childhood professionals to create environments (physically, temporally, and interpersonally) that encourage and expand the STEM principles.

Research studies indicate African American males face multiple and reinforcing obstacles by choosing to pursue science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) related majors and professions. Though participation in STEM fields has increased, African American males remain underrepresented in STEM academic programs and occupations as a whole, and in the computing sciences specifically. In the STEM field of computing sciences, isolation, inadequate advisement, among other complex factors, perpetuate the underrepresentation and low persistence of African American males in academic programs. Utilizing viable social identity and communities of practice as theoretical underpinnings, this qualitative study into the lives of aspiring and current African American male computer scientists produced findings that illuminate the significance of what I call STEMfluences, or social interactions that promote socialization, STEM identity, confidence, and success in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics related disciplines like the computing sciences, and promote persistence through degree attainment in homogeneous, unwelcoming STEM academic environments. These STEMfluences are social constructs that include positive peer interactions and modeling, parental and familial nurturing, and multifaceted mentorship.

Research often neglects the full continuum of the STEM pipeline in terms of underserved and underrepresented populations. African American males, in particular, experience limited access, opportunity, and preparation along STEM trajectories preK-12. The purpose of this paper is to challenge this gap by presenting examples of preK-12 programs that nurture and promote STEM development and learner outcomes for underrepresented populations.

A culturally responsive, asset-based approach emphasizes the importance of leveraging out-of-school practices that shape African-American males learning experiences. From a practitioner standpoint, the need to understand the importance of developing a STEM identity as a conduit to better improve STEM outcomes for African-American males is discussed.

To respond to the full continuum of the pipeline, the authors highlight the role of families and STEM programs that support African-American male students’ STEM identity development generally with an emphasis on how particular out-of-school programs (e.g. The Children’s Museum of Memphis [CMOM], MathScience Innovation Center [MSiC]) cultivate STEM trajectories. The authors conclude with how preK-12 settings can collaborate with local museums and other agencies to create opportunities for greater access and improve the quality of African-American males’ STEM preparation.

The intellectual value of our work lies in the fact that few studies have focused on the importance of examining the full continuum of the STEM pipeline with a particular emphasis on STEM development in early childhood (preK-3). Similarly, few studies have examined the role of identity construction and meaning-making practices as a conduit to better STEM outcomes for African-American males prek-12.

On February 18, 2021, the NASA Perseverance rover traveled 292.5 million miles, safely landing on Mars, proving the power of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) in accomplishing such a historical feat. Glaringly absent from the photos, tweets, and commentaries showing NASA's team celebrations, however, are African American males. Their absence gives rise to the question “Where are the Black males?” – not just in NASA's celebratory photos, but in STEM-related careers altogether. Perhaps even more important questions are “What K-12 systems are in place that exclude Black males from being prepared – academically and socially – for careers with NASA and the like? And what strategies are necessary to engage them in STEM education?”

In this chapter, the author offers a historical overview of the STEM contributions offered by Black males, while explaining the competition of academic identity and Black male identity in successful school experiences. Four K-12 education barriers that derail African American males from their STEM trajectory are highlighted. As a conclusion, strategies to engage Black males in developing and nurturing an early interest in STEM are offered.