Transformative STEAM Education as a Praxis-Driven Orientation

Abstract

This paper reflects my orientation on transformative STEAM educational theory and praxis in my doctoral research journey. It attempts to address the need for innovative approaches to transformative learning in response to the question—how are the agendas of the transformative praxis aligned with transformative STEAM education? Likewise, this paper brings the discourse of new approaches to transformative STEAM education by bridging the gap between philosophy, theory, and practice. Again, positing myself within critical social theories, transformative STEAM education is a host of the pedagogical engagements with theoretical roots in critical pedagogies and/or paradigms. The paper further highlights some of the ranges of theoretical perspectives, which are aligned with Habermas (1972), Freire (1996), Kincheloe et al. (2011), and Mezirow (1981, 1991, 2000, 2003) by challenging the standard normative ideological frameworks such as efficiency, effectiveness, and improvements. In this line, my notion of the transformative praxis covers the dimensions of the theory (e.g., explore), values (e.g., community values), and practices (e.g., capabilities and services). These dimensions representations pursue change while implementing culturally responsive pedagogies and addressing humanitarian crises. In this way, I tried to explain that, in the context of praxis-driven transformative STEAM education, praxis is the ego turning into itself, and practice is the ego turning to others. The paper landed by arguing the agendas of equity, empowerment, social justice, authentic learning, meaningful learning, meaning center learning, and humanizing education based on theoretical perspectives and critical pedagogies, considering the discourse of STEM metaphorically as "Avidya" and STEM with Kala as "Vidhya".