STEM Education and the Contradictory Realities of School Policies

Abstract

STEM Education Reform in Urban High Schools critically examines the reality of STEM at a school level in the United States. In essence, its fundamental questions include: What actually happens in schools—and especially to students—when STEM becomes the prime focus? What happens to STEM itself? Given the intense pressures on schools, does STEM often become largely rhetorical? When there are different results, what structures, resources, and commitments explain this? The focus is on two cities—Buffalo and Denver—and on schools that have large populations of minoritized students. In this essay, I discuss the contributions that the authors make to our understandings of the complex and contradictory realities of STEM education. At the same time, I also point to a number of the criticisms of the often uncritical acceptance of STEM and STEAM educational policies and practices.