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Crossing Boundaries – Examining and Problematizing Interdisciplinarity in Science Education

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Engaging with Contemporary Challenges through Science Education Research

Part of the book series: Contributions from Science Education Research ((CFSE,volume 9))

Abstract

This chapter illustrates the opportunities and challenges of boundary crossings in STEM education. We discuss three talks presented at an invited symposium during ESERA 2019 that aimed to problematize disciplinary boundary crossings and examine the potential, affordances, challenges, and impairments to science education they entail. Each presentation examined these issues from a different vantage point, by harnessing a different methodological approach, and focusing on different facets and scales of interdisciplinarity in science education. We begin our discussion with a broad overview of the role of interdisciplinarity in science education. The analysis of boundary crossing in the three presentations is framed by Akkerman and Bakker’s (Rev Edu Res 81(2):132–169, https://doi.org/10.3102/0034654311404435, 2011) conceptualization of boundaries as dialogical phenomena, which provides a powerful analytical lens on considerations related to interdisciplinarity embedded in each project. The enactment of boundary crossings in the three projects provides concrete evidence for ways in which recent policy calls in STEM education can be materialized at the level of teaching and learning. As such, they highlight how higher order twenty-first century skills can be fostered meaningfully and constructively in education.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Making is an emerging contemporary “do it yourself” trend that capitalizes on the growing accessibility of digital fabrication tools and open source hardware and software (Dougherty, 2012). It has been argued that the Making movement has great promise for STEM education because it can lead to a democratization of knowledge in engineering and science (Blikstein, 2013), alternative pathways to engineering (Martin & Dixson, 2016), and be a venue for STEM learning that offers equitable opportunities to engage underrepresented youth (Calabrese Barton et al., 2016).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Technion – Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel

    Shulamit Kapon

  2. University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Sibel Erduran

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  1. Shulamit Kapon
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  2. Sibel Erduran
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Correspondence to Shulamit Kapon .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physics and Astronomy “A. Righi”, Alma Mater Studiorun - University of Bologna, Bologna, Italy

    Olivia Levrini  & Giulia Tasquier  & 

  2. Department of Education, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

    Tamer G. Amin

  3. Department of Mathematics “Federigo Enriques”, University of Milan, Milan, Italy

    Laura Branchetti

  4. Department of Mathematics, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan, USA

    Mariana Levin

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Kapon, S., Erduran, S. (2021). Crossing Boundaries – Examining and Problematizing Interdisciplinarity in Science Education. In: Levrini, O., Tasquier, G., Amin, T.G., Branchetti, L., Levin, M. (eds) Engaging with Contemporary Challenges through Science Education Research. Contributions from Science Education Research, vol 9. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74490-8_21

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74490-8_21

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