Abstract
This chapter introduces the Beautiful Midden Field School Syllabus (BMFSS), an arts-led situated syllabus developed for students aged 16–18 years. Emerging from a short pilot project, the resulting syllabus integrates the extensive experience of an arts practitioner working with a range of media and diverse contexts, at the intersection of arts, technology, science and education. The BMFSS was developed to address limitations within STEAM education such as the need for a culturally situated approach, the inclusion of indigenous pedagogy, multiple world views and a systemic design-thinking perspective that integrates science.
The chapter is organised in three main sections. First, the chapter discusses the transition from STEM arts to STEAM education. This is followed by an introduction to the evolution of contemporary arts practice beyond traditional genres such as painting and sculpture, outlining the potential of, and insights from, emergent arts practices for STEAM. This serves to support the evolution between STEM arts and STEAM education through the inclusion of ecological design thinking, contemporary arts training and the integration of science themes. Finally, the chapter presents an overview of the core BMFSS syllabus, its rationale and methods. Central to the BMFSS is the permaCultural resilience (pCr) framework, (McKeown 2015) which integrates theory and practice to develop a systemic transdisciplinary approach to learning that is creative, situated and embeds eco-social justice at its core. The resulting syllabus, adaptive for age and ability, forms the basis of a model of praxis for a situated approach to STEAM education.
In conclusion, the chapter makes the case for an emergent, integrated STEAM syllabus, informed by an artist | educator’s active engagement over 24 years with the complexity of a situated approach to teaching and learning.
Artist | educator is used to indicate an integrated role that embeds education within arts projects, formally and informally as integral to the production of the resulting artworks.
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Notes
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The elected overseer of a managed irrigation system known as an acequia, of which there are over 800 in New Mexico..
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Originally employed to refer to a system of agricultural and social design principles simulating or directly employing the patterns and features observed in natural ecosystems, the term permaculture was expanded to stand also for ‘permanent culture’, since it was understood that social aspects were integral to a truly sustainable system. The use of a capital C in permaCultural resilience denotes the shift from a focus on growing food towards an intervention into culture to provide a systemic framework for use within public art practice.
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Dyer’s research gathered data from 500 business innovators and over 5000 executives in 75 countries.
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Forty-two states adopted the Common Core Standards, which initially only covered English and maths. Since adoption three states have decided to repeal or reform them. In an attempt to create a national standard, the adoption of Common Core has been tied into schools’ funding streams. The current administration plans to abolish the standards but as yet nothing has been confirmed.
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McKeown, A. (2019). From STEM to STEAM at the Beautiful Midden Field School: An Artist/Educator Perspective. In: de la Garza, A., Travis, C. (eds) The STEAM Revolution . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89818-6_8
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