Abstract
This study constituted community-based, action research that sought to identify community needs and design indigenous community relevant STEAM projects in a local community of underserved students in Pakistan. This Community-Based Action Research is conducted in “The Tent School System”; a slum school in H-11 Islamabad, Pakistan. The five-phase cyclic action research process is implemented that involved: diagnosing and identifying community problems using Freirean process of generative themes, creating STEAM lesson plans for identified problems, designing useful products using lesson plans to solve problems, evaluation of this STEAM workshop and then specifying learning for next interaction of this STEAM action project. Drawing on needs assessment survey, post feedback survey and field notes, this mixed methods study explored the experiences of low-socioeconomic students participating in contextually authentic STEAM Projects. Based on the students’ feedback, it was revealed that the main sources of student engagement in this action research project were: the overall impact of these STEAM projects on their community and the skills they inculcated in them that made them capable of solving local community challenges on their own. The major strength of this study was its successful practical application of Freire’s theory of critical pedagogy for designing community relevant learning environment for the students. Key learnings of this study imply a useful example of how students can contribute their knowledge and skills to promote general community well-being. Furthermore, the fusion of critical pedagogy of place in STEAM model offers a unique pedagogical innovation to education practitioners all around the world.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
New Education Data for SDG 4 and More. UNESCO Institute of Statistics (2018)
Bridgeland, J.M., DiIulio, J.J., Morison, K.B.: The Silent Epidemic: Perspectives of High School Dropouts, p. 44 (2006)
Douglas, D.: An alarming number of teenagers are quitting school to work (2015). https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/04/16/an-alarming-number-of-teenagers-are-quitting-school-to-work-heres-how-to-help-them/
Shernoff, D.J.: Optimal learning environments to promote student engagement. Springer New York : Imprint : Springer, New York, NY (2013)
Adesoji, F.A.: National and global trend on stem education and economic development. Adv. Soc. Sci. Res. J. (2018). https://doi.org/10.14738/assrj.56.4534
Hobbs, L.: STEAM: powering the digital revolution. In: de la Garza, A., Travis, C. (eds.) The STEAM Revolution, pp. 237–246. Springer, Cham (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89818-6_16
Perignat, E., Katz, J.: STEAM in practice and research: an integrative literature review. Think. Skills Creat. 31, 31–43 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2018.10.002
Chen, C.W.J., Lo, K.M.J.: From teacher-designer to student-researcher: a study of attitude change regarding creativity in STEAM education by using Makey Makey as a platform for human-centred design instrument. J. STEM Educ. Res. 2(1), 75–91 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41979-018-0010-6
Rahmawati, Y., Ridwan, A., Hadinugrahaningsih, T., Soeprijanto: Developing critical and creative thinking skills through STEAM integration in chemistry learning. J. Phys. Conf. Ser. 1156, 012033 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/1156/1/012033
Sochacka, N.W., Guyotte, K.W., Walther, J.: Learning together: a collaborative autoethnographic exploration of STEAM (STEM + the Arts) education. J. Eng. Educ. 105, 15–42 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1002/jee.20112
Kant, J., Burckhard, S., Meyers, R.: Engaging high school girls in native american culturally responsive STEAM activities. J. STEM Educ. 18, 15–25 (2018)
Cavallo, D., Blikstein, P., Sipitakiat, A., Basu, A., Camargo, A., de Deus Lopes, R., Cavallo, A.: The city that we want: generative themes, constructionist technologies and school/social change. In: IEEE International Conference on Advanced Learning Technologies, 2004, Joensuu, Finland. Proceedings. pp. 1034–1038. IEEE (2004). https://doi.org/10.1109/ICALT.2004.1357744
Freire, P., Macedo, D.: Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 30th Anniversary Edition. Continuum (2000)
Ferguson, J.: Book review: the student guide to freire’s pedagogy of the oppressed. J. Transform. Educ. 17, 195–197 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1177/1541344618824933
Aliakbari, M., Faraji, E.: Basic principles of critical pedagogy, p. 9 (2011)
Mahmoudi, A., Khoshnood, D.A., Babaei, D.A.: Paulo Freire critical pedagogy and its implications in curriculum planning. J. Educ. Pract. 5, 8 (2014)
Greenwood, D., Levin, M.: Introduction to Action Research. SAGE Publications, Thousand Oaks (2007). https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412984614
Maguire, P.: Doing participatory research: a feminist approach (1987)
Chetty, M., Tucker, W., Blake, E.: Using voice over IP to bridge the digital divide-A critical action research approach (2009)
Blum, F.H.: Action research–a scientific approach? Philos. Sci. 22, 1–7 (1955). https://doi.org/10.1086/287381
Susman, G.I., Evered, R.D.: An assessment of the scientific merits of action research. Admin. Sci. Q. 23, 582–603 (1978)
Kiyani, M., Javed, F., Haider, I.: Designing a freirean-inspired community relevant STEAM curriculum for underserved students in Pakistan using action research process. 3152900 Bytes (2020). https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12673622
Flicker, S.: Who benefits from community-based participatory research? A case study of the positive youth project. Health Educ. Behav. (2006). https://doi.org/10.1177/1090198105285927
Funding
This study was funded by the National University of Sciences and Technology (NUST), Islamabad, Pakistan.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this paper
Cite this paper
Kiyani, M.N., Haider, I., Javed, F. (2020). Designing Freirean-Inspired Community Relevant STEAM Curriculum for Underserved Students in Pakistan Using Action Research Process. In: Huang, TC., Wu, TT., Barroso, J., Sandnes, F.E., Martins, P., Huang, YM. (eds) Innovative Technologies and Learning. ICITL 2020. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 12555. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63885-6_58
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63885-6_58
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-63884-9
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-63885-6
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)