Finding the Humanities in STEM: Anthropological Reflections from Working at the Intersection

Humanities and Social Sciences in Relation to Sustainable Development Goals and STEM Education

“…Without humanities and social sciences disciplines, the recognition of actors and motivations will be poor, generic, and based on prejudgments, focusing on the concrete and evident and limiting the definition of the problem to only a few dimensions. It is restrictive to think that we can develop scientific understanding within the limits of STEM [2] (p. 62-63) [4] (p. 12) [8] (p. 997) [12] (p. 2) [13].…”

“…The necessity of the participation of HASS disciplines in STEM education has been well established [2][3][4]14] [12] (p. 7), but in practice, this idea is no more than wishful thinking, rather than something commonplace [3]. In higher education institutions, despite institutional attempts to the contrary, STEM subjects and HASS methods are still thought of as opposite sides of a dichotomy.…”

“…The opinions and information obtained was recorded in such a manner that human subjects cannot be identified, directly or through identifiers linked to the subjects; and, do not implied place the responders at risks of criminal or civil liability, financial harmful, employability, or reputation. The survey was applied in educational context and correspond to the category 2 of Exemption accordingly to 45 CFR 46 104 (d) (2).…”

“…Specifically, the article seeks to (1) understand the elements that are common in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) education, Education for Sustainable Development (ESD), and the Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences (HASS) disciplines; (2) analyze these relationships in higher-education settings when dealing with a global sustainability challenge and its impact at the dimension of local everyday life; and, (3) evaluate how to integrate these principles in the actual classroom in order to achieve real interdisciplinarity between STEM and HASS in favor of ESD.…”

“…Arguably, understanding the relationship between knowledge and the complexities of people s everyday lives is where the inclusion of topics and methods from the social sciences and humanities become necessary. Although the need for the inclusion of humanities and social sciences in STEM education has been well established [2][3][4], in practice, this idea is more of a politically correct statement than an actual policy [3] (p. 11). The lack of a common conceptualization about how to integrate the disciplines [5] (p. 598), [6] (p. 11) makes it difficult to actually integrate them in the classroom or in other educational environments.…”