STEME
Science Technology Engineering Mathematics and Environmental Education Research Group
Re-imagining futures in STEME
2021 Contemporary Approaches to Research in Mathematics, Science, Health and Environmental Education Symposium
Monday 22 – Tuesday 23 November 2021
Online Symposium
Register online at CAR Symposium.
Download the Contemporary Approaches to Research Symposium 2021 to share with your colleagues.
Each year the ‘Contemporary approaches to research (CAR) in mathematics, science, health and environmental education’ symposium focuses on practical and theoretical aspects of a range of research methodologies – such as cross-cultural perspectives, activity theory, capturing complexity, classroom video analysis, quantitative methods, and interviewing – which are discussed in a lively, informal setting. The symposium in 2021 will focus on practical and theoretical aspects of research methodology (as usual) and this year we are broadening our methodological focus towards post-qualitative research.
The program will include two keynote speakers and themed sessions with short presentations and longer discussion. We do not host concurrent sessions. We all enjoy rich, friendly discussion about each presentation. In 2021 we have again moved to an online symposium and as a result the registration is free. Please register.
Our Keynote speakers have been selected to provide challenging perspective on methodology providing insights into new methodological approaches and ontologies. We are pleased to have Professor Emeritus Paul Hart and Dr. Robin Bellingham as our the Keynotes for 2021 CAR Symposium.
Presentations at the symposium will be grouped into sessions of two to four with similar methodological foci, designed to promote substantive discussion of a methodological issue. Presentations might focus on a) details and settings of the application of a methodology in ways that unpack how the methodology can operate in different contexts, or b) a particular methodological issue, problem, or strategic decision that explores or extends a methodology. The methodological issues should be broadly related to mathematics, science, health, or environmental education. The presentations should provide a grounded practitioner’s perspective.
Presentations will be 10-12 minutes in duration and should briefly outline the research question being addressed and may include the findings or likely outcomes of the research, but should focus mainly on the research methodology. Reports on work in progress are welcome but the focus is on the methodology.
Following each group of presentations, there will be the opportunity for extended discussion of the focus methodological issue, which may explore different approaches within the methodology (in research design, instruments, theoretical framing, or approaches to analysis), or different methodological approaches to a problem (for instance making sense of teacher practice, or tracking change in learners).
The program starts at 9.30am and concludes by 4.30pm each of the two days. We will host an informal book launch of the CAR Book Series at the end of the first day – 3.50pm Monday. All are welcome.
We will offer an opportunity to evaluate this symposium. The link to the online survey will be emailed during the last day of the symposium.
Expression of Interest to Present
The closing date for expressions of interest is Friday 1st October 2021. EOIs are now closed for 2021
If you are interested in presenting at this symposium please submit your expression of interest using the form below. All submissions will be acknowledged upon receipt and reviewed mid October. Expressions of Interest to Present form
Presentations
Presentations are to be a maximum of 12 minutes long (please be respectful by keeping to time). They should briefly outline the research question being addressed and may include the findings or likely outcomes of the research, but should focus mainly on the research methodology. Reports on work in progress are welcome.
Please pre-record presentations and emailed the link to peta.white@deakin.edu.au by the 17th November. The links will be included in the program and the recording will be played on the day. During the presentation the chat feature of Zoom can be used to start the conversations. Questions can be addressed by typing in the chat and in the following discussion. A feature of the CAR Symposium program is the rich and collegial discussion that follows the presentation set.
Program
Monday 22nd November 2021
Register online for the CAR Symposium – It is important to register – in case we have updates to send you. There is no cost to registering.
Zoom Link for day: https://deakin.zoom.us/j/85147419198?pwd=eTh3T1h2OHZHd2lwWmd2ekpNb0s4Zz09; Meeting ID: 851 4741 9198; Password: 04931673
Presentation abstracts are available here (alphabetical on first name)
| 9.15–9.30am | Sign In and Prepare For The Day | |
| 9.30–9.40am | Welcome and Opening Remarks | Russell Tytler |
| 9.40–10.40am
| Keynote: Post-Qualitative Possibilities for Educational Research: A sea-change in thinking-with-theory Abstract: Within contexts of climate change, ecosystem destruction and social injustice, the role of education and educational research, is being challenged by a powerful constellation of philosophical, political and ethical perspectives. Despite the growth of EE since the 1970s and its elaboration as ESD, there are calls for new theory—post-qualitative, new empiricist, new (feminist) materialist—as new ethical engagements within posthumanism. These calls foreshadow new ways of researching educational learning systems at all levels. In this short presentation, I hope to at least create openings through examples of qualitative creations that draw upon ideas and concepts from theory-oriented educational scholars. Critical discussion is required as this “sea change” in thinking differently about educational inquiry is re-conceptualized in direct relation to philosophy. Although the complexity of this crucial shift in thinking can be confusing, as one works through the shift from methodological to conceptual framings for post-qualitative creations, there are many new resources that introduce main contours of theories and concepts. These resources, increasingly found within social and educational journals, and more recently in special issues of EE journals, create new openings and beginnings. Two or three examples of post-qualitative studies will be discussed. Given the evolving context of life on earth, there can be no turning back. View Presentation | Paul Hart Paul Hart is Professor Emeritus and Adjunct Professor of Science and Environmental Education at the University of Regina, Canada. He has authored and edited many books and journal articles, served on Canadian research awards selection committees and received local, regional, national and international awards for his publications, research, and leadership in the fields of education and environmental education (EE). He has served as Executive Editor of the Journal of Environmental Education and on editorial boards for EE journals.
Chair: Peta White |
| 10.40–11.40am | Principled Position Taking | Chair: Joe Ferguson |
| Researching for system reform: Giving voice to the authoritative outsider View Presentation | Russell Tytler | |
| Cosmic Aesthetics: Harmonising varying theoretical perspectives in a thesis by publication View Presentation | Saeed Salimpour, Russell Tytler, Michael Fitzgerald, Urban Eriksson | |
| Making explicit the political & moral agenda within research methodologies View Presentation | Scott Webster | |
| 11.40–11.55am | Break | |
| 11.55–12.55am | Applying Self Study | Chair: Carly Sawatzki |
| Decentring the self in Self Study View Presentation | Bronwyn Sutton | |
| Deepening Our Scholarship through Collaborative Arts-based Autoethnography (CABAE) View Presentation | Peta White, Jo Raphael, Shelley Hannigan | |
| Collaborative self-study supporting a “peer review” mentoring process View Presentation | Joanne Vakil, Linda Hobbs | |
| 12.55-1.55pm | Lunch – meet us in the Wonder room for a chat ‘How to use‘ Wonder Room – ONLY use Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge as your browser and it doesn’t work on tablets or phones. | |
| 1.55–2.55pm | Working With Literature | Chair: Russell Tytler |
| How are the impacts of Out-of-Field Teaching represented through online content? View Presentation | Margaret Jakovac | |
| Utilising literature visualisation tools to discover new territory and get a lay of the land – Creativity in primary science education as a case View Presentation | Joseph Ferguson, Melinda Kirk | |
| Exploring teachers’ adaptive expertise in STEM: A scoping review methodology View Presentation | Lihua Xu, Kennedy Chan, Amanda Berry, Joe Ferguson, Gahyoung Kim, Jan van Driel, Colleen Vale, Wanty Widjaja | |
| 2.55-3.10pm | Break | |
| 3.10–3.40pm | Ethical Impacts | Chair: Wanty Widjaja |
| An Ethical Dilemma Inspiring Exploration into Netnography View Presentation | Emily Rochette | |
| 3.40pm | Book Launch Methodological Approaches To STEM Education Research -Volume 2 Book Series – Contemporary Approaches to Research in STEM Education | |
| 4.10pm | Close | |
Tuesday 23rd November 2021
Register online for the CAR Symposium – It is important to register – in case we have updates to send you. There is no cost to registering.
Zoom Link for day: https://deakin.zoom.us/j/85147419198?pwd=eTh3T1h2OHZHd2lwWmd2ekpNb0s4Zz09; Meeting ID: 851 4741 9198; Password: 04931673
Presentation abstracts are available here (alphabetical on first name)
| 9.15–9.30am | Sign In and Prepare For The Day | |
| 9.30–9.40am | Opening Orientation | CAR Coordinating Committee |
| 9.40–10.40am
| Keynote: Reading diffractively, decolonizing methodology Abstract: In this presentation I discuss two experiences of diffractive reading and their implications for decolonising education research. The first diffractive reading was a situated inquiry of the Great Barrier Reef as a pedagogical agent. The reading was oriented toward decolonizing pedagogies of colonial-modernity and developing a deeper engagement with pedagogical possibilities. It drew on diffracting scientific, fictional, cultural and experiential narratives of the Reef and emphasised situated, embodied experience, narrative as a material-discursive phenomenon, and Indigenous ontology. The second was an investigation reading teacher education through military imaginaries, undertaken with the aim of defamiliarizing teacher education ideology and practice in colonial-modernity. It drew on teacher education discourse and policy, and on academic and SF representations of military culture and thinking, and considered how these different disciplinary fields can in some senses be seen to be engaged in the same ideological-ontological project. In this presentation I use the two diffractive reading experiences in a further diffraction exercise. I continue the project of better understanding what it means for non-Indigenous researchers and educators to have response-able relations with eco-social systems. I attend to emergent patterns and differences of relevance to decolonizing education research including how education both co-creates and responds to ‘what matters’ in the world, and around concerns of working in education institutions in a settler-colonial present. | Robin Bellingham Dr Robin Bellingham is a Senior Lecturer in Education, Pedagogy and Curriculum at Deakin University. In her research and teaching she is interested in how methodologies and education can respond to pressing problems of modernity such as educational and political disempowerment and disengagement, the ongoing effects of colonization, and ecological crisis. Her research has explored these through different enactments and analyses of educational, democratic and ecological agency, and examination of the ethics and values that emerge through these in different contexts. She draws on different writing genres, posthumanism, and new materialism.
Chair: Joe Ferguson |
| 10.40–11.40am | Perspectives on Learning | Chair: Coral Campbell |
| The intra-body of the human and more-than-human: Opening up future methods within post-qualitative inquiry using intermedial practice View Presentation | Cassandra Tytler | |
| Cosmic Progression: Methodological challenges of building a preliminary Cosmology Learning Progression View Presentation | Saeed Salimpour, Russell Tytler, Michael Fitzgerald, Urban Eriksson | |
| Using Peirce’s Semiotics to better teach student graphing in Mathematics and Science View Presentation | John Cripps Clark, Catherine Legg, Joseph Ferguson | |
| 11.40–11.55am | Break | |
| 11.55–1.15am | Probing Deeper | Chair: Linda Hobbs |
| Physics Teacher’s perceptions on the gender gap in Physics View Presentation | Adam Masri | |
| Interviews and the Documentary Method. Collective orientations about teacher’s action practice View Presentation | Teresa Beck | |
| Representing video data in qualitative education research View Presentation | Elias Euler | |
| Narrative inquiry: quality and credibility View presentation | Ann Osman | |
| 1.15-2.15pm | Lunch – meet us in the Wonder room for a chat ‘How to use‘ Wonder Room – ONLY use Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge as your browser and it doesn’t work on tablets or phones. | |
| 2.15–3.15pm | Design With and For Teachers | Chair: Lihua Xu |
| Honouring the ethos of co-design methodology in contemporary socio-scientific teaching innovation focussed research View Presentation | Seamus Delaney | |
| Design, disruption and discomfort: Getting comfortable feeling uncomfortable View Presentation | Jill Brown, Carly Sawatzki, Wanty Widjaja | |
| Working with teachers in reform initiatives View Presentation | Russell Tytler, Peta White | |
| 3.15-3.30pm | Break | |
| 3.30-4.10pm | Researchers in Dialogue | Chair: John Cripps Clark |
| Collaborating across disciplinary lines: Generating a framework for out-of-field teachers in the Sciences, English, Design technologies and the Humanities View presentation | Linda Hobbs, Coral Campbell, Seamus Delaney, Jared Carpendale, Colleen Vale, Susan Caldis, Lucinda McKnight, Leissa Kelly | |
| Co-design in practice: a complex process of collaboration View Presentation | Coral Campbell, Linda Hobbs, Lihua Xu, Chris Speldewinde | |
| 4.10 – 4.20pm | Close of CAR 2021 | |
Registration
Register online at CAR Symposium.
Book Series – Contemporary Approaches to Research in STEM Education
All presenters are invited to submit a proposal for a written chapter of 5000 – 7000 words for consideration for publication in the Cambridge Scholars Publishing book series Contemporary Approaches to Research in STEM Education. Proposals for Volume 3 are due 29th November 2021. Accepted chapters are due 21st February 2022.
Methodological Approaches to STEM Education Research – Volume 1 and 2 will be showcased at the 2021 CAR Symposium.
CAR Coordinators
Dr. Peta White, Alfred Deakin Professor Russell Tytler, Dr. Joe Ferguson, and Dr. John Cripps Clark
Enquiries: please email Peta White (peta.white@deakin.edu.au)
Organised by the STEME Education Research Group in conjunction with the Research for Educational Impact (REDI) Centre.
Posted Feb 1, 2021
Online via Zoom (Link in program)