

October 1st, 2018, Berlin
International Symposium on Human Rights
and Equality in STEM Education
Is Access to STEM (Still) Limited?
October 1st, 2018, Berlin
International Symposium on Human Rights
and Equality in STEM Education
Is Access to STEM (Still) Limited?
Our book “The Human Rights-Based Approach to STEM Education” is published and openly accessible.
This publication has been supported by THINK ING., an education and training initiative of GESAMTMETALL, the Federation of German Employers' Associations in the Metal and Electrical Engineering Industries.
Is access to science (still) limited? This Symposium focused on continuing and expanding the human rights approach to STEM education.
Here you can find the schedule.
Here you can find some impressions.
The symposium was organized by ...
Here you will find the conference proceedings.
Berlin Declaration on the right to science* and STEM education
Certified copy of the Recommendation on Science and Scientific Researchers
Is access to science (still) limited?
In the last decades, various efforts have been made to investigate and reduce the lack of diversity in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in order to establish equal access to science. By applying the human rights approach, questions arise whether STEM education at primary, secondary and post-secondary levels is equally accessible to everyone. Particularly, the Sustainable Development Goals passed by the UN in 2015, focus on the necessity of science education as a right to be promoted: Is the access to all forms of STEM (still) limited or open to all? What barriers and social mechanisms are still limiting the access to STEM? How can gender and diversity approaches be implemented in order to achieve inclusive and non-discriminatory scientific research and STEM education?
To address these questions critically and from different perspectives, the symposium gathers international scholars from various disciplines such as STEM education, educational research, human rights, as well as gender and diversity studies. The symposium will be accompanied by workshops on gender and diversity mentoring in higher education.
The project PROMISE (Promotion of Migrants in Science Education; 2005-2007) aimed at analysing barriers which hamper the access to STEM intersectionally, especially for female students and migrants. The project established a cooperation between migrants’ countries of origin and countries of residence. Club Lise was developed in the framework of PROMISE as a mentoring program for female students and, thanks to the support of Think.ing, still remains active after 13 years. Amongst other aims, the symposium focuses on continuing and expanding the human rights approach to STEM education.
09:30 - 10:00 | Registration |
10:00 - 10:30 |
Opening Ceremony WELCOME NOTES Wolfgang Gollub (Gesamtmetall) Ursula Fuhrich-Grubert (HU Berlin)
Introduction Tanja Tajmel (Concordia University, Montréal) “Is Access to STEM (Still) Limited?” |
10:30 - 11:00 |
Keynote Speech by Nada Al-Nashif (UNESCO Paris, Assistant Director General for Natural and Social and Human Sciences) "A Human-Rights-Based Approach to Equitable Access to STEM Education" |
The fast growing science and technology activities are crucial to delivering the envisioned results of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the fulfillment of that objective requires the mobilization of the full talent, creativity and ideas of young persons from all socioeconomic strata, especially from women and girls. One area of particular attention for UNESCO has been assisting Member States in building the foundations of gender-responsive quality STEM education, including the STEM and Gender Advancement (SAGA) global project. Race, income or gender should not be the determinant factors in whether students receive strong STEM education or not. Equality in STEM education means that all persons enjoy the same status and have equal conditions, treatment, and opportunities for realizing their full potential, human rights and for contributing to and benefitting from economic, social, cultural and political development. UNESCO has proposed a holistic approach that creates a “STEM education ecosystem” to address the numerous, complex overlapping factors and identify action at multiple levels – individual, family and peers, school, and society –targeting both the socialization and learning processes.
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11:00 - 11:45 |
Petra Lucht (TU Berlin) "Transdisciplinary Gender Studies of Science, Technology and Society - Case Studies of Professional Cultures, Knowledges and Artifacts" |
In 1995, the pioneering scholar on »gender and science«, Evelyn Fox Keller, suggested to distinguish into three different perspectives: the participation of women in science, the critical investigation of sex differences and how ‚gender’ shapes scientific knowledge. Until today, similar distinctions of »gender and science« shape research and politics: Reaching gender equity in science on the one hand and establishing research policies for investigating gender embedded into scientific knowledge on the other hand. In the presentation, it will be highlighted how gender studies have been broadened in scope. Also science policies have undergone transformations. The sciences face diverse tasks to investigate societal challenges. As a result transdisciplinary approaches are being favored for working towards solutions of these problems. As a consequence, questions and concepts might become integrated into science that initially arose outside of academia. In this view, gender studies might be viewed as a genuinely transdisciplinary discipline. Finally, three perspectives of transdisciplinary gender studies in science will be presented: (1) transformations of scientific cultures with regard to gender, (2) changes of scientific knowledge through critical studies of unquestioned assumptions about gender and (3) creating transformative artifacts through integrating gender studies approches into the development of technology.
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11:45 - 12:30 |
Lamija Tanović (Humanity in Action, Sarajevo) "Impact of Post-War Politics on Education in Bosnia-Herzegovina" |
The education system in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the best example of how war, in addition to damaging other spheres of life in the war zone, can have a tragic impact on education. In addition to war, however, the education system in BiH has been harmed by the social transition of the past twenty-five years. Namely, the period of war and post-war reconstruction was also a period of transition from a socialist to a capitalist system, which has created the conditions for discrimination and social inequality in education too. The post-war period has been marked by a loss of quality staff in schools and at universities. Many left not so much during the war as after the war, after years of waiting in vain for the newly founded capitalist society to do something on the reconstruction and strengthening of education. The opposite happened. The newly founded capitalist society first privatized the factories and destroyed them and then discovered education as an area for making a profit. Many private universities and schools were established, which not only did not provide a better education but devolved education by providing diplomas in place of knowledge.
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12:30 - 13:30 |
Lunch Break & Poster Session |
13:30 - 14:15 |
Barbara Herzog-Punzenberger (Universität Innsbruck/ JKU Linz) "Regional, Social and Migratory Differences in Math Competences - Inequalities in the Context of Austrian Secondary Schools" |
The analysis of standardized test-data of 8 graders in mathematics in Austria (2012) reveils a clear picture concerning structural limitations. The hierarchy of disadvantage mirrors the different educational profiles of parents. In big cities‘ schools "German-only" pupils yield much higher average math competences than in small villages' schools. This was surprising as in the public discourse everything seems much more unproblematic in the countryside without migrant pupils. The fact however is that in big cities 60% of mothers from „German-only“ pupils have higher education certificates while in small villages‘ schools the share is 34%. We do find the same pattern in the hierarchy among pupils with foreign-born parents. While three quarters of Polish mothers of those 8 graders brought along a higher education certificate (Matura/Abitur or more) and their scores are comparatively high, the opposite was true for Turkish mothers where three quarters left school after compulsory duration or even less and the score was much lower. These structural limitations set children from (immigrant) parents who themselves had less chance to experience fruitful math learning and struggle with difficult living conditions at a very odd place. Additionally, those children are found much more frequently in kindergartens and later on in classrooms with high shares of disadvantaged children in the lower track of secondary one which increases the risk of becoming a weak math pupil in Austria considerably. What all these observations have in common is the selective nature of the Austrian educational system which not only has negative effects for multilingual, migrant pupils but also for monolingual „German-only“ pupils particularly in schools in smaller municipalities.
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14:15 - 15:00 |
Münire Erden (Yeditepe University Istanbul) and Seval Fer (Hacettepe University Ankara) "Access to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics in Turkey" |
STEM education is an inter-disciplinary approach to teaching and learning by transferring and applying in both academic and real-world contexts. With a discipline-integrated and student-centered approach, STEM curriculum and instruction promotes active, collaborative, and meaningful learning to students via interdisciplinary work and project-based learning in using real-world contexts. The main aim of STEM education is to increase the STEM interest and knowledge of students in Turkey. With this aim, the major challenges in implementing STEM education in schools is the integration of science, technology, engineering and mathematics knowledge and applications into curriculum and instruction with an integrated curricular approach in the schools. Although, recently, MoNE (the Ministry of National Education in Turkey), Universities and other institutions are interested in improving STEM education, however, much is needed such as integration of curricula as well as extra-curricular activities. The presentation addresses the question of what STEM education in elementary, secondary, as well as university courses in Turkey is. STEM centers established in Turkey will also be mentioned. The presentation will be concluded by research findings in Turkey regarding STEM. |
15:00 - 15:30 |
Plenary Discussion; Final Declaration |
Moderation: Klaus Starl (Graz), UNESCO Category II Centre for the Promotion of Human Rights at Local Level |
15:30 - 16:00 |
Coffee Break |
16:00 - 17:30 |
Workshop 1 "Geschlechtergerechtigkeit in STEM - Positionierungen im Alltag" (Petra Lucht, TU Berlin) |
Im Workshop werden Ergebnisse aus der „Fachkulturforschung“ zu impliziten Geschlechterpolitiken in der alltäglichen Praxis der Arbeitswelt und des Studienalltags sowie zu Geschlechterpolitiken, die durch die „Generierung wissenschaftlichen Wissens“ und durch „Technikgestaltung“ in der alltäglichen Lebenswelt wirksam werden, vorgestellt. Hiervon ausgehend können die Teilnehmer_innen am Workshop sich auf Spurensuche zu Geschlechterpolitiken von Naturwissenschaft und Technik in ihrem eigenen Alltag begeben: Wie werden Fördermaßnahmen für Mädchen und Frauen diskutiert und wahrgenommen? Welche Ein- und Ausschlussmechanismen sind in Schule, Studium und Beruf nach wie vor wirksam? Tragen naturwissenschaftliches Wissen und Technikentwicklungen zu Geschlechterstereotypisierungen von alltäglichen Lebenswelten bei – und wenn ja inwiefern? Wie könnten diese so (um-)gestaltet werden, dass sie geschlechtergerechte, vielfältige Lebenswelten ermöglichen? Der Workshop gibt Einblicke in eine integrierte Vorgehensweise für Forschung und Entwicklung, die für eine explizite und Integration von Gender- und Diversityaspekten in Natur- und Technikwissenschaften sensibilisiert und diese befördern kann. |
16:00 - 17:30 |
Workshop 2 "Diskriminierungskritisches Mentoring als trilemmatische Aushandlung" - Aspekte diskriminierungskritischer Lehre und der Transfer ins Praxisfeld Mentoring" (Maisha Auma, Hochschule Magdeburg-Stendal) |
In diesem Workshop werden Hochschullehre (die didaktische Praxis) und Mentoring (gezielte Strategien der Barrierenlinderung) zusammengedacht. Unter Anwendung eines diskriminierungskritischen Zugangs werden sie danach befragt welche Möglichkeiten sie beinhalten die Teilhaberechte von mehrfachmarginalisierten MINT-Studierende sichtbar zu machen und stetig zu erhöhen. Hochschullehre und Mentoring intervenieren in Verhältnisse von Differenz, Dominanz und Diversität. Ausgehend von dem Trilemma Model (Trilemma der Inklusion, Mai-Ahn Boger, 2015) werden wir gemeinsam die spannungsreiche Anerkennung von unterschiedlich hohen Diskriminierungsrisiken nachvollziehen. Wir werden nachvollziehen welche Möglichkeiten es gibt soziale Räume die Homogenität reproduzieren zu irritieren und in Bewegung zu bringen, um sie anschließend zu transformieren. Dazu werden wir die drei politischen Transformationsansätze des Trilemma Models kennenlernen nämlich; der Ansatzpunkt des Empowerment, der Ansatzpunkt der Normalisierung und der Ansatzpunkt der Dekonstruktion. Unsere didaktische und Mentoringpraxis werden wir gemeinsam auf dieser Grundlage einschätzen und reflektieren. |
16:00 - 17:30 | PROMISE Committee Meeting |
19:00 | Lise Mentoring Networking Dinner |
The symposium was organized by