A3 Book section, Chapters in research books
Reconfiguring STEAM through Material Enactments of Mathematics and Arts : A Diffractive Reading of Young People’s Intradisciplinary Math-Artworks (2020)

Burnard, P., Sinha, P., Steyn, C., Fenyvesi, K., Brownell, C., Werner, O., & Lavicza, Z. (2020). Reconfiguring STEAM through Material Enactments of Mathematics and Arts : A Diffractive Reading of Young People’s Intradisciplinary Math-Artworks. In P. Burnard, & L. Colucci-Gray (Eds.), Why Science and Art Creativities Matter : (Re-)Configuring STEAM for Future-Making Education (pp. 171-199). Brill Sense. Critical Issues in the Future of Learning and Teaching, 18. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004421585_012

JYU authors or editors

Publication details

All authors or editors: Burnard, Pamela; Sinha, Pallawi; Steyn, Carine; Fenyvesi, Kristóf; Brownell, Christopher; Werner, Olivier; Lavicza, Zsolt

Parent publication: Why Science and Art Creativities Matter : (Re-)Configuring STEAM for Future-Making Education

Parent publication editors: Burnard, Pamela; Colucci-Gray, Laura

ISBN: 978-90-04-39611-1

eISBN: 978-90-04-42158-5

Journal or series: Critical Issues in the Future of Learning and Teaching

ISSN: 2542-8721

Publication year: 2020

Number in series: 18

Pages range: 171-199

Number of pages in the book: 444

Publisher: Brill Sense

Place of Publication: Leiden

Publication country: Netherlands

Publication language: English

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1163/9789004421585_012

Publication open access: Not open

Publication channel open access: 

Abstract

The current movement to integrate arts within STEAM education is relevant not only for responding to complex societal and economic problems of the twenty-first century, but in that it carries its own sets of processes, questions and paradigmatic shifts that decentre dominant discourses in education. This chapter argues onto-epistemologically that arts uniquely engender a “mutuality” of disciplines constituted in the intra-actively entangled production of new knowledges through knowing and doing enactments within STEAM (re)configurings. It argues this is a form of critical intradisciplinarity. This chapter, which draws on an exceptionally significant data set, reports a novel analysis of a sample of drawings called “math-artworks”. These were created by South African young people in Grades 8–12 following a series of mathematics-art-experiential workshops. Theoretically framed by posthuman feminist new materialism, the chapter diffractively reads three of these drawings. It asks what matters in mathematical-art drawings by using Karen Barad’s concept of diffraction as a methodological practice for reading these drawings as data. The chapter uses diffractive reading to evaluate what it is that “math-artworks” advance, as encountered in the material enactments of South African young people. It also asks whether these configurings of intradisciplinary knowledge making generate new pedagogic repertoires. It argues accordingly that STEAM is a form of critical intradisciplinarity that is capable of activating future-making education.

Keywords: art education; upbringing; education and training; learning; philosophy of education; natural sciences; mathematics

Contributing organizations

Ministry reporting: Yes

Reporting Year: 2020

JUFO rating: 1