Towards transdisciplinarity in global integrated science-arts practices in education? A Janus approach

Abstract

Recent years have witnessed significant growth of interest in science-art integration in schools as an approach to creative teaching and learning. This conceptual turn in education implies profound institutional and philosophical changes. Central to this turn has been the development of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Math (STEAM) education. In this article, we detail a progression from an existing model of pedagogical principles and educational objectives in science education within a global STEAM education environment, Global Science Opera, towards shared pedagogical principles and educational objectives in both science and arts education within that same environment. In this work, we rely on a transdisciplinary approach towards the integrated disciplines and the educators who teach them. We outline the need for the new, integrated approach to be validated in other, empirical, contexts in order to establish its capacity in the field of creativity in education, and specifically in global STEAM environments in order to ensure its relevance to teaching and learning of a kind which strengthen students` knowledge, abilities and democratic and inclusive values. We propose the Janus metaphor for the new approach as it represents the possibility of having a double perspective of a single focus of attention. We conclude by pointing at limitations of discipline integration in which pedagogical principles in science education are not in harmony with the pedagogical principles in arts education.