STEM and Catholic Schools
Recent trends in education, including Catholic schools, have increased the visibility and engagement in STEM education in our nation’s schools. However, the field lacks a robust research literature on the ways in which STEM integrates with the existing Catholic identity of schools. The Center’s research on STEM in Catholic schools draws on existing partnerships to better understand, theoretical and practically, how school organization, teaching, and learning in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are addressed in faith-based contexts.
Projects
STEM School Transformation
The formation of STEM-focused schools has been a priority for local school systems and state and national policymakers. Yet despite calls for 1,000 new STEM-focused schools within the next decade, little consensus exists on what defines a STEM-focused school and the process by which they come to be. As greater emphasis is placed on the formation of STEM-focused schools we, as a research field, must better understand the process by which STEM-focused schools develop and how such transformations impact student outcomes and teacher practices in order to improve their outcomes across different contexts.
Our research explores the emergence of a more contemporary phenomenon - the formation of STEM-focused Catholic schools. Our research addresses the following research questions:
- What factors define a Catholic STEM-focused school?
- What are the critical components of a Catholic STEM-focused school?
- How does a STEM transformation impact the nature of schooling?
