The STEM Village – Fostering a Community of Learners

The term “digital literacy” often emerges when we speak of building an education pipeline to next generation STEM careers. I propose expanding this to more fully encompass the variety of technology related fields that our students will navigate (medicine, law, engineering, computer science, etc.).  This is not just semantic, but deeply rooted in the experience of how we acquire new skills and knowledge. In other words, we might think of STEM learning as an acculturation to the language of a new system of meaning-making – a distinct “technical literacy”.

At the most basic level, learning to code implies gaining fluency in a new syntax of symbols and structural associations that give order and meaning to the underlying computer language. But it does not stop there; as we learn to navigate this new functional literacy, we begin to think algorithmically. That is to say that we not only memorize the rules of the language, but also that we begin to internalize the logic of the semantic structures that allow the language to function.

According to leading education researchers, ‘literacy’ should not be described as singular, but as a plurality of functional systems of meaning-making and signification (Cope & Kalantzis, 2009; Gee, 2004; Larson & Marsh, 2005; Lankshear & Knobel, 2011; Rogoff 1994). Lankshear & Knobel (2011) expressly make the case for a more expansive view of literacy, explaining that, “literacies are many, not singular...we now understand literacies as socially created constitutive elements of larger human practices” (p. 76).

The key point is that we navigate various frameworks of literacy on a daily basis, often without realizing it, and our dispositions and attitudes toward these literacy encounters are determined largely by their social and cultural relevance to our own lives.

At this point, you may be wondering what any of this has to do with STEM learning or preparing our students to excel in higher education and technology careers.

I can sum it up in one word – COMMUNITY. If our willingness and ability to navigate new literacies is determined by our personal experiences, then it naturally follows that those individuals who shape our experiential ecosystem are critically important to both our immediate development and our long-term potential for growth.

Research also shows that “children enter school differently prepared for the demands of formal education, and these initial differences often impact the trajectories of children’s subsequent language, cognitive development, literacy and academic achievement” (Rodriguez et al, 2009, p. 678).

Accordingly, there is a strong connection between family literacy and functional literacy practices, and the home environment provides the foundation for many of the “initial” literacy practices that students will further develop through institutional education (Gordon & Gordon, 2003, p.17). Unfortunately, research also suggests that many students are not exposed to the readiness skills necessary to develop at a normative academic pace in the years prior to formal education.

“Many children come prepared to deal with the rigors of academic instruction and social and interpersonal demands of the classroom. However, for other children, socioeconomic status, culture, and family- related factors can have a negative impact on language and social development and academic achievement, which, in turn, places them at risk for school failure” (Watson et al., 2010, p. 335).

As Shelea Majors (Education Director, Kino-Eye Center) explains, “these literacy encounters must be reinforced and incorporated within the home and the community… and it is important that educators establish strong relationships with parents, students, and the community at-large, in order to support the literacy development of the family as a whole.” (2012, p. 5).