InSTEMnifying Youth: STEM, Capital, & Power

Authors

  • Michael Bulfin Lewis University

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.14288/ce.v8i15.186265

Keywords:

STEM, higher education, power, capital

Abstract

Abstract

This paper analyzes the push from the federal government to get more institutions of higher education to graduate greater numbers of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) majors and educators.  This push is based on research mostly coming from foundations and industries that employ STEM workers.  Researchers question whether the STEM shortage is actually a reality or a myth driven by other factors.  The author’s anecdotal experiences working for a university that prides itself on STEM are considered while offering a theory that policies and initiatives favoring STEM are but the latest instance of education being used as a tool of commerce. The theoretical implications of the push for STEM in universities are considered to question if a manufactured STEM “crisis” is just another insidious extension of neoliberal power into institutions and upon bodies in a Foucaultian sense.

Keywords: STEM, higher education, power, capital

Author Biography

Michael Bulfin, Lewis University

Doctoral Student, College of Education

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Published

2017-11-01

Issue

Section

(Re)Considering STEM Education