My Research
Research Questions
While in Colombia, I am seeking answers to the following questions, recognizing that the answers may simply lead to more questions:
- How do Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) standards link to national priorities and how do these priorities show up in the classroom?
- The United Nations (UN) has emphasized, through UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), education for sustainable development (ESD). Is there an awareness of ESD in Colombia? If so, how does this show up in secondary classrooms?
Rationale
Now entering my seventh year of teaching math, I am increasingly thrown off by the fact that students have little opportunity to discover their interests. Students are largely taking core academic courses to prepare them for college, but these courses rarely provide the opportunity to discover career paths that incorporate these subjects. Students are simply showered in anecdotes about how math with prepare them for the future and potentially high paying careers. I want to help students discover a purpose for mathematics in their own lives. To do this, I will be exploring how other countries incorporate the subject into vocational training, student research, and/or projects that have a positive impact on the local community and are connected to the international priorities outlined in the UN's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). I am fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend a week in Bucaramanga, Colombia at Demaso Zapata School, which focuses on technical education for secondary students and I will be traveling to Wellington, New Zealand for five months, starting in January, to continue pursuing this research in earnest. While I loved my time in Bucaramanga, I was only there for a short time and had very limited agency over my schedule, therefore the few answers I have to the questions above rely entirely on anecdotes.
Findings
International Priorities
According to our host teacher and others I talked to, Colombia has prioritized peace studies, English language, and technical education. Unfortunately, although peace studies and English have been prioritized in policy, resources have been slow to follow. There are not enough English language teachers to fill all of the positions in Colombia and promised resources often fail to reach schools. Furthermore, Demaso Zapata is one of the best public schools (free for its students) in Bucaramanga and focuses on technical subjects such as technical drawing, industrial mechanics, electronics, systems, and metal working. Even though they are promised funds to support these programs, adequate funds rarely make it to the school, thus the metal working class depends on machinery that is up to 40 years old and students in electronics must purchase all their own supplies such as Arduino boards. As globalization continues and technology becomes evermore present in daily life, Colombia is seeking to build citizens capable of innovating for the future. This brings me to the SDGs.
Sustainable Development Goals
Although UNITEC, in Bogotá, expressed having some knowledge of the SDGs, Demaso Zapata did not explicitly connect their work to the SDGs. With that said, many of the programs they offered addressed the goals of the SDGs. For example, the entrepreneurship projects students worked on were often geared toward the generation of sustainable energy, often with the idea of decentralizing the power supply. One example is placing turbines within pipes so whenever someone uses water, they are generating electricity, thereby decreasing their dependency on a grid largely based on fossil fuels. Such a project addresses affordable and clean energy, climate action, and sustainable cities and communities. These students also had to research their main competitors and determine what would make their product better and more desirable in order to build a business. This added depth helps students to think about the goals of decent work and economic growth and industry, innovation, and infrastructure.
Thinking more broadly, the technical courses such as metal working, technical drawing, and electronics introduced students to trades that, with a little additional training, could lead to lucrative careers as employees or contractors. A wonderful aspect of Demaso Zapata was the fact that the metal working focus was as honored as the humanities and math courses. Preparing for work in the trades was honorable in a way that is not reflected in the United States public school system. Looking to the future, it is clear that many of these trades will be essential for student success because they are not easily outsourced. Although it is easy to outsource manufacturing, there will always be a need for point-of-contact services.
Reflection
Upon further reflection, I think I went into this program asking questions that were far too vague. They were also far too broad to be answered in 18 days. However, it did force me to realize that culture plays a major part in the development of public education. While I am asking if the SDGs are explicitly referenced in the classroom, sustainability was showing up anyway. Culturally, the idea of protecting the local environment and combating climate change was not a debate in Colombia like it is in the United States. Ultimately, aside from the main global powers, the SDGs are seen as good practice by the majority of the population. As a result, this has forced me to think about how I connect my own students to the SDGs and their peers around the world already taking action in the classroom.
According to our host teacher and others I talked to, Colombia has prioritized peace studies, English language, and technical education. Unfortunately, although peace studies and English have been prioritized in policy, resources have been slow to follow. There are not enough English language teachers to fill all of the positions in Colombia and promised resources often fail to reach schools. Furthermore, Demaso Zapata is one of the best public schools (free for its students) in Bucaramanga and focuses on technical subjects such as technical drawing, industrial mechanics, electronics, systems, and metal working. Even though they are promised funds to support these programs, adequate funds rarely make it to the school, thus the metal working class depends on machinery that is up to 40 years old and students in electronics must purchase all their own supplies such as Arduino boards. As globalization continues and technology becomes evermore present in daily life, Colombia is seeking to build citizens capable of innovating for the future. This brings me to the SDGs.
Sustainable Development Goals
Although UNITEC, in Bogotá, expressed having some knowledge of the SDGs, Demaso Zapata did not explicitly connect their work to the SDGs. With that said, many of the programs they offered addressed the goals of the SDGs. For example, the entrepreneurship projects students worked on were often geared toward the generation of sustainable energy, often with the idea of decentralizing the power supply. One example is placing turbines within pipes so whenever someone uses water, they are generating electricity, thereby decreasing their dependency on a grid largely based on fossil fuels. Such a project addresses affordable and clean energy, climate action, and sustainable cities and communities. These students also had to research their main competitors and determine what would make their product better and more desirable in order to build a business. This added depth helps students to think about the goals of decent work and economic growth and industry, innovation, and infrastructure.
Thinking more broadly, the technical courses such as metal working, technical drawing, and electronics introduced students to trades that, with a little additional training, could lead to lucrative careers as employees or contractors. A wonderful aspect of Demaso Zapata was the fact that the metal working focus was as honored as the humanities and math courses. Preparing for work in the trades was honorable in a way that is not reflected in the United States public school system. Looking to the future, it is clear that many of these trades will be essential for student success because they are not easily outsourced. Although it is easy to outsource manufacturing, there will always be a need for point-of-contact services.
Reflection
Upon further reflection, I think I went into this program asking questions that were far too vague. They were also far too broad to be answered in 18 days. However, it did force me to realize that culture plays a major part in the development of public education. While I am asking if the SDGs are explicitly referenced in the classroom, sustainability was showing up anyway. Culturally, the idea of protecting the local environment and combating climate change was not a debate in Colombia like it is in the United States. Ultimately, aside from the main global powers, the SDGs are seen as good practice by the majority of the population. As a result, this has forced me to think about how I connect my own students to the SDGs and their peers around the world already taking action in the classroom.