Addressing Societal Challenges Through STEM Final Report

From 2019 to 2021, Knology undertook a project called Addressing Societal Challenges through STEM, which investigated how informal learning institutions are advancing the use of STEM knowledge and scientific reasoning to enable individuals, families, and communities to understand what they can do, and apply their learning to solving critical societal challenges.

The literature reviewed (237 studies and articles) documented an emerging infrastructure to support the capacity of  ISL institutions to address social issues. This infrastructure includes a body of empirical and peer-reviewed literature that has grown substantially in the last 20 years; a significant number of regional and national collaborations that leverage and share expertise and efforts; and a growing number of professional development projects that often included sustained training and feedback opportunities. The infrastructure could be further strengthened by collaborating with other public sectors outside of informal learning and with a field-wide commitment and access to professional development that is not tied to specific projects or dependent on the fiscal resources of the professional. 

A range of social issues are being addressed (often through innovative practices), including climate change in particular, water and air quality, racial equity, and individual health. However, many topics that are of concern to the public were rarely addressed such as reproductive rights, depression, incarceration, immigration policies, gender identity, economic disparities, food insecurity, and opioid addiction. Social issues were often presented as isolated from the complex, intertwined societal structures, which could limit public understanding of the structural and societal changes needed to address social problems.

Within the issues addressed, ISL organizations appeared to play a strong role as knowledge brokers, advancing understanding of social issues, as well as promoting the STEM knowledge necessary to make informed decisions about social issues. Efforts to change behaviors of individuals or to create change at the societal level were comon goals, but achievement less commonly documented. 

Across STEM disciplines, science content and scientific inquiry were much more evident than disciplines or ways of thinking associated with engineering, math, or technology. There were also a few examples of using social issues as a gateway to engage audiences with STEM content. 

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