Lessons learned from the grassroots spreading of the “maker movement” can help us reimagine schools and foster a mindset of creativity and innovation in educational settings.

As an emerging field of theory, research, and practice, STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) has received attention for its efforts to incorporate the arts into the rubric of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) learning. In particular, many informal educators have embraced it as an inclusive and authentic approach to engaging young people with STEM. Yet, as with many nascent fields, the conceptualization and usage of STEAM is somewhat ambivalent and weakly theorized. On the one hand, STEAM offers significant promise through its focus on multiple ways of knowing and new pathways to equitable learning. On the other hand, it is often deployed in theory, pedagogy, and practice in ambiguous or potentially problematic ways toward varying ends. This paper attempts to disentangle some of the key tensions and contradictions of the STEAM concept as currently operationalized in educational research, policy, and practice. We pay particular attention to the transformative learning potential supported by contexts where STEAM is conceptualized as both pedagogical and mutually instrumental. That is, neither STEM nor arts are privileged over the other, but both are equally in play. We link the possibilities suggested by this approach to emerging theories for understanding how designing for and surfacing epistemic practices linked to the relevant disciplines being integrated into STEAM programs may point the way toward resolving tensions in inter‐ and transdisciplinary learning approaches.

The viral launch of new generative AI (GAI) systems, such as ChatGPT and Text-to-Image (TTL) generators, sparked questions about how they can be effectively incorporated into writing education. However, it is still unclear how teachers, parents, and students perceive and suspect GAI systems in elementary school settings. We conducted a workshop with twelve families (parent-child dyads) with children ages 8-12 and interviewed sixteen teachers in order to understand each stakeholder’s perspectives and opinions on GAI systems for learning and teaching writing. We found that the GAI systems could be beneficial in generating adaptable teaching materials for teachers, enhancing ideation, and providing students with personalized, timely feedback. However, there are concerns over authorship, students’ agency in learning, and uncertainty concerning bias and misinformation. In this article, we discuss design strategies to mitigate these constraints by implementing an adults-oversight system, balancing AI-role allocation, and facilitating customization to enhance students’ agency over writing projects.

The Maker movement promotes hands-on making, including crafts, robotics, and computing. The movement’s potential to transform education rests in our ability to address notable gender disparities, particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics fields. E-textiles—the first female-dominated computing community—provide inspiration for overcoming long-standing cultural divides in classrooms. Analysis of children’s use of e-textiles reveals that materials like needles, fabric, and conductive thread rupture traditional gender scripts around electronics and implicitly gives girls hands-on access and leadership roles. This reconceptualization of cultural divides as sets of tacitly accepted practices rooted in gendered histories has implications for reconceptualizing traditionally male-dominated areas of schooling.

Recent advances in arts education policy, as outlined in the latest National Core Arts Standards, advocate for bringing digital media into the arts education classroom. The promise of such Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM)–based approaches is that, by coupling Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) and the arts, new understandings and artifacts emerge that transcend either discipline. Evidence of this can be seen through fundamental shifts in both fields; in the arts, artists are expanding the creative potential for design through computational flexibility, which affords artists the ability to exceed the limitations of their tools. The infusion of the arts into STEM has shown to be equally transformative, with the emergence of tools and communities that not only engender new content understandings but also invite participation from populations historically underrepresented in STEM fields. Drawing on over a decade of research at the intersection of the arts, creativity, and new technologies from the Creativity Labs at Indiana University, this article theorizes the learning that takes place at effective couplings of STEAM to assist today's educators in realizing the potential for transformative experiences for learners of all levels. This article provides a synthesis of this past work across two compelling cases of STEAM-based tools, materials, and activities (i.e., the media-rich programming environment Scratch as well as the work the LilyPad Arduino used to create electronic textiles), incorporating findings from more than 50 peer-reviewed papers and books, and conceptually outlines an approach to “gathering STEAM” in arts education classrooms today. Implications are explored for policy makers in teacher education to think about preservice curriculum and field experiences; policy makers in arts education to think about tools needed in classrooms today; as well as how art education can play a critical role in STEM disciplines and offer solutions to address STEM pipeline challenges. Such efforts extend current and prior discussions in the arts education landscape about the use of new technologies, and draw our attention to how new technologies can be leveraged for artistic expression.