This research investigates the challenges and opportunities rural elementary teachers perceive in using AI as a pedagogical tool to support student learning in rural schools. Using a convergent parallel mixed methods approach, we analyzed the responses from 45 rural teachers who participated in professional development on AI integration in rural education. Through both closed-ended and open-ended survey responses, we employed an adaptation of the TPACK framework (I-TPACK) and the AI literacy framework proposed by UNESCO to identify the primary challenges and opportunities in utilizing AI for pedagogical purposes in rural education. The results highlight resource accessibility and teacher professional development as critical challenges and opportunities to reduce the digital divide in rural communities. Teachers see the inclusion of AI as an opportunity to personalize learning, reduce workload, and facilitate teaching in multigrade classrooms without perceiving it as a job threat. At the same time, they emphasize the need for technological and didactic resources aligned with the specific characteristics of their contexts, such as offline resources and adaptable AI curricula to address the prevalent issue of limited or absent internet connectivity in many rural schools.

The relationship between music and mathematics has often been the subject of discussion, both inside and outside the field of education. As part of an exciting project on a European scale, the paper explores the changing contexts in Catalonia (Spain) and England (UK) in relation to the integrated approach to the teaching of music and mathematics. We analyse three areas: academic literature, the curriculum frameworks and publications and resources prepared by and for teachers. Our findings suggest that due to the more favourable attitude towards cross-curricular approaches in education, more progress has been made in England, in terms of developing resources to support an integrated approach to the teaching of music and mathematics, than in Catalonia. Nonetheless, teachers in both locations are very interested in developing these approaches. Although there is a need for further teacher training and support, there is evidence of progress already being made in schools.

Este artículo revisa diferentes propuestas STEAM para Educación Infantil, con el objetivo de analizar el papel que juegan en ellas las matemáticas. Se organizan las propuestas en tres grupos de actividades: las que ponen el foco en el pensamiento computacional, las que ponen el foco en la construcción y la experimentación, y finalmente, el grupo de propuestas con el foco en el “hazlo tú mismo”. El análisis de estas actividades STEAM permite constatar que las matemáticas pueden jugar un papel instrumental o central, de manera similar al papel que desarrollan las matemáticas en la vida cotidiana. En todas las actividades STEAM examinadas tienen una importancia central tanto las capacidades matemáticas propias de Educación Infantil: identificar, comparar, clasificar, ordenar, entre otras; como los procesos matemáticos: resolución de problemas, representación, comunicación, conexiones y razonamiento. No obstante, la presencia de las matemáticas en las propuestas STEAM no asegura que el aprendizaje matemático se produzca de manera efectiva, pues este dependerá de la gestión que el adulto desempeñe mientras se realiza la actividad. Así, concluimos que, si queremos que las actividades STEAM produzcan el aprendizaje matemático esperado, debemos formar a los docentes para asegurar que sepan acompañar debidamente a sus alumnos en este proceso.

The limited number of STEAM educational experiences in Spain was the motivation behind this study, whose goal was to identify the contributions and essential components of integrated STEAM teaching, specifically the approach that relates the arts (music) to science subjects (mathematics). To this end, a multiple case study was carried out in primary classrooms at three schools. The interviews carried out with teachers, students, and management teams, and the observation of the application of different activities provided a comprehensive vision of the keys to integrated STEAM teaching (co-teaching, coordination, and an interdisciplinary relationship between subjects). The data also brought to light the benefits of STEAM educational practice (procedural mimesis between subjects, student motivation, links between teachers, and professional growth) and also the difficulties encountered. All this, contrasted with the ideas expounded in the literature, enables us to propose lines of work that the educational community should find suggestive and inspiring since the combination of science with the arts, creativity, integration, and innovation has the potential to promote the necessary aptitudes for students in the 21st century.