Navigating School-Family-Community Partnerships, Integrative STEM Pedagogy, and Divergent Perspectives

Abstract

This case study focuses on the preferred instructional approaches of integrative STEM education as students encounter authentic problems in their community, analyze data, and share their evidenced-based explanations and solutions with external audiences. As the case unfolds, school leaders encounter tensions among family and community members, and school representatives about students’ learning experiences in integrative STEM education. This examination reveals the roles of school leaders as risk managers and instructional facilitators in maintaining fruitful partnerships with family and community members in a rural school district, while also preparing students to be solution-finders related to mitigating climate change.