Welcome to The STEAM Journal, a transdisciplinary, global, theory-practice, peer-reviewed, open access, online journal with a focus on the intersection of the sciences and the arts. The STEAM Journal integrates perspectives from a variety of contexts and fields.

STEAM is an acronym for Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics.

The STEAM Journal is on pause temporarily.

But STEAM is still rising! We are in a transition phase of reflection and redefinition of our scope of work so we can foster strong community and engagement with the research and practice of arts-based integrative work in multiple contexts. We are also building a new team and based on our explorations will determine a call for submissions and publication timeline by the middle of this year.

As contributors, if you have submitted an item before we hit the pause button, please feel free to either withdraw your submission so you can submit elsewhere or wait till we return in the middle of this year with a clear journal scope and a new call for submissions.

If you have any questions, please contact us at steam@cgu.edu.

STEAM Rising - Reimagining, Reframing, Rejuvenating

The STEAM Journal began in 2013 with the support of the Transdisciplinary program at Claremont Graduate University (CGU), under the leadership of Sara Kapadia who was a graduate student at CGU. Sara led the journal in a decade of work gathering STEAM research and practice from around the world and creating a space for artists to engage with STEAM ideas. Under Sara’s leadership, The STEAM Journal was proud to support a bipartisan bill brought by Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici who led a STEAM caucus that contributed significantly to the 2015 Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) to provide funding and mandates for STEAM education in schools (The Creative Coalition, 2015).

Last year, we took on the Journal as part of the development of the Transdisciplinary program at CGU as Sara moved on to new adventures. This coincided with a 10-year mark and was the appropriate time to review and renew what the Journal means.

STEAM began as a response to the U.S. National Science Foundation’s (NSF) advocacy of STEM from 2001 as a critical approach to prepare students for innovation and the future workforce. Educators realizing the emphasis on STEM could be better balanced by integrating the arts, created interest and momentum in STEAM connecting it to the fostering of 21st century skills such as creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, empathy, relationality and other social-emotional skills. STEAM has had an amazing run especially in K-12 settings, helping to garner interest among educators and curriculum developers to partner with artists in developing engaging, humanizing teaching and learning processes.

This history leads us to ask new questions about STEAM, here in the United States and around the world. How has STEAM evolved in response to global changes? What has been the focus in teacher education on equipping teachers to understand STEAM and work effectively with artists? There are also questions of access and equity; who has been left out? To what extent does STEAM contribute to educational and social equity and flourishing? What has been its effect within education and research? How do artists view the idea of STEAM in their creative process or in entering education spaces as arts integrators? Has integration of the arts with STEM and new STEM curricula created a deeper intertwining of aesthetic, socio-emotional, technical, and scientific principles and methodologies in research and practice? What is STEAM’s relationship with broader arts-integration in research and practice with the humanities, with business, or community development?

These and other questions will help us frame a purpose and process for the Journal that we can share with you. How can we create, share, and explore transdisciplinary engagement across disciplines and the world in engaging arts and the aesthetic dimensions of being human? More importantly, for what purpose? We want to invite a community of researchers, artists, educators, and practitioners engaged with addressing critical issues of humanity and the planet and see the arts as part of that work. We especially would like to invite young voices of school children whose perspectives are often unheard.

If you are a STEAM or arts-integration advocate, researcher, or practitioner, we’d love to hear your ideas. Email us at steam@cgu.edu to share your thoughts about any of these questions and to raise new questions to add to the mix. Also engage with our LinkedIn discussion on RE-Imagining STEAM and the path ahead for the STEAM Journal.