Paper short abstract:

Addressing STS teaching practice raises questions regarding objective, content and didactics of such educational engagement with science and engineering students. In addition, teaching STS challenges us to reflect upon our underlying assumptions about teaching, learning and its desired effects.

Paper long abstract:

What is the purpose of teaching STS to scientists and engineers? What would STS scholars want scientists and engineers to know about STS and why is it so important? In addition to the question of the objective of such educational efforts, it is also critical to answer the didactical question of how to teach STS. Which teaching style and methods are best suited to reach STEM-audiences (i.e. science and engineering students)?

Being an STS scholar employed at an engineering school, I draw on profound experiences with teaching STS to STEM audiences. Teaching STS is not only a question of purpose and method, but it also raises the ontological question of how STSers constitute themselves as academics at a University of Technology. Furthermore, teaching STS raises fundamental questions regarding the very nature of education. Do we conceive of teaching as an act of knowledge transfer? Or does teaching STS go beyond the goal of implanting STS ideas into the minds of scientists and engineers? Would it be possible to frame teaching STS as a form of intervention into society – perhaps even as the pursuit of normative goals such as making science and technology responding to the SDGs, the ideals of social justice, participation and democracy? Having experiences with a broad scope of courses, I will reflect on my experiences ranging from conventional lecture style teaching of STS core concepts to science fiction seminars and hands on ethnographic field work.