An STS Teachbook

Note the CfP deadline passed on Sept 9, 2024. 

The STS Teachbook Editorial Collective (Marisa Brandt, Shannon N. Conley, Megan K. Halpern, Nicole Mogul, Elizabeth Reddy, Marie Stettler Kleine, David Tomblin, and Emily York ) are calling for contributors to develop learning activity “recipes” (less than 1000 words each) for An STS Teachbook, a handbook for STS-infused critical pedagogy practices. Interested scholars should send proposals for recipes by filling out the recipe submission form before September 9, 2024. We are especially interested in recipe submissions from teacher-scholars whose teaching primarily serves undergraduates, regardless of discipline or class size, and encourage submissions from teacher-scholars located in minority-serving institutions and those outside of the Global North. Potential contributors will be contacted by October 11th, at which point they will be invited to work with the editorial collective and other contributors to develop their recipes together.

An STS Teachbook is envisioned as an engaging cookbook-style volume that will inspire and guide educators in developing rich approaches for teaching the skills and sensibilities of the interdisciplinary field of Science and Technology Studies (STS, sometimes also interpreted as Science, Technology, and Society). Recipes should speak to teacher-scholars looking for ways to actively engage students in and outside the classroom. Through chapter introductions and collected recipes, the Teachbook will bring together pedagogical insights and methods for developing theoretically grounded, creative, and introspective STS learning experiences for undergraduate students. The editorial collective is especially interested in recipes that are grounded in feminist, liberatory, and other critical pedagogical orientations that are designed to promote thoughtful, active engagement with the sociotechnical and envirotechnical systems learners interact with in their lives and careers (e.g., data collection activities, mind/body awareness activities, collaborative projects, scenario building, etc.). 

The book will be organized into five sections of two-to-four chapters each, designed to build thematically around different key elements of critical STS pedagogy: 

1. Setting Up and Fostering Inclusive STS Classrooms

2. Demystifying and Questioning Technoscience in Action

3. Revealing and Studying Sociotechnical Systems 

4. Interpreting and Problematizing Public Engagement with STEM 

5. Imagining and Making Critical STS Futures 

This organization scaffolds critical STS pedagogy from introductory to advanced content. 

An STS Teachbook has an advanced contract with Lever Press, a Platinum Open Access digital first press. Publishing with Lever Press will enable the Teachbook to include multimodal content, extensive appendices for additional curricular materials, and individual credit for each recipe author and line item in the Table of Contents. We encourage contributors to include multimedia teaching and learning resources to enhance and/or illustrate their contributions.

A Community Process

“Teachers concerned about illumination and possibility know well that there is some profound sense in which a curriculum in the making is very much a part of a community in the making.” 

Maxine Greene, 2017, 500

You may submit up to three recipes, although we will likely select only one for publication in the book to ensure a broad variety of contributions from different authors. When submitting a recipe, you will be asked to identify which of the five sections you think it most likely fits within. 

The Editorial Collective will work together to select and organize contributions into sections and chapters. Two members of the Collective will oversee each section, and will serve as ‘section editors’ and primary points of contact. Section editors will invite contributors to several online workshop meetings to collaborate as a community on reading and offering constructive feedback on the recipes. To the extent possible, we would like to encourage an internal review process that includes trying out each other’s recipes  in the classroom. Section editors will work with contributors to identify, curate, and ensure accessibility for any media associated with a recipe.

Planned Timeline:

September 9, 2024: Submissions due

October 4, 2024: Notifications

October 11, 2024: Submission confirmations due 

Late October: Section Groups Meet

Mid November Section Groups Meet

Early December: Submit media materials (optional)

January-February 2025: Try a recipe / Provide a review

March 14, 2025: Submit Revised Recipe / Media Metadata

April 5, 2025: Editorial Collective submits full ms to Lever Press

May - August: Review process, revisions

September 1, 2025: Into Production

September 1, 2026: Published!