Global Journal of Human Social Science, G: Linguistics and Education, Volume 23 Issue 8

© 2023 Global Journals Volume XXIII Issue VIII Version I 41 ( ) Global Journal of Human Social Science - Year 2023 G Integrating STEM Approach at Primary Education in Bangladesh: Perception and Challenges of the Teachers students' activities, emerge as significant obstacles. Furthermore, the dearth of accessible professional development programs for teachers in the realm of integrated STEM education adds to the challenges faced in this domain. Herschbach (2011) asserted that engaging students in integrated STEM instruction poses significant challenges, while another obstacle lies in the misconception held by many teachers, who perceive it as suitable only for the secondary level. He also said that the lack of training for pre-service teachers to incorporate technology successfully is another challenge. Teachers’ capacity, meeting with students’ abilities and educational aims and policies at the national level are also barriers to integrated STEM education (Lee et al., 2019). In another study, it was found that students learning might not be identical in all subjects, it could be too much for students’ cognitive processes (Pearson, 2017). He also indicated that lack of timing, funding, and planning are also potential challenges of integrated STEM education. According to Ryu et al. (2019) school structure and instructional methods, heavy workload, difficulty in shifting learners’ minds from traditional methods to collaborative and interactive learning strategies, pushback from teachers to implement integrated STEM approach, a lack of content knowledge apart from teachers field of expertise, a lack of role model or model teachers and model curriculum to follow on how to teach and develop curriculum for integrated STEM approach are some of the challenges of integrated STEM education. In line with that Dare et al. (2018) claimed that not only teachers but also students found it troubling to connect the components of STEM in the classroom. While conducting experiments, students were unable to measure equipment accurately and had difficulties in correctly interpreting the data (Glancy et al., 2017). Hsu and Fang (2019) pointed out that, low motivation of students and teachers’ beliefs are also barriers to the successful implementation of integrated STEM education. Tao (2019) in his study stated that there are several challenges to the successful implementation of integrated STEM such as teacher’s unfamiliarity with STEM education, a lack of participation in workshops and seminars, poor confidence while discussing technology and engineering with students, developing integrated STEM lessons, shortage of confidence to conduct the integrated STEM activities, inadequate preparation to implement integrated STEM approach in the classroom, lack of training on integrated STEM, insufficient experience, large classroom and busy daily routines. From these discussions, it is visible that though the integrated STEM approach is a great asset for STEM teaching and learning, it comes with a lot of challenges and barriers. III. M ethodology and S ample For this study, we have opted an interpretative (Ernest, 1989) approach as this approach would allow us to interact with teachers closely and would enable us to construct the knowledge of reality from their perspective. It is a wide-ranging assumption that qualitative methods are closely associated with interpretivism (Passer et al., 2009). Data was collected by semi-structured interviews, which were conducted with the primary school teachers to find their views about integrated STEM education. To identify the challenges of the schools (e.g., the physical facilities) and the curriculum to integrate the STEM approach, semi-structured interviews and in-depth interviews were conducted with the teachers (from both the STEM and traditional primary schools) and primary education curriculum experts. The questions of the interview were mainly open-ended in nature and all interviews were recorded (audio). Data was collected from the teachers of both primary schools and STEM schools in Bangladesh. A total of 12 primary schools (06 urban and 06 rural) were selected from different metropolitan cities, municipalities, and villages of Bangladesh through stratified and purposive sampling. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 primary teachers (one from each school) practicing science and mathematics subjects. Besides, four STEM teachers (who are practicing the STEM approach in their teaching) were selected through purposive sampling. A total of nine in-depth interviews were conducted where the participants were two primary curriculum experts, four head teachers, and three STEM experts. The selection of schools in different areas would allow us to explore how the perception of different groups of people varies and what the challenges are to integrate the STEM approach for a specific context. Moreover, respondents were notified that they could exit the study anytime. Participants were assured that their identity and the information they provide will be kept confidential and not shared with anyone else. IV. F indings In this chapter, interviewed data is analysed in line with the objectives of the study. The focus of the analysis is to understand primary school teachers’ perceptions of STEM education and to find out what are the challenges in integrating the STEM approach at the primary level. The demographic information of this study is shown in the table-1.