Identifying STEM Awareness of Secondary Art Educators: A Statewide Assessment

The advent of STEAM programs could be a product of budget cuts and lower student enrollment within the arts. However, art educators, typically, possess minimal training in STEM related fields. The lack of training is especially true for secondary art educators due to the specificity of their degrees required to teach in their respective institutions. The purpose of this mixed method study aims to measure of the extent of STEM awareness in secondary art educators, In the state of Texas, 211 secondary art educators completed the STEM Awareness and Community Survey. The data collected from the secondary art teachers revealed perception differences in regards to teacher educational background and teacher certification training. Follow up interviews with participants revealed teacher’s perceptions of the benefit of art within STEM in terms of creativity, communication, and visualization of concepts. The data concluded the necessity for educational leadership to implement more STEM related training for their arts faculty in order to ensure meaningful integration of STEAM based curriculum.