Gender Balance in STEM Education Advisory Group

Gender Balance in STEM Education Advisory Group
Department of Education

March 2022

Minister for Education Norma Foley TD announced the publication of Recommendations on Gender Balance in STEM Education on 8 March 2022. The recommendations were informed by the Department of Education’s Gender Balance in STEM Advisory Group.

With the Minister were (from left to right) Maeve Price, Department of Education, Dr Marion Palmer WITS, Áine Lynch, National Parents Council - Primary, Dee Kehoe, Engineers Ireland, MInister Foley, Paul Nugent, Santa Sabina Dominican College, Margie McCarthy (Chair), formerly Science Foundation Ireland (SFI), now Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI), Dr Aoibhinn Ní Shúilleabháin, University College Dublin, Dr Mary Cunneen, University College Dublin and Karen Murtagh, Department of Education.

The recommendations follow on from ‘A Review of Literature to Identify a Set of Effective Interventions for Addressing Gender Balance in STEM in Early Years, Primary and Post-Primary Education Settings commissioned by the advisory group in 2019 and published in November 2020.

There are four key areas for action which build on, and are additional to, the extensive actions identified in the STEM Education Implementation Plan 2017-2019:

• Improve equity of participation across all STEM curriculum areas/subject choices by instilling whole-school culture change, to include early years leaders and educators, /school leaders, practitioners/teachers and parents/guardians
• Provide effective support in relation to practice in STEM for early years practitioners educators and teachers
• Support equitable learner access to, and experiences of, STEM to inspire learning, foster creativity and prepare for later engagement and success
• Support a societal and cultural shift to address current barriers to gender balance in STEM.

The 16 recommendations set out in the publication today will address these key areas. These recommendations were developed with a view to addressing the issues of equity of access and inclusion, rather than just gender balance. By addressing the wider diversity issue in STEM, gender balance in STEM will benefit. The publication Recommendations on Gender Balance in STEM is available here

July 2021

The Gender Balance in STEM Education Advisory Group has completed phase 1 of its work with the development a set of recommendations. These will be submitted to the Department of Education's STEM Education Implementation Advisory Group shortly. The recommendations arise from the work of the group and informed by the literature review launched by Minister Foley in November 2020. Thanks to all in the group for the work, particularly the chair Margie McCarthy of SFI and Karen Murtagh and Maeve Price of the Department of Education.

November 2020

The Minister for Education Norma Foley TD launched Review of Literature to Identify a Set of Effective Interventions for Addressing Gender Balance in STEM in Early Years, Primary and Post-Primary Education Settings on 17 November 2020.

The report sets out what is known about critical barriers to girls’ participation in STEM education and STEM learning, while also highlighting effective interventions to increase participation of girls in STEM. The STEM Education Policy Statement 2017-2026 acknowledges that there is a need to increase the uptake of STEM subjects and to enhance STEM learning for learners of all backgrounds, abilities and gender, with a particular focus on uptake by females. The research was commissioned under the auspices of the Department of Education by the Gender Balance in STEM group, a sub-group of the Department’s STEM Education Implementation Advisory Group.

Overview

The STEM Education Policy Statement 2017-2026 and the accompanying Implementation Plan 2017-2019 were published at the end of November 2017. The STEM Education Implementation Advisory Group was established in 2019 to advise, support, and oversee the implementation of the Policy Statement and accompanying Implementation Plan. In order to identify and support best practice methods to improve gender balance in the access to and participation in STEM learning experiences the Implementation Advisory Group set up the Gender Balance in STEM Education Advisory Group.

Margie McCarthy from Science Foundation Ireland is chair of the Group. Members come from the Department of Education, UCD, CASTel, DCU, WITS, iWish, National Parents Council, Teen Turn, Institute of Physics, Engineers Ireland, Ardgillan Community College and CWIT. WITS member Dr Aoibhinn Ni Shuilleabhain is a member of the group and WITS is formally represented by Dr Marion Palmer.