Bridging Anthropology, STEAM, and Design: Innovating Teaching and Learning for a Collaborative and Sustainable Education

Abstract (English)

The educational reform in Italy has recently introduced STEAM education in schools with a top-down approach. As an anthropologist and university professor, I have identified a significant gap: future teachers, despite belonging to the young generations, find themselves unprepared in the implementation of these methodologies.
Recent anthropological research, particularly that which emerged during the pandemic, highlights how digital learning, new technologies, and artificial intelligence require a research attitude to effectively analyze learning processes.
Applied anthropological research, combined with the STEAM approach and in collaboration with design, promotes critical reflection in teachers and develops metacognitive skills in students, encouraging interdisciplinary thinking and overcoming the isolation of individual disciplines. Without this reflective approach, STEAM risks being reduced to mechanical and uncritical learning.
STEAM methodologies represent not only an agenda for training personnel with technical skills, but a catalyst for systemic change in education, which requires a redefinition of learning as a collaborative and socially integrated process, oriented towards the co-creation of a sustainable future.