Congratulations to the new PhD student Jogaila Vaitekaitis on the successful defence of his doctoral dissertation.

Congratulations to the new PhD student Jogaila Vaitekaitis on the successful defence of his doctoral dissertation ,,STEM Education in Lithuania: a Post-Humanism Perspective” (Education Sciences (S 007), scientific advisor – prof. dr. Lilija Duoblienė) and aquiring  a Doctorate of Social Sciences degree in the field of Education Sciences.

The dissertation is available in the libraries of Vilnius University, Klaipėda University, Mykolas Romeris University and on the VU website at: http://vu.lt/lt/naujienos/ivykiu-kalendorius

A brief annotation of the thesis is presented below:

The thesis argues that STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) education is a potential educational response to the challenges of the Anthropocene era. The aim of the thesis is to analyse the philosophical and ideological assumptions of STEM education in the context of the Anthropocene and to identify the posthumanist possibilities of its reconceptualisation in Lithuania. It is revealed that the dominant instrumentalist discourse of STEM education dictates an appropriate interpretation and evaluation of the concept of science literacy based on positivist, ontological and epistemological attitudes. The dissertation argues that the posthumanist ideas in the philosophy of education discourse are relevant to STEM education. Among the ideas proposed are a different conception of the human being; a questioning of the binary logic of the object/subject; and theories of feminism, post-colonialism and anti-racism. The results of a multilevel survey of STEAM education experts (n=45) revealed that there are four conceptualisations of STEAM in Lithuania: 1) Transhumanistic STEM+A; 2) Posthumanistic STEAM; 3) Capitalocene STEM+A; and 4) Plantaciocene STEAM. The dissertation argues that the second transdisciplinary, post-normal science STEAM conceptualization formulated by the experts is called posthumanistic and enables not only the development of techno-scientific, engineering solutions for the Anthropocene, but also the modification of its fundamental assumptions. Posthumanist STEAM questions disciplinary boundaries, human-centrism and the systems that reproduce asymmetrical power relations, including the natural sciences themselves.

Dissertation Defence Council: 

Chair – prof. dr. Arūnas Poviliūnas (Vilnius University, Social Sciences, Sociology – S 005);
Prof. dr. Renata Bilbokaitė (Vilnius University, Social Sciences, Education – S 007);
assoc. prof. Mintautas Gutauskas (Vilnius University, Humanities, Philosophy – H 001);
prof. dr. Natalija Mažeikienė (Vytautas Magnus University, Social Sciences, Education – S 007);
prof. dr. Lina Markauskaitė (University of Sydney, Australia, Social Sciences, Education – S 007).