International Network ‘Teaching Science-Technology-Society – Topics in STEM’

The international network Teaching Science-Technology-Society– Topics in STEM* aim to develop, enhance, and exchange methods for teaching SSH (Social Sciences and Humanities) and STEM in interdisciplinary higher education across Europe. Following critical approaches to teaching and learning, the network is based on three core premises: First, we understand education as a collaborative process between teachers and students. We therefore seek to develop teaching principles and methods that foster the interdisciplinary classroom as a space for shared inquiry, where students and teachers jointly explore, research, and generate new perspectives on science and society. This includes exploring methods for symmetrical teaching approaches that facilitate collaboration between teachers and students and enable the latter to reflexively engage with the practices, theories, and knowledges of their own disciplines.

Second, and consequently, we understand the university as a democratic institution with a social responsibility: a place where academic insights are not developed in isolation but continually reflected upon and further expanded through engagement with societal issues. The social sciences and humanities, in particular, equip students with concepts and methods to understand and constructively engage with the challenges and crises of our time. Building on this commitment, the network aims to discuss how to foster attitudes, reflexive thinking, and a framework for meta-reflection, enabling students to understand the societal and environmental dimensions of science and technology. To facilitate symmetrical discussion, the network comprises lecturers and students from both SSH and STEM fields. Student network members, for example, run workshops on methods that facilitate the collaborative development of knowledge, and actively take part in discussions about the network’s future direction during our online meetings.

Finally, the network emphasizes the university’s core role in teaching, which we understand as characterized by both pedagogical care and institutional responsibility: Interdisciplinary teaching is essential to educate students to find innovative and ethically just responses to societal questions. Many of our students act as multipliers, passing on the knowledge and skills they acquire during their studies to various sectors of society– such as schools, professional fields, or political contexts– and shaping future discourse and decisions.

To that end, the network holds regular meetings both online and in-person to

  • discuss current challenges of interdisciplinary learning and teaching,
  • explore how critical teaching and learning approaches can contribute to the co-creation of responsible and resilient technoscientific futures within higher education,
  • examine how creative and participatory teaching formats (learning journals; teammoderations; video assignments) can foster critical thinking and reflexivity, and encourage students to take responsibility for their own learning process,
  • reflect on the evolving role of the educator, not as a ’neutral’ transmitter of knowledge, but as a facilitator of critical, participatory, and future-oriented learning processes, and to
  • explore strategies for integrating and institutionalizing SSH teaching within STEM.

Upcoming events

 Our next 2-day in-person workshop will take place on November 19 & 20, 2026 at the STS Department of the Technical University of Munich. Scholars and students from STS, the social sciences and humanities as well as from responsible research and innovation, research ethics, and from within STEM fields interested in SSH topics and approaches are welcome to attend the workshop. We will publish the workshop agenda prior to the event. If you have questions or would like to participate, please reach out to the network coordinators Helene Sorgner (helene.sorgner@univie.ac.at) and Georgia Samaras (georgia.samaras@tum.de).

Previous events:

Resources

Database for Key Texts for Teaching S-T-S in STEM (work in progress)

Interested in the network/Would you like to become a member?

The network hosts a mailing list for scholars and students who are interested in discussing approaches for teaching S-T-S in STEM. It mainly informs about upcoming events and meetings of the network. If you would like to join the list, please write to lisa.sigl@tuwien.ac.at, with a brief paragraph on your background, and why you are interested in joining the network (incl. the kinds of courses you have organized or participated in). 

News

Publications, talks, panels at conferences, etc.