Investigating pedagogy as contextual affirming creative practice in a time of crises: A PhEmaterialist approach.

This theoretical investigation responds to the affective impacts on young people due to the global pandemic and climate crises. Research across the globe shows that anxiety amongst young people is rising at alarming rates. One response to these crises has been a ‘turn’ to STEM, and even STEMM or STEAM in education. These various hierarchical configurations of subject areas have been purported as a saviour to knowledge our way out of future/present threats through advancements and engagement in Science and Technology. We critique this proposition and argue that the Science/Technology area is dominated with problematic maker-spaces, acronyms (STEM, STEMM, STEAM) and policy (critical and creative) which in fact prescriptively and paradoxically kill the very creativity of knowledge they pursue. We embrace the notion of ‘knowledge as a solution’ but our alternate theoretical focus is on considering the situational creative process emerging from embodied experiential ‘making’ and how this can be applied to incite young people with both a vision, joy and ethics to create a livable world they aspire to be a part of.