When STEM and STEAM Really mean ABC: A Democratic Critique of Anything but Civics Schools

In this article, we discuss the rise of what we call ABC schools: Anything but Civics. These are STEM/STEAM schools and programs that orient their focus around teaching science, technology, engineering, and math subjects (sometimes adding the arts). We trouble the tendency toward individualistic and narrowly economic orientations in these programs and discuss strategies for reinfusing a democratic mission and vision into education (both within and beyond STEM/STEAM schools). In making our argument, we discuss competing purposes for education, argue for why today's context calls for democratic visions of education to take precedence, discuss the growth of STEM education along with problematic myths about STEM, identify the hidden curriculum of STEM (to support individualistic/corporate/capitalist visions for the purposes of schooling) and suggest both practical and idealistic paths forward.