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Schools in Australia and internationally are responding to calls to offer new and innovative learning opportunities in STEM. STEM stands for Science, Mathematics, Engineering and Mathematics, but when amalgamated into the acronym ‘STEM’ can potentially mean more than the sum of the four parts. In choosing how to respond to the STEM ‘push’, schools must first navigate through the many ‘versions’ of STEM emerging within the education community, and then face the task of upskilling teachers in content and language, teaching approaches, and new technology and equipment. Professional development of teachers plays an important part in assisting teachers and schools in this period of innovation and change. This chapter describes one such professional development project where teachers from ten schools in regional Victoria, Australia, were supported in developing new knowledge, language, pedagogy, and curriculum to support their development of a ‘STEM vision’ for their schools. The activities developed by these schools are outlined to illustrate that they each have taken a different approach to STEM, with case studies showing how these activities were developed. The factors critical to the success of the program are outlined, which have implications for a policy response, as well as challenges that may threaten the sustainability of such initiatives.

This chapter describes the use and modification of the tools of the STEPS Interpretive Framework as part of a teacher professional development program for STEM teachers. The tools were used to assist with establishing partnerships with schools that were important for determining the content, timing and nature of the professional learning program cycles. The use of the Interpretive Framework as a mediating tool that both changes the nature of the activity and is also changed by the activity is discussed.

The current STEM education agenda is driven by the belief that STEM skills are crucial to innovation and development in our contemporary, technological, knowledge-based, competitive global economy (Office of the Chief Scientist, Science, technology, engineering and mathematics: Australia’s future. Australian Government, Canberra, 2014; Australia’s STEM workforce: science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Australian Government, Canberra, 2016). This chapter articulates a comprehensive, multifaceted and coherent STEM vision that addresses the subtle and complex challenge of preparing “twenty-first-century” citizens within the constraints of a traditional school system and curriculum. For STEM education to be incorporated effectively and sustainably in schools, a STEM vision needs to be inclusive of school-specific needs. In this chapter, we report on our preliminary insights from a teacher professional development programme operating in ten schools in Victoria, Australia, designed to develop year 7 and 8 science, technology and mathematics teachers’ capacity to teach STEM. Evaluative data from the first year of this three-year programme is presented to illustrate the variety of classroom activities that can arise from a comprehensive STEM vision. The research is showing that a STEM vision needs to be more than discrete STEM-related activities slotted into an already bulging curriculum to be sustainable.