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Table 6 Parallel journey in the light of Bybee’s (2010) decade of action

From: Identity evolution of STEM teachers in Egyptian STEM schools in a time of transition: a case study

Year

MoE

ECASE

STEM teachers

Phase 1: Initiating STEM education reform

 2011–2012

Establishing boys’ STEM school

 2012–2013

Establishing girls STEM school

Decree 369/2011

No mention of STEM

ECASE not yet fully involved

Teachers were grappling with understanding STEM and how to implement without professional development support

Decree 202/2012

Official naming of the Egyptian Secondary Certificate (STEM Track)

Decree 382/2012

Detailed all components and requirement of the STEM schools

Start professional development for teachers and initiated design studio for work on curriculum development

Transformative professional experience for teachers started with professional development programs by experts in STEM, more involvement in curriculum design and redesign.

Phase II: Bringing STEM reform to scale

 2013–2014

Decree 172/2014

Created the STEM Unit (SU) to oversee the STEM schools all over the country

More professional development and work on curriculum with increased Egyptian collaboration to promote sustainability

Continued participation in curriculum development and leading the STEM experience in their schools. Issues of relevance and sustainability emerged.

 2014–2015

MoE officials began to be directly involved in the process in collaboration with the ECASE.

Continue the PD and curriculum work—involving STEM Unit

Teachers reached the peak of their professional learning despite changing of school principals and increased bureaucracy.

 2016–2017

STEM Unit began full control of the STEM schools.

MoE builds more STEM schools in different Governorates.

Preparing for phase out and transfer to STEM Unit as the grant came to a close

Frustration as some aspects of the mainstream education system merge in STEM schools—poor quality final exams, increased focus on bureaucracy over instructional quality, diminishing leadership.

 2017–2018

The number of STEM schools is 14.

Work on generating STEM standards for Egyptian STEM schools started.

Lower quality of teachers hired within the growing number of STEM schools.

  

Broader implementation of STEM vision to apply STEM best practices to mainstream science and mathematics curriculum

In the absence of ECASEa, PD was of lower quality and there were no new resources and equipment to support implementation. Yet, teachers are committed to their transformation and refuse to revert to traditional practices.

  1. aA new USAID funded program to support Egyptian STEM program was introduced in 2019–2020 with more emphasis on pre service and current teacher preparation and school management, but is outside the scope of this article (USAID, 2019)