STEM and SHAPE: two sides of the same coin

In this article, we reflect on the ideas about multidisciplinarity that have emerged in some of our latest resources, including a podcast featuring Dr Sarath Janga from Indiana University Indianapolis, an interview with Professor Julia Black, co-founder of the SHAPE initiative, and a programme that we sponsored on Teacher Talk Radio featuring Professor Julia Black and Professor Louise Archer, who led the ASPIRES project.

Subject silos

“Across the world, kids are put into silos,” says Dr Sarath Janga, speaking on our Futurum careers podcast. “If you are good at biology, chemistry and physics you go one route. If you are good in math, physics, and chemistry you go another route, and the biology and math don’t interact.” This strict separation of subjects does not reflect how things work in the real world, where even subjects as distinct as physics and art, chemistry and history, and maths and music are constantly overlapping.

While subjects are often grouped into neat acronyms such as STEM (science, technology, engineering and maths) and SHAPE (social sciences, humanities and arts for people and the economy), it is important to remember that these artificial boundaries are not solid, but porous.

“There is so much overlap between STEM and SHAPE subjects,” says Professor Lousie Archer, speaking on the Futurum sponsored episode of Teacher Talk Radio. “The further you get with a subject, the more you realise that actually, it all mixes and there aren’t these rigid boundaries. I’d love it if we could find ways to support young people to recognise that so that we don’t silo everything off so much. When you do projects and bits of work that draw across all of these subjects, you can really see those points of intersection and get that added value.”

The added value of multidisciplinarity

If you limit yourself to studying only STEM subjects, or only SHAPE subjects, you may be shutting yourself off from new ideas and ways of thinking. On the other hand, studying a variety of subjects gives you a variety of perspectives, a variety of ways to view the world around you.

“At the government level, everything has been about how we need more people in STEM, and political funding has been skewed towards STEM training and research, at the expense of SHAPE,” says Professor Julia Black in our special SHAPE-focused issue. “We want to push back against this and argue for a broad-based curriculum.” Later, speaking on the Futurum sponsored episode of Teacher Talk Radio, Julia continued this idea saying, “Studying SHAPE subjects can open up your mind. They are hugely varied and each comes with different mindsets from objective and analytical to subjective, expressive and creative. They can change how you understand and perceive the world.”

Being able to approach problems and challenges from a variety of mindsets will help you as you progress through school and onto the next stages of your life.

A multidisciplinary workforce

“The future of the workforce is going to be multidisciplinary,” claims Sarath. You are more likely to excel in your career if you have a solid understanding of multiple disciplines and are able to integrate and combine your knowledge of them to solve problems. Being able to think about a problem from multiple perspectives is a challenge, but, as Sarath says, “You need to go beyond your comfort zone to be innovative.”

Even in highly technical careers, such as engineering and computer science, the creativity that is fostered by SHAPE subjects can be crucial. As Julia points out, “Some of the biggest advances in artificial intelligence (AI) are coming from the creative industries. Employers want employees with a range of skills, an ability to analyse and think creatively, and an understanding of the context behind their work. SHAPE disciplines provide all of these.”

Although Julia is an advocate of SHAPE subjects, she makes sure to point out that there needs to be a balance. “It’s incredibly important that promoting SHAPE is not at the expense of STEM, in the same way that promoting STEM should not be at the expense of SHAPE,” she says.

Collaboration between STEM and SHAPE subjects isn’t just important for personal development and innovation within the workforce; it could also hold the key to solving many of society’s biggest challenges.

Two sides of the same coin

“We’re facing enormous social challenges at the moment, and one of the most pressing is climate,” says Julia. “We are not going to get anywhere near climate mitigation and adaption unless we take the best insights from a range of disciplines.” Combating climate change is a huge challenge, and we will need to draw on STEM subjects, such as geography, engineering, meteorology and ecology, as well as SHAPE subjects, such as economics (to ensure a just transition), social sciences (to encourage behaviour change) and the arts (to engage people with the issue).

Another of society’s most pressing challenges is healthcare. “Chronic diseases such as diabetes and heart disease are now the biggest killers in Western countries,” says Julia. “To address these health issues, it is not enough to just have STEM professionals who understand how the body works and how to treat these conditions medically. We also need SHAPE professionals who understand how behaviours, societal influences and economic structures lead to these conditions.”

Although STEM and SHAPE subjects can often seem like polar opposites, the truth is that they are two sides of the same coin. The human mind is unique in its ability to reason, calculate and experiment; but it is also unique its ability to create, design and imagine, and, when we’re faced with a challenge, all of these abilities blend and blur to help us find a solution.

In the same way, STEM and SHAPE subjects can work in harmony to provide you with all the tools that you need to broaden your horizons, find new opportunities and, maybe one day, change the world.

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