Who are the leaders? A discussion on distributed leadership to promote interdisciplinary STEM education in primary schools

Although interdisciplinary STEM education is receiving increasing emphasis in many curriculum documents and policy reports, there appears inadequate practices or research to guide schools to distribute the leadership and responsibilities to promote quality curriculum and learning outcomes. This paper provides a critical literature review and discussion on deploying distributed leadership to design, implement and promote interdisciplinary STEM education in ICT-enhanced environments of primary schools. Possibilities of distributed leadership for effective STEM practices are proposed. It is recommended that school principals should build up strategic partnerships with higher education institutions, school sectors, communities, and industries. Head teachers of relevant disciplines are encouraged to closely work with each other, take an active part in planning an integrated curriculum, and seek frontline teachers’ advice on designing in-class or out-of-classroom STEM activities. ICT Head shall keep the teachers abreast of the latest technologies and tools that can facilitate ICT-enriched learning and teaching environment and provide timely support for the frontline teachers. Finally, it is essential for frontlines teachers of various disciplines to collect first-hand data and provide feedback to the whole team after implementing the interdisciplinary STEM activities with their students. Further, the challenges and the direction of future studies are summarized. Copyright © 2022 Global Chinese Conference on Computers in Education.