Abstract
This article proposes a theoretical model for integrating music and religious education into STEM by reframing them as cultural sciences, disciplines that generate symbolic, ethical, relational, and meaning-making forms of knowledge essential for 21st-century learning. While technocratic models of STEM emphasize quantification, efficiency, and innovation, they often marginalize the humanistic and spiritual dimensions of education that support ethical discernment, cultural literacy, and communal responsibility. Drawing on epistemic pluralism, transdisciplinary studies, educational philosophy, theology, and music pedagogy, this study outlines a four-dimensional framework, epistemic integration, transdisciplinary learning, ethical praxis, and spiritual-communal ways of knowing, that positions music and religious education not as supplemental arts or belief-based electives, but as rigorous epistemic partners within an expanded STEM paradigm. The model highlights the critical role of cultural sciences in forming learners who can navigate socio-technical complexity with wisdom, relational competence, and moral imagination. Implications for faith-based institutions, secular schools, and cross-disciplinary curriculum design are discussed, emphasizing the need for educational structures that cultivate whole-person development and the common good.
Recommended Citation
Auh, Yoonil; Cho, Minjeong; and Hwang, Sang-eun
(2026)
"Reintegrating Wisdom: A Cultural-Sciences Framework for Linking Music, Faith, and STEM Education,"
The Journal of Faith, Education, and Community: Vol. 8:
Iss.
1, Article 1.
Available at:
https://scholarworks.sfasu.edu/jfec/vol8/iss1/1