Establishing an effective STEAM education environment in South Korea: libraries as a STEAM learning space

South Korea has been promoting integrated STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) education to nurture talents with core competencies for future society. The library, one of the informal learning environments, has been attracting attention as an effective space for STEAM education. This study explores Korean libraries as a STEAM educational environment. The goal of this study is to understand the situation in Korea regarding STEAM education and to find a future direction for libraries to serve as effective informal STEAM learning environments. To this end, the research questions explored were: 1) What policies and strategies have been implemented in Korea for STEAM education?; 2) What were the best practices of libraries as a space for STEAM education?; 3) What are the challenges and conditions necessary to adapt the library as an environment for STEAM education in Korea?. From the findings, implications related to research questions are drawn, and approaches to improving the library as a STEAM education environment are discussed. It is expected that future policy recommendations and suggestions for necessary conditions derived through research questions will be helpful in establishing an effective STEAM education environment in South Korea.Master of Science (Information Studies