education != schooling ;

How have we conflated education with schooling this well?

Britanica: “education, discipline that is concerned with methods of teaching and learning in schools or school-like environments as opposed to various nonformal and informal means of socialization (e.g., rural development projects and education through parent-child relationships).” https://www.britannica.com/topic/education

Wikipedia: “Education is the transmission of knowledge, skills, and character traits and manifests in various forms.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education

Cambridge Dictionary: “the process of teaching or learning, especially in a school or college, or the knowledge that you get from this” https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictio.../english/education

Oxford Dictionary: “ a process of teaching, training and learning, especially in schools, colleges or universities, to improve knowledge and develop skills” https://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/.../education

The dictionary is a symptom. This is rampant in the imaginations of most folks working as “education researchers” Even more so, in “STEM Education research” → In a way, we have abandoned education for schooling.

“Education”, by which people are supposed to find their own voices towards liberation from oppressive systems, is turned into “schooling,” the acquisition and repetition of others’ knowledge towards socialisation and reproduction of oppressive value systems.

We need to ask ourselves, especially in STEM education research:
Is my project on education or on schooling?