How Scientists are Portrayed in NSTA Recommends Books

Abstract

If you use trade books or picture books in your science teaching, how do you choose which books to use with your students? How important is that decision? Do you rely on someone else to evaluate the books so you are assured of their appropriateness and quality? We used the Draw-A-Scientist Test Checklist to examine the illustrations, images, or photographs of scientists portrayed in picture books promoted for use in elementary and middle school classrooms by the National Science Teachers Association in their NSTA Recommends book lists for the last three years. Results revealed that there was much consistency in how scientists were portrayed in the books across the three years, but there were also issues with appropriate numbers of representations of minorities, women, and age of scientists.

Differences and Similarities in Scientists’ Images Among Popular USA Middle Grades Science Textbooks

“…Further, women and minority scientists have significantly less representation in all texts, echoing the findings of research of scientists' images in undergraduate science textbooks Wood et al, 2020). That being said, women were found as named and unnamed scientists within science textbooks, which may help to explain why girls' drawings of female scientists have been significantly risen since the 1950s (Mead & Metraux, 1957) and into the first two decades of the new millennium (Finson et al, 2017;Narayan et al, 2009). Further, scientists are shown engaging in scientific activity with PPE, suggesting to students that scientists exercise caution when engaging in scientific endeavors.…”

“…Images are powerful since they have the power to insight emotions, construct information, confirm or refute stereotypes (Weber & Mitchell, 1995). For children and adolescent learners, images play in influential role in their perceptions of scientists, which have evidenced by the plethora of research exploring scientists in film (Steinke, 2005), the media (Steinke et al, 2006(Steinke et al, , 2007(Steinke et al, , 2009, television (Steinke et al, 2008), trade books (Finson et al, 2017;Ford, 2006), and on the internet (Fujiwara et al, 2021). Thus, the exploration of students' perceptions of science and scientists is not a new endeavor, starting with early research by Mead and Metraux (1957), continuing to present day (e.g., Ferguson & Lezotte, 2020) and expanding internationally (e.g., Chionas & Emvalotis, 2021).…”

Exploring science educators’ reproduction and subversion of gender stereotyping in a College of Education in Nigeria.

“…For instance, in 2014 men were 64% of those represented, and in 2015/2016 70%. This shows skewed representation against women (Finson, Farland-Smith, & Arquette, 2018). In Nigeria, 20% of females in the north-western and eastern parts have low access to science education.…”