What Kind of a Girl Does Science? The Construction of School Science Identities

Brickhouse, Nancy W.; Lowery, Patricia A.; Schultz, Katherine

doi:10.1002/(sici)1098-2736(200005)37:5<441::aid-tea4>3.0.co;2-3

Cited by 433 publications

(363 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Deconstructing stereotypes of scientists and their work (Rahm, 2007) by bringing students in contact with practising scientists is essential for allowing students an insight into the world of science, and what it means to think scientifically and to work as a scientist (Brickhouse, Lowery, & Schultz, 2000;Chen & Cowie, 2013). Smith and Mackie (2000) discuss how stereotypes of groups of people can be altered or rejected by individuals if they get in contact and interact with members of these groups.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meet the Scientist: The Value of Short Interactions Between Scientists and Students

Woods-Townsend

Christodoulou

Rietdijk

et al. 2015

International Journal of Science Education, Part B

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Students have been reported to have stereotypical views of scientists as middle-aged white men in lab coats. We argue that a way to provide students with a more realistic view of scientists and their work is to provide them with the opportunity to interact with scientists during short, discussion-based sessions. For that reason, 20 scientists from 8 professional areas were asked to share their experiences of becoming and being a scientist, in short sessions with groups of 7 -8 students. The student sample consisted of 223 students between 13 and 15 years. Student and scientist questionnaires were used before and after the sessions to assess students' views of scientists and their work, and scientists' experiences of interacting with students. The pre-session questionnaires revealed that students considered scientists as 'boring' and 'nerdy' whereas after the sessions students focused extensively on how 'normal' the scientists appeared to be. The faceto-face interactions with scientists allowed students to view scientists as approachable and normal people, and to begin to understand the range of scientific areas and careers that exist. Scientists viewed the scientist-student interactions as a vehicle for science communication. Implications discussed include the need for future training courses to focus on developing science communicators' questioning and interaction skills for effective interactions with students.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Meet the Scientist: The Value of Short Interactions Between Scientists and Students

Woods-Townsend

Christodoulou

Rietdijk

et al. 2015

International Journal of Science Education, Part B

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show abstract

“…Our results show that children during all the small aesthetic encounters learn whether they can continue with science activities or not. The aesthetic judgements of children thus are an important indicator of what they are learning in regard to themselves in science, which is a question of identity, that is, learning about your own place in relation to science (Brickhouse et al 2000;Wickman 2006). But it does not help a teacher just to render science in positive aesthetic terms during a lesson, as positive aesthetic expectations mediated by the teacher in the long run only could gain meaning to the children if resulting in positive aesthetic fulfilment, where the children themselves are given experiences that make sense to their scientific activities as a whole, including also the cognitive dimensions (Wickman 2006).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Roles of Aesthetic Experience in Elementary School Science

Jakobson

Wickman

2007

Res Sci Educ

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The role of aesthetic experiences for learning was examined in elementary school science. Numerous authors have argued for a science education also involving aesthetic experiences, but few have examined what this means empirically. Recordings of children's talk with each other and with the teacher during hands-on activities in nine different science units were made. How the children and teachers used aesthetic judgements and how these judgements were part of aesthetic experiences of the science assignments were analysed. For the analysis a pragmatist perspective was used, especially drawing on Dewey and the later Wittgenstein. The results showed how aesthetic judgements occurred in moments of anticipation and moments when the science activities were brought to fulfilment. In this way children used aesthetic judgements normatively about what belonged in science class and what to include and exclude. In this way aesthetic judgements were an important part of learning how to proceed in science class. In using aesthetic judgements the children also talked about their own place in science class and whether they belonged there or not. In this way aesthetic experience is tightly related to learning science as participation. Learning science also meant learning a special kind of aesthetics, that is, learning how to distinguish the science context from other contexts. The fact that children liked or disliked something outside school did not necessarily mean that it was experienced aesthetically in the same way in school, but needed to be re-learnt. What these results mean for science education is discussed at length. The connection between aesthetics and learning to observe is also briefly discussed.

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“…Instead of viewing the learner as an individual meaning maker, Lave and Wenger draw our attention to the learner's increasing participation in a community of social practice. This alerts us to the ways in which activities represent certain knowledge, learning, and identities (the meaning of being a scientist, a woman, an expert), and make these socially available to group members as they participate in activities over time (Brickhouse, Lowery, & Schultz, 2000;Eisenhart & Finkel, 1998;Lave & Wenger, 1991).…”

Section: Using Practice Theory To Define Culturementioning

confidence: 99%

The cultural production of science in reform‐based physics: Girls' access, participation, and resistance

2004

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Recent literature in science education suggests that, to transform girls' participation, learning, and identities within school science, we must think about ways to engage girls in different kinds of educational activities that promote broader meanings of science and scientist. This study was designed to examine more deeply this call for a changed science curriculum and its implications for girls' participation, interest, and emerging science identities. In this ethnographic study, I examine the culturally produced meanings of science and scientist in a reform-based physics classroom that used a curriculum called Active Physics, how these meanings reproduced and contested larger sociohistorical (and prototypical) meanings of science and scientist, and the ways girls participated within and against these meanings. The girls in this upper middle class school were mostly concerned with accessing and maintaining a good student identity (rather than connecting to science in any meaningful way) and resisted promoted meanings of science and scientist that they perceived as threatening to their good student identities. Their embrace of the ways school defined success (via grades and college admission) produced a meaning of Active Physics as a way to get credentials on a transcript and ensured their disconnection from real-world, meaningful science and science identities. The story of girls' participation and resistance in Active Physics complicates our quest for gender-fair science and highlights the power of sociohistorical meanings of schooling and science in producing educational subjects. ß

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What Kind of a Girl Does Science? The Construction of School Science Identities

Cited by 433 publications

References 18 publications

Meet the Scientist: The Value of Short Interactions Between Scientists and Students

Meet the Scientist: The Value of Short Interactions Between Scientists and Students

The Roles of Aesthetic Experience in Elementary School Science

The cultural production of science in reform‐based physics: Girls' access, participation, and resistance

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