It's Not My Style: Using Disclaimers to Ignore Gender Issues in Science

Abstract

The authors of National Science Education Standards consider equitable science education prerequisite to a scientifically literate society (National Research Council, 1996). Issues of equity and teaching, critical thinking, and problem-solving skills are inherent in discussions about science education reform (National Research Council, 1996; Rutherford & Ahlgren, 1990). Refocusing the goals of K-12 science education increases the need for science teachers to acquire more equitable teaching strategies. Gender studies in science education have focused on the sociocultural variables affecting students' subject choices (Eccles, 1989), intervention programs (Kahle & Meece, 1994), exemplary science teachers (Tobin & Fraser, 1987, 1990), teachers' public gender role (Tobin, Kahle, & Fraser, 1990), and students' views about science (Kahle & Meece, 1994). Recent reports on gender indicate that the Sputnik-era analysis of teaching may be inadequate for problems undermining adolescent girls' education (Eder, Evans, & Parker, 1995; Greenberg-Lake, 1994; Harris & Associates, 1993; Orenstein, 1994; Pipher, 1994; Schultz, 1991; Wellesley Center for Research on Women, 1992). For over two decades, researchers have studied the masculine image of science and its effect on recruitment and retention of women and girls into science, engineering, and technology fields. Keller (1992) argues that the image of science cannot change without challenging traditional concepts of masculinity and femininity. An explanation for science teaching's failure to reach girls is that many preservice science teacher education programs do not address the interwoven concepts of gender and science and how students' and teachers' different understandings of gender and science may affect their attitudes, beliefs, classroom behaviors, and expectations. Teachers' unconscious acceptance of gender-role stereotypes in science may influence their behaviors and teaching practices. Girls may receive fewer opportunities than boys to answer questions, use science equipment, and participate in science activities. Teachers may perceive boys' work to be more important than girls' work (Kahle & Meece, 1994). Teacher behaviors and practices reinforce the concept that science is a subject in which boys participate successfully more often than girls do. Kennedy (1990) suggests that successful inservice programs addressing changes in teachers' classroom practices should force them to question their experiences and to question the beliefs that are based on those experiences. Teacher education faculty may teach equity in education, but when one considers who takes and teaches science at tertiary-level institutions, universities are poor examples of equity in educational settings (Crozier & Menter, 1993; Scantlebury, 1994). Gender blindness does not begin when teachers enter their own classrooms. Martin (1991) challenges science educators to take responsibility for incorporating discussions about gender equity into science education. Many teachers are gender blind, believing that the equity issues in science teaching are resolved. Prospective teachers must consider how subtle and pervasive attitudes toward gender blindness may affect their classroom practices. Teacher education students have strong ideas about teachers and teaching from years of observation (Dunkin, Precians, & Nettle, 1994; Feiman-Nemser & Buchmann, 1987). Although Dunkin et al. (1994) imply that formal teacher education programs can influence preservice teachers' concepts about teaching, Feiman-Nemser and Buchmann (1987) argue that it is difficult for student teachers to critique what occurs in classrooms when they teach or in the classrooms of the teachers they observe. Preservice teachers often hold strong traditional attitudes toward gender-role stereotypes (Scantlebury, 1990). Field experiences in schools and conservative entities replicating and reinforcing traditional gender-role stereotypes may reinforce prospective teachers' stereotypic attitudes. …