Niet Eens Een Labjas? De veelstemmige verbeelding van wetenschappers en technologen in hedendaagse jeugdliteratuur. [Not Even a Lab Coat? The Polyphonic Imagination of Scientists and Technologists in Contemporary Youth Literature.] by Frauke Pauwels

Abstract

Reviewed by: Niet Eens Een Labjas? De veelstemmige verbeelding van wetenschappers en technologen in hedendaagse jeugdliteratuur. [Not Even a Lab Coat? The Polyphonic Imagination of Scientists and Technologists in Contemporary Youth Literature.] by Frauke Pauwels Toin Duijx NIET EENS EEN LABJAS? De veelstemmige verbeelding van wetenschappers en technologen in hedendaagse jeugdliteratuur. [NOT EVEN A LAB COAT? The Polyphonic Imagination of Scientists and Technologists in Contemporary Youth Literature.] By Frauke Pauwels. Universiteit Antwerpen, 2021, 391 pages. ISBN: None In 2021, Frauke Pauwels obtained her doctorate under strict COVID-19 measures at the University of Antwerp for a study about the imagination of scientists, among others, in contemporary children’s literature. Her dissertation (in Dutch) was published by the university and can be read online: file://vuw/Personal$/Homes /D/duijxawm/Downloads/179365.pdf. The Flemish government has put enormous efforts into stimulating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), in particular STEM education and STEM careers. Children are strongly encouraged to develop STEM skills from an early age. Children’s literature studies have been neglecting this topic. In her research project, Pauwels tries to fill that gap by analyzing images of science, technology, and its practitioners that have been spread through (mainly) Dutch children’s fiction and nonfiction for children. In the first chapter, Pauwels describes the context in which children are growing up nowadays. STEM policies can be situated within the transition toward a knowledge economy. Studies on STEM attitudes indicate that young people value science and technology; however, they do not consider building STEM careers. Several research projects showed that children who are interested in science are considered as nerds, as different from other children in their peer group. In children’s media, scientists tend to be presented as the alchemist, the idealist, the stupid virtuoso, the unemotional scientist, the adventurer, the mad scientist, or the helpless scientist. The second chapter discusses the way readers interpret narratives and engage with characters. Pauwels uses concepts and insights from cognitive and affective poetics to describe the connection of textual mechanisms with children’s readings and cognition, and refers to analyses and the corpus dealing with STEM characters. The next chapter gives an overview of the way prototypical scientists are represented in contemporary children’s books. She brilliantly analyzes children’s books in which scholars appear and shows that these are often very stereotypical in clothing, setting, and register. Scientists always seem to be wearing a lab coat, and most of them [End Page 77] are men, women being much less common. In chapter 4, Pauwels presents a second series of analyses. She demonstrates that several books of the corpus also offer stepping stones for empathy or identification with scientifically and technologically oriented characters. The portrayal of children as akin to scientists, or as scientists in becoming, as well as the suggestion that scientists differ from other people, is the most recurrent motif in the studied corpus. In the last chapter, Pauwels concentrates on the special topic “Children, Climate Change, and Science.” Children and youth have been united behind the science during climate debates and protests all over the world. In society and literature, children are symbolizing hope for the future and have been cast as saviors of the world. Nevertheless, science and technology are not part of the solutions in fiction. In several examples of the corpus, children’s acts on the basis of care and enchantment are rewarded, but scientists who help save the world can barely be found. Frauke Pauwels concludes her engaging and well-documented dissertation on a hopeful note: while science and technology are mostly represented as objective and rational, children’s literature adds other qualities to the scientific mindset, such as paying attention to nature, being curious, feeling enchanted, and caring for other beings and for the environment. That way, children’s literature can contribute to give another view on the aspects of STEM and prepare children for a changing society in which these aspects play an important role. Toin Duijx Leiden University Freelance staff member of the International Youth Library Copyright © 2023 Bookbird, Inc