Sciencey Girls: Discourses Supporting Working-Class Girls to Identify with Science

Spela Godec

doi:10.3390/educsci8010019

Abstract

Women from working class and some ethnic minority backgrounds continue to be underrepresented in science, particularly in areas such as physical sciences and engineering. Many find it difficult to see science as something that is “for them”, which then has implications for their learning and participation in science. In this paper, I discuss findings from a U.K.-based qualitative study with 15 working-class girls, aged 11 to 13, from diverse ethnic backgrounds. Data were collected over the course of one academic year, through interviews and discussion groups with the girls and interviews with their science teachers, and analysed through a post-structural gender lens. The paper foregrounds five science-identifying girls, who negotiated their identification and engagement with science through the following discursive strategies: (i) rendering gender invisible, (ii) drawing attention to the presence of women in science, (iii) reframing “science people” as caring and nurturing, and (iv) cultural discourses of desirability of science. The findings contribute to the understanding of how working class girls—who are often “othered” and constructed as “unintelligible” within the dominant discursive regime of prototypical science—find identification with science possible. The paper discusses the affordances and challenges of each discursive strategy.

Highlights

IntroductionStudying how learners identify with science is important for understanding their learning and participation
Identification with Science and Its Potential for Examining Social Equity Issues in Science EducationStudying how learners identify with science is important for understanding their learning and participation
The study presented in this paper focuses on working class, ethnically diverse girls aged 11–13

Summary

Introduction

Studying how learners identify with science is important for understanding their learning and participation. Students who see science as something that is—or could be—for them are likely to engage more with the subject [2,3,4]. Those who see science as being in conflict with who they are and want to become might experience difficulties engaging with science. The latter are more likely to risk school science failure and opt out from participating in post-compulsory science courses, as well as pursuing science-related careers [5,6].

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