In a study published in the Journal of Research in Science Teaching (November, 2008), Brotman and Moore explore current research (in the past 12 years) in the field of gender and science education.  In their study, Girls and Science: A Review of Four Themes in the Science Education Literature, the authors created a landscape of research on gender and science teaching that included resulted in four important themes.  Studies related to each theme were identified, and used to explore the significance and future implications of each of these themes.  Here are the themes they constructed:

• A Focus on Equity and Access—This theme identifies and explores the inequities that girls face in science by looking at studies that work toward eliminating these inequities by increasing girls access to “equitable” science experiences and activities.
• A Focus on Curriculum and Pedagogy—From the previous theme, it becomes evident that curriculum and pedagogical practice need to change so that experiences, interests, and learning styles of girls are recognized.
• A Focus on Reconstructing the Nature and Culture of Science—In this theme, the authors explore the intersections between race, class and gender, and indeed explore the notion of “multicultural” science education.  The authors also explore how science has been used to oppress and women and other groups, and further explore how science has been viewed as objective and unbiased.  Emerging from this theme are “feminist epistemologies.”
• A Focus on Identity—Here the researchers explore the notion that “for students to learn science, they need to see their own multifaceted identities coinciding with the pursuit of science.”  This theme argues against simple binary oppositions (male vs female, for instance).

In The Art of Teaching Science, we explore the importance of feminist perspectives on how students learn science.  In this regards, we put it this way:

From a feminist perspective, experiential teaching provides learning activities in which the goal is the transformation of student identities.  We should not ask ourselves why more students do not want to engage in science, but rather, we should ask ourselves what we can do to make science more inviting to all students.  We need to realize that people choose to join various communities based on what they can give and receive by participation.  Thus, we must be responsive to learner diversity in terms of their funds of knowledge and intellectual strengths that are unique to the individual, yet often culturally or gender patterned.

In the review of the research, the authors pointed out the importance of teacher education in helping prospective and current teachers to further their understanding of feminist perspectives.  Helping teachers transform their own practice is fundamental to applying the research on girls and science.  In the next post, I’ll make some comments on transforming practice.