I worry about my science students

I worry about my 8th grade students as I observe that many doubt their own abilities, hide their success, and question their role as a science student. Many of the students’ views about science remain as an authoritative, unchanging, fixed body of knowledge. I believe that many are learning what is being taught, earning good grades, but may have lost their passion for science. Others are lost because their interests do not match the school’s direction and a greater disconnect in their own learning seems to develop. From conversations with my 8th grade female students, I learned that many are no longer thrilled with new discoveries or have lost the “I wonder” mentality that once occupied their minds as they explore their world. So much of their academic lives are driven by grades, that I question the motivation of my students to do well in science and to continue in the field of science. As a student I learned the “lessons of silence, how I had come to censor my own ideas and doubt the efficacy of my actions” (Orenstein & American Association of University Women., 1994). Decades of feminist scholarship has persuasively shown that science continues to have a masculine ideology influencing the practice of science that hinders the success of women in the scientific community. As recommended by the American Association of University Women (AAUW), strengthening the reinforcement of Title IX is essential (AAUW, 1995). The AAUW list several recommendations and one in particular resonates with me: teachers must help girls develop positive views of themselves and their future, as well as an understanding of the obstacles women must overcome in a society where their options and opportunities are still limited by gender stereotypes and assumptions (AAUW, 1995). As a middle school student in the 1980’s and a science teacher beginning in the late 1990’s, I have not seen this recommendation take full flight in middle schools. Today the images and success of women in science may be more positive than when I was growing up, but they have not been radically reshaped. I believe that negative stereotypes still persist and that there is still a lack of images and stories of women in science (Etzkowitz, Kemelgor, & Uzzi, 2000).

Women have made dramatic advances in the workforce in the past few decades in the U.S. and many other nations. Despite this progress, women are still underrepresented in many fields related to science, technology, and engineering, and math (STEM, 2014). For example, among the recent doctoral degrees awarded in the U.S., women accounted for 27% in mathematics, 15% in physics, 20% in computer science, and 18% in engineering. There is strong evidence that combination of social and personal factors contribute to gender imbalances in STEM achievement (Halpern, Benbow, Geary, Gur, & Hyde, 2007). Social influences include the relative degrees of encouragement that girls may experience to do well in science. Personal influences include gender-related variations in self-schemata and attitudes that can shape girls’ motivation in STEM; similar to the connectedness and relationship expressed in earlier research. In a recent study, when peers are viewed as valuing math and science, girls were more likely to perceive these subjects as self-relevant (Leaper, Farkas, & Brown, 2012). Personal factors were also influential in girls’ achievement in science. Learning about feminism and endorsing gender equality were positively associated with girls’ motivation in science (Leaper et al., 2012).

Even after many years in the field of education, continued research in ways of thinking and best-practice, as well as additional training in the pedagogy of middle school years of young adolescents, I find myself wondering even more how adolescents think, what they value, what interests them, what they believe, what they know, and what they wish for. I know that each of my students learn in his/her unique way and I know that it is important for me to learn more about them in order to be an effective teacher, but I embarrassed to admit that I have not been successful when I go directly to my students to learn how they view the world, school and their educational career. I have come to a realization that I doubt my own abilities as an effective teacher. I hide my successes and torment in the thoughts of my failures. I am questioning my role as a mentor to my students and wonder if I am a true feminist that can be strong in her convictions, be heard and stand up for others. My own views about science continue to shift and I continue to struggle to let others know what I care about. I care for my students. I want to believe that I am feminist and a reform-minded teacher educator. Possibly because I came to science teaching and education later in my life, after years of experience in research science, I am more aware of my responsibilities of science teaching. I know that my own experiences have influenced me to be the person I am today. I recognize that the transformations transpired and that it has been a feminist consciousness-raising path.

At an Intersection of Science, Gender, and Teaching

I have become a stronger scholar, science educator, scientist, and woman as I walked the path I paved with the choices I made along with the people who have influenced me throughout the years. I recognize that others have paved many parts of this path for me. One main intersection of great interest to me places my gender and my career choice at a crossroad. As I continue in my profession I wish to examine this intersection and look at it critically. I wish to examine how these experiences, influences, understandings and struggles in science for women contribute to my growth as a science teacher.

This quest is grounded in my teaching commitments, which have grown from my experiences as a woman, a teacher, an educational scholar, and a research scientist. The challenge that fast approaches this quest is centered on the fact that feminism fears a pervasiveness of othering, the socializing of women and men in groups of oppressors and the oppressed, and the fear of kyriarchy theory as the norm within our society. The word “kyriarchy” itself is a neologism coined by Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza in 1992 to describe her theory of interconnected, interacting, and self-extending systems of domination and submission, in which a single individual might be oppressed in some relationships and privileged  in others (Tuohy, 2005). 

The fear continues as feminism recognizes that a totalizing theory that encompasses all feminist inquiries in this subject matter may become the norm with those with relative power tending to remain in power, while those without tend to remain disenfranchised. Feminism challenges the “we” in feminist empiricism and the feminist standpoint theory by clarifying the notion that the implication of paradoxical tendencies in today’s society allows for each individual to seek their own personal knowledge-seeking road within the scientific world. It is my belief that in this feminist era there is a movement for social justice that may offer the freedom to formulate new ways of thinking about science and new ways of doing science.