Proceedings of The 6th Global Conference on Women’s Studies
Year: 2024
DOI:
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Research on Issues and Strategies in Natural and Scientific Education from a Gender Equality Perspective
Xin Yu Zhang
ABSTRACT:
One of the goals of gender equality education is to incorporate a gender-sensitive approach into teaching materials and methods across various subjects in school education, aiming to foster students’ gender sensitivity and respect for the rights of different gender groups. However, in the generally perceived “objectively neutral” field of science and technology education, the question of how teachers should integrate gender issues and even break the myth of “science being objectively neutral” remains a subject worthy of exploration. Typically, teachers in the classroom often lack training in the field of “Gender and Science” or an understanding of gender issues in the domain of science and technology education. They might even consider science and technology as “hard” subjects that have no room for “gender,” which belongs to the realm of the social and humanities. Consequently, they may find the task of integrating gender issues into science and technology education quite challenging.This article aims to compile insights from previous literature on the subject of gender and science issues, highlighting various aspects of natural and scientific education where gender concerns are relevant. These aspects include the idea that science is “gendered,” potential gender biases in scientific content, issues arising from anthropomorphizing or storytelling in science teaching, the potential for science to be an accomplice in gender discrimination, and the risk of reinforcing the “men and women are different” narrative, which may rationalize gender bias. Based on these issues, specific teaching strategies are proposed to assist educators in the classroom. These strategies involve referring to “female scientists” as examples when teaching about “scientists,” using “creativity” to avoid replicating gender stereotypes, interpreting science without human or heterosexual bias, emphasizing gender diversity to avoid reinforcing scientific authority, and highlighting that science is fallible while avoiding the emphasis on differences in male and female brains. These strategies offer guidance for teachers in the classroom and are designed to assist educators in incorporating the spirit of gender equality into their science and technology curricula. This research contributes to the realization of gender equality in education objectives, especially for in-service teachers instructing courses predominantly focused on science and technology content.
keywords: Gender Equality, Natural and Scientific Education, Scientific Knowledge