Science and its 'Other': Looking underneath 'woman' and 'science' for new directions in research on gender and science education

Abstract

In this article, the author argues that, despite recent increases in the participation and achievement of girls in school science programmes, the problem of gender and science education has not been solved, but is simply re-emerging at other sites. The author argues that much of the published research on gender and science education reproduces, rather than solves, the problem, through the way in which it assumes, rather than examines, the two central terms of the problem. The author argues that, if the problem of gender and science education is produced via certain of the assumptions which underlie its two central terms - that is, 'gender' and 'science' - then its solution must involve the deconstruction of those terms. Part of the article begins this deconstruction. This is followed by an account of how this material might be used to design school science programmes which are capable of allowing young women to participate in science as women, rather than as 'substitute' men.