A Critique of the Stem Pipeline: Young People’s Identities in Sweden and Science Education Policy

ABSTRACT

In this article, we develop critiques of the pipeline model which dominates Western science education policy, using discourse analysis of interviews with two Swedish young women focused on ‘identity work’. We argue that it is important to unpack the ways that the pipeline model fails to engage with intersections of gender, ethnicity, social class and nationality, and their impact on science and with debates about science as elitist and implicated in neoliberalism.

Keywords:

• ethnicity
• gender
• policy
• science
• social class
• STEM pipeline

7.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the teachers and students who took part in this study, particularly the real ‘Gabriella’ and ‘Ester’ for inspiring our work. We are grateful to John Airey, Sharon Gewirtz, Marie-Pierre Moreau and two anonymous reviewers for providing thoughtful feedback on an earlier draft. Finally, our thanks go to The Swedish Research Council for funding the study on which this article draws (dnr. 2012-5472).

8. Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The Swedish Research Council for funding the study on which this article draws (dnr. 2012-5472).