Work

Gender performance in an out-of-school science context

Year: 2018

Type: article

Abstract: This article examines how school students perform gender during a visit to a science centre where they programme Lego cars. The focus is on how students relate to each other—how they talk and what they do. Theoretically, the article draws on the ‘heterosexual matrix’ and a Foucauldian understanding of how power and knowledge are tightly interwoven and that discursive practices regulate people’s possible positions and ways of being in different situations and contexts. The analysis is primarily based on video data from the science centre and a number of student interviews. The article gives several examples of how stereotypical gender performances are maintained but also challenged. This is important knowledge, because if we want to challenge norms, we first need to see them and understand how they are reproduced.

Source: Cultural Studies of Science Education

DOI: 10.1007/s11422-017-9851-z

Author: Eva Silfver

Institution: Umeå University

Language: English

Topic: Gender, Sexuality, and Education

Subfield: Gender Studies

Field: Social Sciences

Domain: Social Sciences

SDGs: Gender equality, Quality education, Reduced inequalities

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $3,290