Gendered storylines in science: Finding new teaching andlearning spaces.

GENDER differences in education; SCIENCE education; PHYSICAL sciences; WOMEN'S education; WOMEN science students; WOMEN physical scientists

Although science generates reliable information about the empirical world, science is a cultural and social activity. Feminist research in science has demonstrated that the creation of formal knowledge in science has been largely the province of men, and women's achievements, perspectives and accomplishments have only been most grudgingly admitted. Had women been allowed to participate equally with men in scientific endeavour, then, a different science of physics would have emerged, with different goals, constructs and aspirations. Physics is a gendered science and it is no accident that it claims both the highest status of any school science subject and — still — the lowest participation of girls and women, lagging far behind the advances made by women in the biological and chemical sciences. Science education has historically reflected the social processes by which science knowledge was generated. The gendered narratives of science education have made the work of a large number of female scientists virtually invisible to the classroom teacher.