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- Anderssson, Kristina, 1961-, et al.
(författare)
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Chafing borderlands : Obstacles for Science Teaching and Learning in Teacher Education
- 2014
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- A major Western concern is that young people avoid science and technology programs. At various times, and in different countries, governments, funding agencies and businesses have made large investments in recruitment campaigns with the objective to increase students’ interest and attract new groups of students to these disciplines. In particular, girls and women have been the target group for many of these campaigns. The assumption is that if young people understood how exciting and interesting science is, they would choose these subjects. In other words, the problem is that young people "don’t understand what is best for their own good". In addition, research has shown that primary and pre-school student teachers often feel alienated by science education (Appleton & Kindt 2002) and that it may be difficult for these students to reconcile the role of teacher of young children with the role of science teacher in their identity formation (Danielsson & Warwick 2012). However, feminist science educators suggest that students’ lack of interest is caused by character and image of the disciplines (Brickhouse 2001; Scantlebury 2012). Feminist philosophers’ of science have challenged the view of natural sciences as objective, and argue that knowledge production is human activities that are socially and culturally situated (Haraway 1988; Harding 1986). A noted problem with science is its elitist image. Science is portrayed as difficult and demanding, and as requiring a special talent from those who study or engage with the discipline. A feminist pedagogical stance is to visualize and discuss cultural, social, and historical dimensions of science. This has also proved advantageous for the acquiring of science content knowledge (Sible et al 2006). Therefore, we argue, that one important aspect of science teacher education is to problematize science (education), e.g. by including feminist critiques of science (Capobianco 2007; Mayberry 1998).In this paper we explore the impact of a feminist teaching intervention within teacher education, focusing on the research question: What occurs when students are situated in the encounter between feminist critique of natural sciences and teacher education? What kind of obstacles can be identified and how will these effect pre-service teachers’ pedagogy of science? The intervention, data collection and analysisIn an ongoing research and intervention project we are studying how an increased awareness of gender issues in science and in science teaching among student teachers influences their identities as teachers, and their teaching of science. We have followed a cohort of approximately 120 pre-service teachers (early years to lower secondary) from two universities in Sweden, through their first year of science courses. As an integral part of these science courses our intervention has introduced critical perspectives on gender and science as related to the culture of science and a feminist critique of the sciences. The project as a whole is framed theoretically by Hirdman's (1990) and Harding's (1986) theories of gender order in society, where gender is constituted on different levels: the structural, the symbolic and the individual (Harding 1986; Hirdman 1990; Rubin 1975). Hirdman (1990) describes this pattern from two perspectives: first, the separation of the two sexes and second, the superior status of the male standard. The formation of gender consolidates differences between the sexes and the female gender is always subordinate the male one, independent of status, class, time, and space.
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- Anderssson, Kristina, 1962-, et al.
(författare)
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Lärarutbildares naturvetenskap under lupp - : en studie i gränslandet mellan ämnesdiscipliner och skolämnen
- 2019
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Ingår i: Resultatdialog 2019. - Stockholm : Swedish Research Council, Vetenskapsrådet. - 9789188943224 ; , s. 10-13
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Bokkapitel (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Universitetslärare i biologi, fysik och kemi lägger ingen större vikt vid att det finns lärarstudenter bland eleverna och deras uppfattning om ämnesdidaktik är diffus. Ofta sätter instrumenttunga laboratorier osynliga ramar för vad som är legitimt att fokusera. Studenter med annat fokus riskerar att stötas ut. Kulturen på institutionerna gör att ämneslärarstudenter matas med budskap om att undervisning är något underordnat – vilket sannolikt påverkar deras syn på utbildningsval, självbild och framtida yrkesroll som specialister på just undervisning. Vi har studerat lärarutbildares syn på sina ämnen och hur denna manifesteras i utbildningen.
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- Anderssson, Kristina, 1962-, et al.
(författare)
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What is science in preschool and what do teachers have to know to empower the children?
- 2014
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Ingår i: Cultural Studies of Science Education. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1871-1502 .- 1871-1510. ; 9:2, s. 275-296
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- In this article we problematize the purpose of teaching science in preschool and the competences preschool teachers need in order to conduct science activities in the classroom. The empirical data were collected through an action research project with five preschool and primary school teachers (K-6). In the first section of this paper we use one situation, a floating–sinking experiment, as an illustration of how two different epistemological perspectives generate different foci on which kind of science teaching competences can be fruitful in preschool settings. In the first perspective, the central goal of science teaching is the development of the children’s conceptual understanding. With this perspective, we found that the science activities with children were unsuccessful, because their thoughts about concepts did not develop as expected, the situation even enhanced a‘‘misconception’’ concerning density. Moreover, the teacher was unsuccessful in supportingthe children’s conceptual learning. The second perspective uses a feminist approach that scrutinizes science, where we investigate if the floating–sinking activity contributes to a feeling of participation in a scientific context for the children and if so how the teacher promotes this inclusion. This second perspective showed that the children’s scientific proficiency benefited from the situation; they had a positive experience with density which was reinforced by the teacher. The children discovered that they had power over their own learning by using an experimental approach. On the basis of these findings, we conclude that there are competences other than subject matter knowledge that are also important when preschool teachers engage children in scientific activities. Through process-oriented work with the teacher group, we identified four concrete skills: paying attention to and using children’s previous experiences; capturing unexpected things that happen at the moment they occur; asking questions that challenge the children and that stimulate further investigation; creating a situated presence, that is, ‘‘remaining’’ in the situation and listening to the children and their explanations. We discuss possible ways to move preschool teachers away from their feelings of inadequacy and poor self-confidence in teaching science by reinforcing this kind of pedagogical content knowledge.
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