| 1. |
|
|
| 2. |
- Danielsson, Anna T., Professor, 1978-, et al.
(author)
-
Young Peoples’ Online Science Practices as a Gateway to Higher Education STEM
- 2023
-
In: Research in science education. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0157-244X .- 1573-1898. ; 53:4, s. 759-770
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The purpose of this manuscript is to explore how students perceive that online practices have enabled their participation in university physics programmes. In order to conceptualise how students bridge their science participation across physical and online spaces, we make use of the learning ecology perspective. This perspective is complemented with the notion of science capital, analysing how students have been able to strengthen different aspects of science capital through online participation. Data has been generated through semi-structured interviews guided by a timeline, constructed in collaboration between the interviewer and the interviewee. Twenty-one students enrolled in higher education physics have been interviewed, with a focus on their trajectories into higher education physics. The findings focus on four students who in various ways all have struggled to access science learning resources and found ways to utilise online spaces as a complement to their physical learning ecologies. In the manuscript, we show how online practices have contributed to the students’ learning ecologies, e.g. in terms of building networks and functioning as learning support, and how resources acquired through online science practices have both use and exchange value in the wider science community. Online science participation is thus both curiosity driven and founded in instrumental reasons (using online tutoring to pass school science). Furthermore, we argue that online spaces have the potential to offer opportunities for participation and network building for students who do not have access to science activities and science people in their everyday surroundings.
|
|
| 3. |
- Danielsson, Anna, Professor, 1978-, et al.
(author)
-
The Pride and Joy of Engineering? The Identity Work of Male Working-Class Engineering Students
- 2019
-
In: Engineering Studies. - : Routledge. - 1937-8629 .- 1940-8374. ; 11:3, s. 172-195
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- In this article, we explore the identity work done by four male, working-class students who participate in a Swedish mechanical engineering program, with a focus on their participation in project work. A focus on how individuals negotiate their participation in science and technology disciplines has proven to be a valuable way to study inclusion and exclusion in such disciplines. This is of particular relevance in engineering education where it is widely argued that change is needed in order to attract new groups of students and provide students with knowledge appropriate for the future society. In this study we conceptualized identity as socially and discursively produced, and focus on tracing students’ identity trajectories. The empirical data consists of ethnographic field notes from lectures, video-recordings of project work, semi-structured interviews, and video-diaries recorded by the students. The findings show that even though all four students unproblematically associate with the ‘technicist’masculinity of their chosen program it takes considerable work to incorporate the project work into their engineering trajectories. Further, ‘laddish’ masculinities re/produced in higher education in engineering also contribute to a ‘troubled’ identity trajectory for one of the interviewed students.
|
|
| 4. |
|
|
| 5. |
- Danielsson, Anna, et al.
(author)
-
Young peoples’ online science practices as a gateway to higher education STEM
- 2022
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The purpose of this presentation is to explore how students perceive that online practices have enabled their participation in university physics programmes. The presentation is part of a larger project, exploring students’ trajectories to higher education physics, with a particular focus on students from under-represented groups. In order to conceptualise how students bridge their science participation across physical and online spaces we make use of the learning ecology perspective (Barron 2006). This perspective is complemented with the notion of science capital (Archer et al. 2015), analysing how students have been able to strengthen different aspects of science capital through online participation. Data has been generated through semi-structured interviews guided by a timeline, constructed in collaboration between the interviewer and the interviewee. 20 students enrolled in higher education physics have been interviewed, with a focus on their trajectories into higher education physics. The findings focus on five students who in various ways all have struggled to access science learning resources and found ways to utilise online spaces as a complement to their physical learning ecologies. In the presentation we show how online practices have contributed to the students’ learning ecologies, e.g. in terms of building networks and functioning as learning support, and how resources acquired through online science practices have both use and exchange value in the wider science community (Gonsalves et al. 2021).Online science participation is thus both curiosity driven and founded in instrumental reasons (using online tutoring to pass school science). Further, we argue that online spaces have the potential to offer opportunities for participation and network building for students who do not have access to science activities and science people in their everyday surroundings. However, this is not to say that online activities are equally and fairly accessible to all, and the potential gendering of online activities will be discussed in the presentation. Archer, L., Dawson, E., DeWitt, J., Seakins, A., & Wong, B. (2015). “Science capital”: A conceptual, methodological, and empirical argument for extending bourdieusian notions of capital beyond the arts. Journal of research in science teaching, 52(7), 922-948. Barron, B. (2006). Interest and self-sustained learning as catalysts of development: A learning ecology perspective. Human development, 49(4), 193-224. Gonsalves, A. J., Cavalcante, A. S., Sprowls, E. D., & Iacono, H. (2021). “Anybody can do science if they’re brave enough”: Understanding the role of science capital in science majors’ identity trajectories into and through postsecondary science. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 58(8), 1117–1151
|
|
| 6. |
|
|
| 7. |
- Gonsalves, Allison J., et al.
(author)
-
Introduction : Why Do We Need Identity in Physics Education Research?
- 2020
-
In: Physics Education and Gender. - Cham : Springer. - 9783030419325 - 9783030419332 ; , s. 1-8
-
Book chapter (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Over several decades, studies have documented differences between men and women’s achievement and participation in physics, or have sought social or psychological explanations for differences in physics engagement. This dualistic understanding of gender and its consequences for physics learning has long been challenged theoretically, but only recently have new perspectives on gender and physics been taken up in the field of physics education research (PER). A recent epistemological shift in research on gender and physics education is turning our gaze away from documenting differences and rather towards understanding how gendered identities are constructed in physics learning and practice. As this book will detail, identity frameworks have much to offer our understanding of gender in physics education research. Frameworks that highlight identity work in physics can be used to explore how gender interacts with constructs like power, privilege, agency, discourse, positionality and inequity and how these are tied up in identity construction and trajectories into and out of physics. In this chapter, we introduce a growing scholarship using sociocultural frameworks to understand learning and participation in physics, that seeks to challenge dominant understandings of who does physics and what counts as physics competence. We discuss the various perspectives taken in the subsequent chapters of this book, and the potential these have to help us construct a broad picture of the complexity inherent in doing physics and doing gender.
|
|
| 8. |
- Gonsalves, Allison J., et al.
(author)
-
"It’s not my dream, actually" : students' identity work across figured worlds of construction engineering in Sweden
- 2019
-
In: International Journal of STEM education. - : Springer. - 2196-7822. ; 6:13, s. 1-17
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Background: Research in engineering education has pointed to the need for new engineers to develop a broader skillsetwith an emphasis on “softer” social skills. However, there remains strong tensions in the identity work that engineersmust engage in to balance the technical demands of the discipline with the new emphasis on heterogeneous skills(Faulkner, Social Studies of Science 37:331–356, 2007). This study explores how three unconventional students experiencethese tensions in the final year of their construction engineering program, and as they move in and out of workplacefield experiences.Results: Using a figured worlds framework (Holland et al., Identity and agency in cultural worlds, 1998), we explore thedominant subject positions for students in construction engineering classroom and workplaces in a 3-year Swedishengineering program. Results demonstrate that dominant subject positions for construction engineers can troublestudents’ identity work as they move across classroom and workplace settings.Conclusions: This study expands our knowledge of the complexity of students’ identity work across classroom andworkplace settings. The emergence of classroom and workplace masculinities that shape the dominant subject positionsavailable to students are shown to trouble the identity work that students engage in as they move across these learningspaces. We examine students’ identity strategies that contribute to their persistence through the field. Finally, we discussimplications for teaching and research in light of students’ movements across these educational contexts.
|
|
| 9. |
- Gonsalves, Allison J., et al.
(author)
-
Masculinities and experimental practices in physics : the view from three case studies
- 2016
-
In: Physical Review Physics Education Research. - : American Physical Society. - 2469-9896. ; 12:2
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- [This paper is part of the Focused Collection on Gender in Physics.] This article analyzes masculinity and experimental practices within three different physics communities. This work is premised on the understanding that the discipline of physics is not only dominated by men, but also is laden with masculine connotations on a symbolical level, and that this limited and limiting construction of physics has made it difficult for many women to find a place in the discipline. Consequently, we argue that in order to further the understanding of gender dynamics within physics communities and enrich the current understandings about the lack of women in physics, perspectives from masculinity studies are crucial. The article draws on three different ethnographic case studies dealing with undergraduate students, graduate students, and research scientists.
|
|
| 10. |
|
|
| 11. |
- Gonsalves, Allison J., et al.
(author)
-
Other spaces for young pople's identity work in physics: resources accessed through informal physics education in Sweden
- 2022
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- For students from minoritized backgrounds in physics, especially White and racialized women and students from working class backgrounds, inbound identity trajectories into physics are generally regarded as exceptional. In this study, we investigate the experiences that minoritized students have which may support their sustained interest and achievement in physics, and their ongoing inbound trajectories into post-secondary physics education. To understand these experiences, in this presentation we look to the role of informal physics education (IPE) programs as “other spaces” which can offer resources that support students’ development of practice-linked identities. This study collected timeline interview data from 21 students enrolled in post-secondary physics programs in Sweden. In this presentation, we draw on data collected from 7 of these participants, all of them young women in their first year of physics at universities across Sweden. In the analysis we identify the various forms of resources made available through IPE learning contexts, and how these create possibilities for young people to engage in forms of identity work that contribute to the construction of new possible selves in physics. Findings suggest that students can access important relational and ideational resources through IPE programs. Relational resources included a) supportive social networks; b) enduring relationships; and c) relatability. Ideational resources emerged as: a) sources of information which possibilized physics for participants; b) information that provided possibilities to learn about the life of a physicist; and c) important sources of recognition for participants seeking membership in the field. We argue that these resources are critical to support participants’ potential to disrupt the dominant narratives among young women that “physics is not for me” (Archer et al., 2020). Rather, IPE opportunities can support the imagination of “possible selves” in physics (Markus & Nurius, 1986). However, while we highlight the importance that IPE experiences play in the lives of young people in physics, we also discuss that these kinds of experiences remain inaccessible to most students, and thus reproduce a certain elitism in the field. This presentation will conclude with a discussion of how the relative inaccessibility of IPE experiences can preserve dominant relations in physics, and may do more to obscure social inequalities than it does to repair them. Archer, L., Moote, J., and MacLeod, E. (2020). Learning That Physics Is ‘Not for Me’: Pedagogic Work and the Cultivation of Habitus among Advanced Level Physics Students, Journal of the Learning Sciences. 29, 3, 347-384. Markus, H., & Nurius, P. (1986). Possible selves. American psychologist, 41(9), 954.
|
|
| 12. |
- Gonsalves, Allison J., et al.
(author)
-
Other spaces for young women's identity work in physics: Resources accessed through university-adjacent informal physics learning contexts in Sweden
- 2022
-
In: Physical Review Physics Education Research. - : American Physical Society. - 2469-9896. ; 18:2
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- For young women, inbound identity trajectories into physics are generally regarded as exceptional. In this study, we investigated the experiences that young women have which may support their sustained interest and achievement in physics, and their ongoing inbound trajectories into post-secondary physics education. To understand these experiences, we look to the role of informal physics learning (IPL) environments as spaces which can offer resources that support women's trajectories into physics. In this paper, we highlight the important role of what we call "university-adjacent" IPL experiences-internships, summer schools, and associations that connect secondary students with the research lives of physicists. Focusing on case studies of six women enrolled in post-secondary physics programs across Sweden, we identify the various forms of resources made available through IPL environments, and how these create possibilities for young women to engage in forms of identity work that contribute to the construction of new possible selves in physics. Findings suggest that young women can access important relational and ideational resources through university-adjacent IPL programs. Relational resources included (a) supportive social networks, (b) enduring relationships, and (c) relatability. Importantly, our research finds that IPL opportunities that emphasize relationship building can create immersive experiences which go beyond representation and rather emphasize opportunities to develop practice-linked identities. Ideational resources emerged as (a) sources of information which possibilized physics for participants, and (b) types of information that provided possibilities to learn about the life of a physicist. Finally, while we claim that IPL experiences provide important possibilities for young women to immerse themselves in the practices of physics, we also discuss that these kinds of experiences remain inaccessible to most students, and thus reproduce a certain elitism in the field.
|
|
| 13. |
- Gonsalves, Allison J., et al.
(author)
-
Using story-based methodologies to explore physics identities : How do moments add up to a life in physics?
- 2023
-
In: Physical Review Physics Education Research. - : American Physical Society. - 2469-9896. ; 19:2
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article details methodologies employed to enable sharing and coconstructing the stories of threewomen’s lives in physics. The first case explores the usefulness of timeline interviewing, where participantsnarrate episodes that are coconstructed with the researcher as meaningful over time. We illustrate thismethod in the case of a mature student in Sweden from a working-class background who shared momentsthat added up to a life outside of physics and then a sharp turn into physics later in life. The second caseexplores life-history interviewing using a narrative-inquiry approach and deep relationship building whichenabled the coconstruction of stories of experiences over time. These moments are coconstructed with theresearcher and analyzed using an intersectionality lens to yield a story depicting the transnationalexperiences of a woman of color moving across various European contexts into the North Americanphysics context. The final case is of a first-generation Canadian woman of color who shared her navigationsof in and out of school physics via a method known as the “Rivers of Life.” Using this method, theparticipant narrates their experiences with physics as a river, using metaphorical tools like rafts, rocks,rapids, tributaries to discuss various moments described as twists and turns over time that together amountto a life in physics. We discuss the value of different approaches to coconstructing narratives withparticipants and, in particular, the need for this kind of research in physics context
|
|
| 14. |
|
|
| 15. |
|
|
| 16. |
- Johansson, Anders, 1987, et al.
(author)
-
De oväntade naturvetarna: Vad kan vi lära av studenters olika vägar in i universitetsfysik?
- 2023
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Utbildningar inom fysik är i både svensk och internationell kontext bland de minst jämställda och med lägst mångfald både när det gäller naturvetenskapliga och ingenjörsprogram [1]. I det pågående VR-finansierade projektet “De oväntade naturvetarna” ställer vi frågan vad vi kan lära oss av studenter som gått mot strömmen och valt att läsa fysik. Projektet bygger på livsberättelseintervjuer med 21 fysikstudenter som på något sätt uppfattar sin egen bana till fysiken som icke-konventionell. Vi har undersökt vad som möjliggjort för dessa studenter att ta sig till universitetet, och specifikt en fysikutbildning. I presentationen sammanfattas projektet. Resultatet visar hur aktiviteter utanför skolan kan ha betydelse; informella men universitetsrelaterade aktiviteter som sommarskolor och forskarbesök, men också deltagande i naturvetenskapliga sammanhang online, kan spela stor roll för relations- och identitetsbyggande som möjliggör ett deltagande i fysiken och en väg till en universitetsutbildning [2], [3]. Pågående delstudier vänder på perspektivet och ställer frågorna: Vad möjliggörs för individen genom ett deltagande i fysik, och hur blir vissa val av studier och karriär möjliga och legitima medan andra omöjliggörs i relation till samhälleliga normer, kön, klass och etnicitet. För några av våra informanter har fysik och naturvetenskap varit central för att möjliggöra en starkare känsla av sammanhang, med världen och andra människor. Detta har dock inte erbjudits av skolundervisningen i fysik, utan handlat om andra upplevelser, och först med stöd av vuxenutbildning på folkhögskola och basår har fysiken kunnat ta en central plats i deras liv, vilket har inneburit ett brott från annars alienerande liv och karriärer. En central slutsats är att breddat deltagande på så vis inte behöver handla om att delta i formell utbildning, eller att följa förväntade karriärvägar, naturvetenskap kan vara starkt meningsfullt i människors liv i andra former Referenser [1] Universitets- och högskolerådet, “Antagningsstatistik,” 2022. (accessed Oct. 18, 2021). [2] A. J. Gonsalves, A. Johansson, A.-S. Nyström, and A. T. Danielsson, “Other spaces for young women’s identity work in physics: Resources accessed through university-adjacent informal physics learning contexts in Sweden,” Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res. , vol. 18, no. 2, p. 020118, Sep. 2022, doi: 10/gqwsp2. [3] A. T. Danielsson, A. Johansson, A.-S. Nyström, and A. J. Gonsalves, “Young peoples’ online science practices as a gateway to higher education STEM,” Res Sci Educ , Jan. 2023, doi: 10/grvp8w.
|
|
| 17. |
- Johansson, Anders, 1987, et al.
(author)
-
Following or defying expectations – the choice narratives of “unexpected” physics students
- 2022
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Higher education physics has long been a field with a disproportionately skewed representation in terms of gender, class, and ethnicity. Responding to this challenge, this study explores the trajectories into higher education physics, with a particular focus on “unexpected” physics students. Drawing on semi-structured timeline-guided interviews with 20 students enrolled in university physics programmes across Sweden, we analyze the students’ accounts of their trajectories into physics as “choice narratives” (Holmegaard, 2015) and as “narratives of location” (Anthias, 2005). We ask which choice narratives are used, and how these become (im)possible and legitimate in relation to narratives of location and wider societal discourses. In line with earlier research, many of our interviewees describe a fascination for science and for understanding the world, often described as established already in childhood. When growing up in a supporting academically oriented family, cultivating an interest in physics often becomes an obvious and easy path, and this is the case for many of the women in our sample growing up in middle-class families. For others, being given an opportunity to express a passion for science despite family and society not expecting it is an important transformative experience. Interviewees describe wanting to be challenged and recognized for their performance. Here, physics is seen as a difficult subject, bestowing prestige when mastered. Achieving this kind of recognition can be an expected attainment in middle-class families and striving migrant families, but also a way of proving oneself against all odds for those from a non-academic background. The choice of physics is also described by some as a possibility to contribute to one’s community. In earlier research, this has not been highlighted as a common motivation for choosing physics, but we find that this is narrated in relation to marginalized class and ethnic positions, and still uncommon among the women with middle-class background. However, some of the women frame the choice of studying physics as a contribution simply because it breaks expectations and may provide a role model for other underrepresented students. In contrast to the traditional picture of physics as a “pure”, “smart”, and “prestigious” field of study pursued by students interested in understanding how the world works, our results show that alternate ways of approaching physics studies are possible. However, these approaches are both limited and possibilized by the gendered, classed, and racialized locations of prospective students. An opportunity for reconceiving the role of physics for all students, both in and outside school, is given by considering these alternative approaches to the subject. Anthias, F. (2005). Social Stratification and Social Inequality: Models of Intersectionality and Identity. In F. Devine, M. Savage, J. Scott, & R. Crompton (Eds.), Rethinking class: culture, identities and lifestyles (pp. 24–45). Palgrave Macmillan. Holmegaard, H. T. (2015). Performing a choice-narrative: A qualitative study of the patterns in STEM students’ higher education choices. International Journal of Science Education , 37(9), 1454–1477. https://doi.org/10/gctkn7
|
|
| 18. |
|
|
| 19. |
- Johansson, Anders, 1987, et al.
(author)
-
Performing legitimate choice narratives in physics: possibilities for under-represented physics students
- 2023
-
In: Cultural Studies of Science Education. - : Springer. - 1871-1502 .- 1871-1510. ; 18, s. 1255-1283
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Higher education physics has long been a field with a disproportionately skewed representation in terms of gender, class, and ethnicity. Responding to this challenge, this study explores the trajectories of "unexpected" (i.e., demographically under-represented) students into higher education physics. Based on timeline-guided life-history interviews with 21 students enrolled in university physics programs across Sweden, the students' accounts of their trajectories into physics are analyzed as choice narratives. The analysis explores what ingredients are used to tell a legitimate story of physics participation, in relation to dominant discourses in physics culture, and wider social and political discourses. Results indicate that students narrate their choice as based on motivations of physics being a prestigious and challenging subject, of a deep interest in and a natural ability for physics, as well as a wish to use physics for contributing to the world. While most of these affiliations to physics has been documented in earlier research, the study shows how they are negotiated in relation to social locations such as gender, class and migration history, and used to perform an authentic and legitimate choice narrative in the interview situation. Furthermore, the study reports and discusses the possibility of conceiving the role of physics in students' lives as something beyond a "pure", intellectually challenging, and "prestigious" subject. In contrast, and with implications for widening participation, the stories of "unexpected" physics students indicate that physics can be reconceived as socially and altruistically oriented.
|
|
| 20. |
- Nyström, Anne-Sofie, et al.
(author)
-
Possibilities in physics: Students’ retrospective narratives about safe spaces, beautiful boundaries, and emancipation
- 2022
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The paper aims to explore students’ commitment to science, focusing three existential-orientated narrations about physics trajectories and well-being/ill-being. The paper draws from an on-going interview study with ‘non-traditional’ university physics education entrants, examining the conditions and encounters that made enrolment in selective higher education possible. Previous research on science identity contributes with insights into how interactions in everyday life – in schooling and beyond – promote and hinder young peoples’ science aspirations, accomplishments and persistence. Indeed, the advancement of knowledge about social reproduction, social mobility and strategies for widening participation in higher science education is motivated, in the Nordic countries and elsewhere, by social justice and national economic arguments. While this paper is informed by research on young people’s ‘choice-narratives’ (Holmegaard, 2015), it mainly draws on insights from research on well-being and, in particular, Sayer’s sociological work on suffering and conditions for human flourishing. Hence, we look into experiences of physics as a mediator for self-realization and resilience in hardships, rather than examining the conditions for young people’s physics commitments. The data comprise twenty timeline interviews (60-120 minutes) with 1st and 2nd year students enrolled in university physics programmes in Sweden. The students were encouraged to give accounts and construct a visual timeline (Sheridan et al, 2011) of their personal trajectory into higher physics education, with special attention to persons, events and conditions that they recognized as important in retrospect. Their accounts covered science commitment and non-commitment from a life-history perspective, delineated supportive encounters and conditions as well as barriers. This paper uses narrative analysis to explore three life-histories that were characterized by an emphasized existential narrative. The interviewees, two men and one woman, were re-entry students with diverse ethnic and social backgrounds. Findings comprise four elements that shaped the narratives: resilience, safe spaces, beautiful boundaries, and emancipation. 1) The trajectories were structured as stories about overcoming adversity (e.g. bullying, poverty and mental illness), in which attachment to Physics was narrated as vital for cultivating resilience. 2) Furthermore, Physics – not ‘school physics’ – was represented as a safe space in their overall chaotic and distressing childhood and youth, in part related to 3) its universal laws and orientation towards nature instead of man. 4) Undertaking formal higher physics education was narrated as a turning-point in that they had accumulated the resources to choose ‘oneself’ in spite of difficulties and doubts. Concluding, the paper seeks to contribute with insights into ‘under-represented’ students’ engagement in higher science education, bringing forward life-histories about physics as a mediator for well-being. Holmegaard, H. T. (2015). Performing a choice-narrative: A qualitative study of the patterns in STEM students’ higher education choices. International Journal of Science Education, 37(9), 1454–1477. Sayer, A. (2011). Why things matter to people: Social science, values and ethical life. New York: Cambridge University Press Sheridan, J., Chamberlain, K. & Dupuis, A. (2011). ‘Timelining: Visualizing Experience’. Qualitative Research 11 (5): 552–69.
|
|
| 21. |
- Ottemo, Andreas, 1979, et al.
(author)
-
(Dis)embodied masculinity and the meaning of (non)style in physics and computer engineering education
- 2021
-
In: Gender and Education. - : Informa UK Limited. - 0954-0253 .- 1360-0516. ; 33:8, s. 1017-1032
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- Physics- and computer-related disciplines are strongly male dominated in Western higher education. Feminist research has demonstrated how this can be understood as reflecting a strong privileging of mind and rationality (over body/nature/emotions) in these disciplines, which harmonises with broader notions of masculinity as transcendental and disembodied. However, as we demonstrate in this paper, being recognised as legitimate in these fields is also tightly connected to embodiment. Drawing on post-structural gender theory, we explore how notions of corporeality, style and aesthetics are articulated within computer engineering and physics settings at two higher education institutions, one in Canada, one in Sweden. Using empirical data from two case studies, we demonstrate that these disciplines are usually understood as ‘gender neutral’ by students but that interest and competence in these fields are simultaneously understood as embodied through neglect for style and corporeal aesthetics, in ways that contribute to the masculinisation of these fields.
|
|
| 22. |
- Silfver, Eva, 1958-, et al.
(author)
-
Gender equality as a resource and a dilemma : interpretative repertoires in engineering education in Sweden
- 2022
-
In: Gender and Education. - : Routledge. - 0954-0253 .- 1360-0516. ; 34:8, s. 923-939
-
Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This article explores how female university students’ abilities to present themselves as ‘authentic’ engineers are imbricated with discursive constructions of gender and gender equality. The empirical data comes from interviews and video diaries collected with three female engineering students. The analysis demonstrates the power of the Swedish gender equality discourse to inform the students’ talk as they negotiate their gendered identities to become intelligible as engineering students and engineers. We suggest that gender equality is used as a resource in the repertoires, but we also demonstrate that this discourse becomes a dilemma in that it limits possibilities for gender performances to go beyond old patterns. Despite this, the article still shows three unique ways of negotiating gender and other social categories in different situations connected to university learning and participation in internships.
|
|
