When “scary” science “just feels wrong”: how the facts in a masculine fact-based debate couldn’t stop science students’ feminine feelings

Cultural Studies of Science Education - The purpose of this study is to discuss notions of femininity and masculinity in situations of argumentation among Swedish upper-secondary students who are...     

‘It’s Her Body’. When Students’ Argumentation Shows Displacement of Content in a Science Classroom

This paper approaches learning as a response instead of the acquisition of something previously expected. More specifically, it describes a process of argumentation on socioscientific issues in a classroom situation in school science amongst 15-year-old students in Sweden. The analysis of an argumentation on abortion in a science classroom highlights how science content becomes relevant to students?? experiences, but also how the students?? unique voices shift focus and cause displacement of the science content. The analysis demonstrates some of the tensions and possible conflicts that may lead to the exclusion of different voices. This paper argues that focusing the research or education on questions that argumentation brings to light creates interesting educational opportunities to identify and incorporate the students?? experiences in the classroom. The results indicate, however, that students?? spontaneous acts lead to some difficulties in finding a point of contact with the rational discourse of science education.     

“What if we were in a test tube?” Students’ gendered meaning making during a biology lesson about the basic facts of the human genitals

This paper explores what happens in the encounters between presentations of “basic facts” about the human genitals and 15-year-old students during a biology lesson in a Swedish secondary school. In this paper, meaning making was approached as relational, context-dependent and continually transacted. For this reason the analysis was conducted through a series of close readings of situations where students interacted with each other and the teacher in opening up gaps about alternative ways of discussing gender. Drawing on Foucault’s theories about the inclusion and exclusion of knowledge and the subsequent work of Butler and other feminist researchers, the paper illuminates what gendered relations remain tacit in the conversation. It then illustrates possible ways in which these tacit gendered meanings could be made overt and discussed with the students when making meaning about the human genitals. The paper also shows how the ways in which human genitals are transacted in the science classroom have importance for what kind of learning is made available to the students.     

Bodily experiences in secondary school biology

This is a study of teaching about the human body. It is based on transcribed material from interviews with 15-year-old students and teachers about their experiences of sex education and from recordings of classroom interactions during a dissection. The analysis is focused on the relationship between what students are supposed to learn about the biological body and their expressed experiences and meaning making of bodies in the schoolwork. The results indicate that the negotiations associated with the encounters between the bodies of the classroom (student, teacher, and animal bodies) are important for what directions meaning making takes and what students are afforded to learn about bodies, biologically as well as in terms of values. We suggest that these negotiations should be taken into account at schools, be regarded as an important part of the learning processes in science education and in that way open up for new possibilities for students’ meaning making.     

The production of contraceptive cyborgs in Swedish upper secondary sexuality education

Cultural Studies of Science Education - In this study we examine upper secondary students’ notions of contraceptive methods, as human reproduction and contraception are common content in...