GENDER IN SCIENCE LESSONS: A CONCEPTUAL LEARNING ANALYSIS¹

ABSTRACT:

In the last years, gender has been one of the main issues in discussions in the educational field. In this article, we discuss gender relations in the specific context of science education field, an area that has been increasingly dedicated to studies regarding gender relations. Despite the progress in the field, studies that relate gender to learning scientific concepts in the classroom everyday life are still scarce. In this study, we explore discursive interactions in the 1^st grade of Elementary School, aiming to analyze the role of gender in the construction of science learning opportunities. In order to do so, we leaned over theoretical proposals by Judith Butler regarding gender and guided the analyses from Ethnography in Education as a logic of research. The analyzed lessons indicate that conceptual science knowledge was articulated to reiterate/constrain the gender norm. These negotiations played a central role in learning the biology of an insect, more specifically, the concept of sexual dimorphism. This study is related to other research projects that point to the importance of gender discussions in education, including science education and its concepts.

Keywords:
gender relations; science lessons; conceptual learning