Date of Award

2018

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Psychology

Abstract

Despite much progress, the gender gap in science still persists, and it is imperative that researchers continue addressing the problem at all levels, in the hope that the combined efforts of all investigations and initiatives will eventually work to close the gap. This qualitative exploratory case study, rooted in a social constructivist and feminist paradigm, investigated elementary Education teacher candidates perceptions toward the gender gap in science, their attitudes and responsibilities toward closing it, and their potential strategies to encourage female student interest in science. It also investigated their exposure to the topic of the gender gap in science from the educator preparation program (EPP) they were enrolled in, including a variety of artifacts and their teacher educators shared perceptions on the topic. These two facets, being directly linked to the field of elementary Education, fill a niche in the literature relevant to the gender gap in science. Personal interviews and a curriculum artifact analysis protocol were utilized as the primary data collection tools. The results of the study were that elementary Education teacher candidate participants had varying levels of understanding and varying levels of confidence in their understandings of the gender gap in science but thought that it was a problem that could be addressed by teachers. However, they felt personally less responsible and/or that taking on the responsibility was intimidating. The elementary Education teacher candidates shared strategies to engage female student interest in science, with the origin of some of the strategies attributed to the EPP curriculum. Some of the teacher educator participants used strategies that elementary Education teacher candidates could use to engage female elementary students in science but most used strategies that their elementary Education teacher candidates could use to engage all elementary students in science. According to elementary Education teacher candidate participants, the topic of the gender gap in science had not been addressed in their coursework. This finding was solidified by the result that only one out of five of the teacher educator participants directly addressed the gender gap in science topic with his students. All of the teacher educator participants indirectly addressed the topic of the gender gap in science with their classes. The analysis of the curriculum artifacts, syllabi, and required textbooks that corresponded to courses taught by the teacher educator participants to elementary Education majors confirmed the findings from the interview data. The gender gap in science was not explicitly addressed in a single artifact. Just as teacher educators indirectly addressed the problem, the artifacts contained a number of items that may be considered advantageous to promoting student interest and motivation in science, thus indirectly impacting the gender gap in science. Teacher educator participants shared strong thoughts about their elementary Education teacher candidates and science as well as their habits of supporting and encouraging their elementary Education teacher candidates. All teacher educator participants confidently acknowledged the gender gap as a problem that persists in science but acknowledged that progress has been made. Teacher educator participants, although confident that the gender gap in science persists, were unsure whether the EPP has the capacity to address the gender gap in science or whether they were personally responsible to address the topic with their classes. The results of this study chip away at the androcentric bias that still permeates the field of science. Many of the results corroborated the literature whereas some results were an extension to it and still others were unique ideas compared to the review of literature conducted for this study. Specifically, the connection of the topic of the gender gap in science with that of educator preparation fills a deficit in the literature. With regard to the theoretical framework, elements of personal and social constructivism corroborated the literature but that of multiple intelligences theory was almost completely missing from the results of the current study. Also within the theoretical framework, corroboration was found with regard to feminism in the lack of acknowledgement/knowledge of the problem among female elementary Education teacher candidate participants. Pertaining to the hybrid paradigm of this study, the enormous amount of detail and variety within the results speak to the multiple realities view of both the social constructivist and feminist paradigms. Although literature support for the ability of social justice educators was found, the results of this study explicitly expressed that only one teacher educator participant shared personal experiences as a teaching strategy. Of the many teaching strategies presented in the literature, only some were expressed in the results of the current study. Vice versa, ideas/strategies, different from the literature review, regarding the promotion of elementary student interest in science surfaced in the results. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.)

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