"They've Weeded Me Out!" Student Sense-Making About the Weed-Out Narrative in Introductory Chemistry

• In Event: Roundtable Session 14
  In Roundtable Session: Supporting Students: The Significance of Relationships, Behaviors, Language, and Abilities for Student Learning

Abstract

Some research points to the role introductory chemistry courses play in leading women and students of color to question their ability to succeed in the sciences and consider alternative career paths (Barr et al., 2010), a process commonly referred to as "weeding-out". This paper works toward making sense of how racial narratives about ability interact with the weed-out narrative that frames typical introductory chemistry courses. In this paper, I explore and characterize the structure and function of the weed-out narrative. I argue that the weed-out narrative produces the idea that there are two kinds of people, those who belong in science and the “weeds” who do not belong by indexing larger ideologies about “smartness” and belonging.

Author

• Erin Sandhusen Palmer, University of California - Berkeley