Repairing Elementary School Science

• In Event: 21.048 - Current Perspectives on Queering Elementary Education, Research, and Practice

Abstract

In this paper, I use a queer lens that disrupts binary categories (Sullivan, 2003) and repurposes sexuality as a drive to satisfy curiosity (Britzman, 2000) to examine how heterogendered normativity (i.e., privileging of heterosexuality and two aligned genders) damages the content knowledge and opportunities to learn that all children encounter in the elementary science curriculum. I offer suggestions on how elementary school teachers can adjust typical science lessons to repair this damage so that all children experience a more complete version of science.
I make two arguments about how the heterogendered nature of the elementary science curriculum is damaged. First, in elementary school, it is not uncommon for students to learn about male and female body types through examining organisms such as insects or crustaceans (e.g., crayfish). In the natural world, however, there is great diversity of sex morphologies and reproduction processes (Roughgarden, 2013). This enormous diversity defies attempts to classify life into heterogendered male and female categories (Alaimo, 2010). Yet, in elementary school science, this diversity of life is far from evident. The focus on differences between male and female body types and heterosexual reproduction makes invisible the wondrous variations that populate the natural world. This damaged knowledge is harmful to children because it constrains what they learn about what is normal, what is wondrous, and what is possible. Repairing this damage requires making “evolution’s rainbow of diversity” (Roughgarden, 2013) visible so that sexual dimorphism is not normalized as the primary distinguishing feature among individuals.
The second argument uses queer theorist Deborah Britzman’s (2000) redefining of sexuality as the pleasure derived from satisfying curiosity about the world through embodied experiences. Lakoff & Johnson (1980) theorized that the knowledge produced by bodily interactions with the physical world is the basis for all abstract thought. Scientists’ talk about their work betrays the pleasure that they feel from satisfying their deep curiosity and how their insights are embedded in embodied experiences motivated by their desire to understand. Nobel Prize-winning geneticist, Barbara McClintock, for example, talked about her “feeling for the organism” as the basis for her groundbreaking discovery of recombinant DNA (Keller, 1983). However, elementary school science rarely offers opportunities for children to satisfy their own curiosity or develop their embodied knowledge about the world. By keeping their curiosity controlled and their sexuality managed, elementary school science denies children the opportunity to experience the joy of discovery and the pleasure that scientists experience when satisfying a desire to know. Repairing this damage requires introducing more opportunity for children to explore the questions that interest them and building children’s embodied experiences with the world.
This paper’s scholarly contribution expands on previous work about how school science narrowly constructs allowable identities (Bazzul & Sykes, 2011; Letts, 2001; Snyder & Broadway, 2004). It also links theory to practice by providing concrete examples from typical science lessons on how elementary teachers can repair the damage to create a science curriculum that open spaces for all children to flourish as learners of science.

Author

• Kristin L. Gunckel, The University of Arizona