From Perception to Action: Leveraging Classroom Strategies to Promote Inclusive Scientific Representations among Students

• In Event: Migrants, Inclusion and Student Agency

Proposal

Education is a powerful tool for learning how to take action. Sometimes culture, stereotypes, public and social media guide youngsters thinking and action. It is our responsibility, as educators, to provide them with critical thinking and opportunities for identifying and breaking those stereotypes that sometimes are invisible to them. This unnoticed bias may be created by race and gender privileges (e.g., Gross, 2018; Warriner & Miller, 2021). For instance, some researchers studied the stereotype of a scientist. In fact, there are several studies around the globe analyzing how boys and girls tend to imagine a scientist as a mature white male with gray and wild hair, a lab coat, and eyeglasses (e.g., Chambers, 1983; Henley, et al., 2006; Mason, et al., 1991; Steinke, et al., 2007; Toma, et al., 2022). However, most studies have been conducted with children in school years.
In addition, the media has played an important role in youngsters’ views about how privilege is portrayed. In fact, this pervasive stereotype of a scientist has permeated Colombian media and views about how a scientist should look like. Global media communication, adding to the conservative culture and sexism that resides in Colombia (Celis, 2022) may contribute to a stereotyped image. This study shows how some Colombian undergraduate views of a scientist differ from those studied by Henley and colleagues (2006), the differences between biases, and their implications for educating critical thinkers. Creating a space for reflecting on those differences provide an opportunity for identification of our context, for understanding where we are, which is the first step to act for changing the bias created by power and privilege (Berman, 2017). The paper also provides insights on how these views may be taken as an opportunity for engaging students to take action for breaking stereotypes through peer scientific alphabetization using social media (see some course projects at https://www.facebook.com/CBUeduciencia).
Methodology
This study shows a descriptive analysis of the Draw-a-Scientist-Test (DAST) of 236 undergraduate Colombian students. These results are compared with the findings from a previous similar study conducted in the US (Henley et al., 2006), also with an undergraduate population (n=212). The Colombian group consisted of 50.4% females, 46.2% males, and 3.4% participants with no reported gender. The US group consisted of 52.8% females and 47.2% males.
Although the instructions for the DAST are to draw a scientist, it is worth noticing that for the Colombian group, the instruction was adapted to “draw a person doing science” because of the language. The original instruction implies a gender definition (male for a generic scientist), which leads to bias in tests conducted in previous years.
The data was collected and coded by peers using predefined code categories, similar to those used in diverse DAST studies (e.g., Farland-Smith, 2012; Finson et al., 1995). For ethical considerations, the data from US participants were already published and aggregated; the data from Colombia was already anonymized and collected in a database form.
Findings
Colombian participants draw 31.4% of scientists that were identified as females, 19.1% more than those reported in the US group (12.3%); 45.8% as males, 36.2% less than those reported in the US group (82%); 16.8% were not specific, compared to 5.7% in the US group; and 4.2% of the drawing did not have a person in it. These results show an important difference in science gender perceptions between Colombian and US students. Although it may be due to the time when the US study was conducted (around 15 years before). However, comparing the Colombian group results with those published by Toma and colleagues (2022) may clarify this ambiguity. The researchers collected data from Colombian elementary, middle, and high school students. The study showed a gender bias towards a male scientist still lower (71.14%) than the one from the Henley study (2006).
Colombian participants draw a mean of 2.7 stereotypical indicators (see Chambers, 1983) compared to 2.92 per drawing in the US study. In particular, lab coats (COL=56.4%, US=54.5%) and technology products (COL=9.7%, US=9.9%) were very similar between Colombian and US participants. In contrast, eyeglasses (68.4% vs. 29.2%) and wild hair (20.8% vs. 14%) were more predominant in the US drawings. Finally, evidence of research (75.8% vs. 69.8%), symbols of knowledge (23.7% vs. 12.7%), and relevant captions (43.6% vs. 33.5%) were more predominant in Colombian drawings.
Are our representations of scientists different?
After analyzing Colombian undergraduate students compared to a similar group in the US, I have found an important difference between the gender gap in Colombian and US drawings. This may show the privilege that participants have; they belong to a renowned university in the county’s capital, students may come from diverse socio-economic groups, and those who come from marginalized groups are high-achievers and may think critically about the test. They are already breaking stereotypes and being marginalized but still studying in a private institution. In contrast, I have found that, although Colombian students have a more balanced gender perception of a scientist, the stereotypical elements are pervasive in both groups. There are some differences in the details of the stereotype, but the stereotypical image of the Caucasian male scientist prevails.
Classroom Strategies for Promoting Inclusive Representations
The classroom is an opportunity for creating learning environments that invite students to question those images and biased created through years, that social media is helping to maintain. Creating a space for communicating and formalizing those stereotypes is important to start breaking them, but it is not sufficient (Berman, 2017; Mikander & Hummelstedt-Djedou, 2018). We need to invite our students to reflect and act. For the students who participated in this research, this calling for action was the development of a class project, in which the objective was to design a teaching-learning activity for public scientific literacy using social media (Michael, 2006). This project promoted critical thinking and questioning for those stereotypes analyzed through the drawings in an active and participatory manner, which promotes student learning.

Author

• Mariana Tafur Arciniegas, Universidad de los Andes