This study illuminates teachers’ conceptions of gender and science and possibilities to challenge these conceptions. Since 2005, a group of teachers (K-6) inSwedenhave met approximately once a month in two-hour seminars to discuss and develop their instruction in science and technology based on a gender perspective. The present data consist mainly of audio-recordings of the teacher seminars and video-recordings of science/technology activities with students. Analysis of the empirical data has been carried out in several stages and was inspired by thematic analysis, the theoretical framework of which is based on Hirdman’s and Beauvoir’s theories of gender. The results show that the teachers’ ideas about gender/equity and science exist on several levels, within which various conceptions are represented. On the one hand, “reasoning around similarity”, where teachers consider that both girls and boys should have the same prerequisites for working with science/technology. In contrast, stereotyped conceptions of girls and boys when the teachers evaluate their activities with students, where condescending attitudes toward girls are also observed. The girls’ ways of working with science/technology are not as highly valued as the boys’, and this outlook on children can ultimately have consequences for girls’ attitudes toward the subject. When teachers are allowed to read their own statements about the girls, they get “a glimpse of themselves”, and their condescending ideas about girls are made visible. In this way, the teachers can begin their active work toward change, which may lead to new outlooks on and attitudes toward students.

In this article we problematize the purpose of teaching science in preschool and what competences preschool teachers need in order to conduct science activities in the classroom. The empirical data were collected through an action research project with five preschool and primary school teachers (K-6). In the first section we have used one situation, a floating-sinking experiment, as an illustration of how two different epistemological perspectives generate different foci on which kind of science teaching competences that are fruitful in preschool. In the first perspective, the central goal of science teaching is the development of the children’s conceptual understanding. With this perspective, we found that the science activities with the children were unsuccessful, because the children’s thoughts about concepts did not develop but even the situation enhanced a misconception concerning density. Moreover, the teacher was unsuccessful in supporting the children’s conceptual learning. The second perspective uses a feminist approach that scrutinizes science, where we investigate if the floating-sinking activity contributes to a feeling of participation in a scientific context for the children and if so how the teacher promotes this inclusion. This second perspective showed that the children’s scientific proficiency benefited from the situation; they had acquired a positive experience of the density concept that they could build upon which was reinforced by the teacher. The children discovered that they had power over their own learning by using an experimental approach. On the basis of these findings, we conclude that there are competences other than subject matter knowledge that are also important when preschool teachers engage children in scientific activities. Through process-oriented work with the teacher group, we identified four concrete skills: paying attention to and using children’s previous experiences; capturing unexpected things that happen at the moment they occur; asking questions that challenge the children and that stimulate further investigation; situated presence, that is, “remaining” in the situation and listening to the children and their explanations. We discuss possible ways to move preschool teachers away from their feelings of inadequacy and poor self-confidence in teaching science by reinforcing this kind of pedagogical content knowledge.

In this study we want to call attention to and discuss two aspects of importance for work toward change regarding fundamental values through action research. The first aspect is time, and taking it into account according to “the action research spiral”. The second aspect concerns the importance of critical events for making progress and challenging preconceived notions. We also stress that researchers as “outsiders” have the opportunity to overview the process in a way that the other participants (insiders) do not. The empirical data is collected from an action research project on science and gender conducted inSweden with teachers from preschool and K-6. The collaboration was proceeded during 2005 to 2010, a total of 57 months.   

This study examines to what extent experienced teachers are aware of gender issues in the science classroom. It also explores how an introduction to gender theory might alter this awareness. Teachers wrote their reflections about a real classroom situation. They were then asked to analyse the same situation after having read texts that discussed gender theory concepts. The fourteen teachers' understanding about gender and society were challenged. Some teachers were able to analyse the case differently by applying gender theory, others discussed the case on a more general level, while one teacher showed signs of resistance regarding gender theory.