Abstract:
This paper discusses the role of western science education as an element in the dispositif of contemporary western science. A feminist post-structural research study investigating the status of girls and women in science education and workplaces identified an interrelated network of heterogeneous elements and the mutual conditioning of discursive and non-discursive practices that formed a dispositif as described by Foucault (1980). This is important because the conversation about the segregation of women in science has extended over decades (for example, WISET, 1995; Bell, O’Halloran, Saw, & Yu, 2009; Bell and Yates, 2015) in the context of western society and science, technology, mathematics and technology (STEM) are seen as integral to economic success (WISET, 1995; MacFarlane, 2015; Turnbull, 2016).Data for the research was collected through focus groups and individual interviews with women scientists and science teachers. Critical analysis revealed elements that include philosophical and moral discourses, institutional practices and beliefs, architectural forms, legislation, policy, educational practices, administrative measures and ‘scientific’ statements. The elements themselves are of interest but it is the interplay, inter-relationship and interaction of the elements that enable the dispositif. While the dispositif of contemporary western science includes educational and non-educational elements, there is clear evidence that the dispositif is perpetuated within the educational system through normative discourses that discourage diversity of gender and knowledge/s and promote stereotypical images of science/s and sex/gender.Previous research on sex/gender and science education has primarily focused on quantitative data (for example, Archer, DeWitt & Dillon, 2014; Sinnes & Loken, 2014; Chubb, 2011; Osborne & Dillon, 2008) with some suggestion that a post-structural qualitative approach would more powerfully identify the underlying social constructs (Archer et al., 2014; Sinnes & Loken, 2014). To date however there has been minimal research that uses post-structural approaches to investigate these issues. This paper concludes with a discussion about future research that aims to transform how sex/gender and science are considered in research and educational practices.