Design and Technology and STEM: teachers’ perceptions of gender

Gender equality issues in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM) have been played out on an international stage for the last five decades. The stark differences in numbers of girls and boys in STEM subjects in secondary schools filters through to university and the workplace. This has been a cause of concern in all STEM industries but especially engineering. These gender differences are also manifest in Design and Technology (D&T) classrooms in Britain. Not only does the subject sit awkwardly within STEM but it has a complicated history that tie gendered social roles to material specialisms. Recent GCSE reforms have led to a single title D&T qualification which provides an opportunity to tackle gender inequalities. Research into gender inequalities in STEM is both substantial and broad, ranging from neuroscience and psychology to sociology and education. Only a small fraction of this published work includes gender inequalities in D&T. This study attempts to address one small aspect of that gap. Adopting a pro-feminist, critical realist stance, drawing on social reproduction theories as well as socio-psychological models of motivation, this research project is interested in teachers’ understandings of the critical choices that pupils make at Year 9 about their GCSEs and potential career paths. The study revolves around in-depth interviews with D&T teachers from a variety of settings, using Implicit Association Tests, lesson video and focus groups as stimuli. Thematic analysis is used to generate themes from the transcripts. The principal findings highlight the need for: (i) clarity about the value of interdisciplinary, value led, context rich, iterative project-based D&T project work as STEM, (ii) clarification about professional boundaries when providing guidance and positive action initiatives, (iii) D&T teachers to unpick stereotypes in their behaviour management and relationship building practices, (iv) engaging parents and older pupils in efforts to tackle inequalities, (v) separation of the various functions of practical work in D&T and (vi) redefining the disciplinary boundaries of the D&T curriculum in an equitable manner

CONCEPTIONS OF SUBJECT KNOWLEDGE IN PRIMARY INITIAL TEACHER TRAINING: THE PERSPECTIVES OF STUDENT TEACHERS AND TEACHER EDUCATORS

This study is about the ways in which the term subject knowledge is conceptualised and interpreted by student teachers, university tutors and school mentors in the context of undergraduate primary initial teacher training (ITT) in two post-1992 university providers. Subject knowledge has been a consistent feature of the policy context of ITT over decades, although disparities are apparent between the rhetoric of policy directives, the theoretical knowledge base and how primary teachers’ subject knowledge is represented, and enacted, in communities of practice in primary ITT. The conceptual framework for the research is underpinned by Shulman’s (1987) theoretical knowledge bases for teaching, and draws significantly on the conceptual tools of culture, practice and agents in educational settings, provided by Ellis’s (2007) situated model of subject knowledge. The perspective of the individual is developed further by utilising Kelchtermans’s (2009) personal interpretative framework. An additional lens is provided by the external political context, within which primary ITT is located. The research adopted an inductive, interpretative approach that incorporated multiple methods to construct a bricolage. Data collection included semi-structured questionnaires, semi-structured interviews that incorporated the production of visual data, and content analysis of documents. The study indicates that subject knowledge was understood by participants as an umbrella term representing general teacher knowledge, rather than as a critically distinct concept. Overall, there was a general lack of emphasis on subject-specific pedagogical knowledge evident in the discourse around subject knowledge for primary teaching. Conceptualisations of subject knowledge were highly individualistic. The findings indicated that the culture and practice in different contexts is interpreted and experienced in very different ways by individuals to influence their interpretations of subject knowledge and its place in pedagogy. Thus, this study makes an original contribution to knowledge in the field by: 1) mapping the details of the conceptualisations of subject knowledge held by student primary teachers, university tutors and school mentors in the context of undergraduate primary ITT, to identify commonalities, and disparities, with the theoretical knowledge base; and 2) identifying and examining cross-contextual and personal influences on conceptions of subject knowledge and in so doing, extending and adapting Ellis’s (2007) model of subject knowledge, to the specific context of undergraduate primary ITT