This briefing is based on the (In)visible Witnesses study by a team of researchers led by Liz Whitelegg and Richard Holliman at the Open University. This project is one of five commissioned by the UKRC to explore issues around the role of the media and representations of women in STEM. This briefing looks at the (re)construction of gendered representations of STEM on children's television and investigates the ways in which these images affected children's and young people's perceptions of STEM. The content of two weeks of children's television was analysed. Following this, 45 children and young people were involved in a study which looked at how children and young people made sense of the STEM they watch on television. Several methods were used to elicit children's and young people's perceptions of STEM and their place within these fields in the future - a questionnaire, 'draw-a-scientist' test, reflective writing about their future selves as scientists and the creation of a 'storyboard' for a TV programme

Carr, Jennifer

Hodgson, Barbara

Holliman, Richard

Scanlon, Eileen

Whitelegg, Elizabeth

English

Open Research Online (The Open University)

Open Research OnlineThe Open University’s repository of research publicationsand other research outputs(In)visible Witnesses: Young people’s views of imagesof scientists, technologists, engineers andmathematicians on UK children’s television from agender perspective (Research Briefing)OtherHow to cite:Whitelegg, Elizabeth; Holliman, Richard; Carr, Jennifer; Scanlon, Eileen and Hodgson, Barbara (2008). (In)visibleWitnesses: Young people’s views of images of scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians on UK children’stelevision from a gender perspective (Research Briefing). UK Resource Centre of Women in Science, Engineering andTechnology, Bradford, UK.For guidance on citations see FAQs.c© 2008 UnknownVersion: Version of RecordLink(s) to article on publisher’s website:http://www.ukrc4setwomen.org/downloads/Invisible witness Layout 1.pdfCopyright and Moral Rights for the articles on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyrightowners. For more information on Open Research Online’s data policy on reuse of materials please consult the policiespage.oro.open.ac.ukFor over 30 years there has been interest in how youngpeople's, particularly girls', images of scientists,technologists, engineers and mathematicians (STEM) areconstructed. Studies have examined how children's views ofscience and scientists develop as they grow up and whygirls' (and boys') participation in school science declines withage. Key factors include a decline in many girls' self-belief intheir abilities in science, particularly the physical sciences,as they grow older. In addition many girls reject thestereotypically masculine images of science and scientists asone that they could adopt for themselves. The images ofSTEM that some girls (and some boys) are uncomfortablewith are still pervasive and do not evolve from theeducational environment alone.This briefing is based on the (In)visible Witnesses study by ateam of researchers led by Liz Whitelegg and RichardHolliman at the Open University. This project is one of fivecommissioned by the UKRC to explore issues around the roleof the media and representations of women in STEM.This briefing looks at the (re)construction of genderedrepresentations of STEM on children's television andinvestigates the ways in which these images affectedchildren's and young people's perceptions of STEM.The content of two weeks of children's television wasanalysed. Following this, 45 children and young people wereinvolved in a study which looked at how children and youngpeople made sense of the STEM they watch on television.Several methods were used to elicit children's and youngpeople's perceptions of STEM and their place within thesefields in the future - a questionnaire, 'draw-a-scientist' test,reflective writing about their future selves as scientists andthe creation of a 'storyboard' for a TV programme.Research BriefingNo.8(In)visible Witnesses:Young people’s views of images of scientists,technologists, engineers and mathematicianson UK children’s television from a genderperspectiveGendering of STEM onchildren’s televisionThe programmes broadcast within two sample weeks in specificschedules for children and young people were divided into thefollowing categories:news and current affairsanimated cartoonseducationalpre-schoolotherand extracts containing STEM were coded for all recorded speechand analysed by gender. The results are show below:1. In each type of programme more words are spoken by malesthan females, but only marginally so for the ‘News and currentaffairs’ and ‘Pre-school’ categories.2. Educational programming formed the largest proportion ofprogrammes for children and young people (41%), and thegender distribution of words spoken within this category was70/30 in favour of males.3. Cartoon and animations had the largest gender difference inwords spoken with over 70% spoken by males and less than30% by females.Children’s images of STEM onchildren’s televisionDo you know a Scientist or Engineer?Nineteen of the forty five students who completed thequestionnaire said that they knew a scientist or an engineer: onlyfour of those were female.All the primary aged children defined engineers as ‘people who fixthings’ and all of these were males. This study took place in an areawhere mechanical engineering was an important local activity. It istherefore likely that the children’s focus on one role for engineeringas a profession reflects their real-world experiences of engineers.This highlights the potential for other representations, such as thoseexperienced through television, to enable children and young peopleto imagine a more diverse set of roles for engineering.However, very few participants identified STEM as a subject moresuitable for boys than girls and similar numbers of girls and boyssaid STEM was important for them. It was mostly the youngerchildren who identified a possible future for themselves working inSTEM. This is in keeping with other research findings suggestingthat liking for science declines with age.What do scientists look like?The children were asked to ‘draw a scientist’ and then give them aname. 73% of the drawings of scientists were identified asdrawings of males. Only six drawings were of female scientists andthese were all, except one, drawn by the younger, primary-agedgirls.On average, the drawings done by girls had fewer stereotypicalsignals of science and scientists than those drawn by males. Threegirls drew pictures of themselves, but only one of these drawingscontained any definite indication that the girl was drawing herself‘as a scientist’. One girl drew an androgynous figure with addednotes implying that scientists could be either gender. In this respect,this participant demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of thenature of stereotypes and role models. These findings areconsistent with other recent large-scale ‘draw-a-scientist’ testswhere images of female scientists have also been produced by girls,but very rarely by boys.1. When attempting to represent a visual image of scientists intheir own drawings the majority of participants chose torepresent the scientist as male.2. We have found some evidence that some girls are willing toimagine women as scientists, and also that they could becomethese scientists. These particular images have far fewer of thestereotypical codes associated with male scientists.69.5230.40.050.04malefemalemixedunidentified54.5632.276.13 7.04malefemalemixedunidentified52.3847.620071.726.320.530.45malefemalemixedunidentifiedmalefemaleChart 1EducationalChart 2Pre-schoolChart 3News and current affairsChart 4Cartoons and animationsWhat sort of scientist or engineer would youwant to be?In order to examine whether the children saw a place forthemselves in STEM in the future we asked them to undertake areflective writing activity, where they imagined themselves as adultsworking in a STEM career.Of those who identified themselves as scientists, four wereassociated with teaching and the remaining eighteen had a varietyof careers such as working in: laboratories and research centres; asewerage treatment plant; a science museum; offices; and ahospital. Unlike those who aspired to be engineers, participants feltthat scientific careers didn't appear to offer the same conditions ofself-employment, or consultancy; and only two of the futurescientists mentioned financial reward as an incentive. Science wasseen in the role of 'problem solver' for such areas as disease orenvironmental issues. The themes that did emerge, however, maybe more realistic in terms of working as a scientist than the futureengineers displayed, and reflect the diversity of work that scientistsmight do..Several of the children who described careers in engineering againreferred to the mechanical aspects to do with fixing things.However, equal numbers of girls and boys put themselves in theseroles. The children felt that careers in engineering offeredopportunities for ‘problem solving’, as opposed to ‘problemcreating’; independence; status and financial reward; travel; and jobsatisfaction.One girl said:‘My job is especially fun at times because being that I’mallowed to experiment with energy production, where thereis some risk involved! Brilliant! It’s also very interesting andmotivating work. Of course my job is exceptionally vital inthe world of science presently: with the horrible truth ofglobal warming – and time running out….’ (Quote from KS4female participant)The three participants who imagined themselves as mathematiciansall interpreted the role as a mathematics teacher in a school.1. For these children and young people, scientists and engineers‘solve problems’.2. Jobs in engineering were perceived to offer more flexibility thanthose in science.3. Children had difficulty identifying roles, other than teaching,that mathematicians might play in the workplace.No single image of a scientist, engineer, technologist ormathematician will appeal to all children. Rather, we need multiple,diverse television portrayals of females and males working in theseroles.Who is the scientist, engineer ormathematician?Most children and young people were able to identify who were thescientists and engineers in the TV extracts they were shown, mostoften when they were male figures, and when screen captions madeit really clear by naming them and giving their title. In someinstances however, when a woman was the expert scientist and wasnot clearly named as such, the participants were not able to identifythe female as the expert. This issue of non-identification could be aproblem.The children and young people were very aware of the differencebetween presenters who talk about STEM and STEM experts.However, whether these non expert presenters have a positiveaffect on children’s self-concept and subsequent participation inSTEM requires further analysis of what children think it means towork in STEM occupations.The importance of animated cartoonsIn the study animated cartoons showed the greatest genderdifferences and the images presented in these programmes wereremembered long after these programmes were broadcast. They aretherefore likely to have a significant impact on how children andyoung people conceptualise STEM particularly as they are part oflong running series and are often repeated.Children and young people demonstrated the ability to accuratelyrecall STEM-related storylines from a range of televisionprogrammes and interpret the personalities of characters,identifying both positive and negative connotations.There were very few instances where they identified a programme ascontaining mathematics, which suggests that children and youngpeople have very little exposure to representations of maths and somay not think about engaging with this area in the future as a career.1. Participants use certain indicators (e.g. body language, howother people react to the expert, the job title on the screen) toidentify which characters within programmes are STEM experts,and have some difficulty identifying those experts when thoseindicators are not present.2. Animated cartoons provide a significant cultural resource wherechildren have access to images of STEM.How would children present STEM ontelevision?The children and young people designed and planned a televisionprogramme about science, technology, engineering and/ormathematics, by creating a storyboard. This proved a very richsource of data and was the most popular activity with the childrenand young people. The most sophisticated idea adopted a formatthat combined a game show with that of ‘reality TV’.This approach could be useful as classroom activity and mayproduce guidelines for TV production staff to consider.Children were capable of demonstrating sophisticated medialiteracy skills when creating ideas for their own televisionprogrammes. They demonstrated extensive knowledge andexperience of programme formats and the ways that science,technology, engineering and mathematics have been and might beportrayed on children’s television.Selected RecommendationsGreater emphasis should be placed on increasing the range ofdiverse, authentic representations of female scientists,technologists, engineers and mathematicians in fictionalchildren’s television programming particularly within animatedcartoons; not only those who conform for instance to a slim,attractive, bespectacled image. noted as emerging by otherresearch.When a woman is used as an expert, programme makersshould display her as an authority figure, using her title andprofession on screen.Targets should be introduced for the number of female andmale experts in a wider range of children’s televisionprogrammes. Achievement of these targets should bepublished regularly by broadcasters, alongside short—medium—long-term plans for how they are being improved.There is scope to present imagined, idealized images of STEMin animated cartoons, including ones that feature femalescientists and engineers in central roles.Programme makers should engage with children and youngpeople to find out what sort of programmes about STEM theywould like to watch.Further work could be commissioned to investigate how pre-school children make sense of STEM in TV programmes and therepresentations of gender (neutrality) therein.A complementary production study could be commissioned toinvestigate fictional representations of STEM on children’stelevision.The UKRC aims to increase the visibility of women in SET and work with individuals to raise their profile.As well as the research on the mass media, activities include the creation of case studies of women at alllevels in SET, the Play your Part campaign, the GetSET Women database, the Women of OutstandingAchievement Photographic Exhibition, media training, a programme to get more women onto SET publicbodies and work with Public Awareness of Science (PAWS).Further copies of this research briefing, the others in the series, and the full reports are all availablefrom: www.ukrc4setwomen.orgThe study is funded by the UK Resource Centre for Women in SETwww.ukrc4setwomen.org and the European Social Fund under the EQUALCommunity Initiative Programme www.esf.gov.uk through the UKRC’s JIVE Project.TheOpenUniversityUK Resource Centre for Women in Science,Engineering and TechnologyListerhills Park of Science and Commerce,40 – 42 Campus RoadBradford, BD7 1HRTel: 01274 433113Fax: 01274 436471Email: info@ukrc4setwomen.orgWebsite: www.ukrc4setwomen.orgPublished by UK Resource Centre in March 2008Ms Elizabeth Whitelegg, Dr Richard Holliman,Dr Jennifer Carr, Professor Eileen Scanlon,Dr Barbara HodgsonThe Centre for Education and EducationalTechnology,The Open University,Walton Hall,Milton Keynes,MK7 6AA.Tel: 01908 654615Email: e.l.whitelegg@open.ac.ukProject Website:http://www.open.ac.uk/invisible-witnesses/

(In)visible Witnesses: Young people's views of images of scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians on UK children's television from a gender perspective (Research Briefing)

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(In)visible Witnesses: Young people's views of images of scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians on UK children's television from a gender perspective (Research Briefing)

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