Gender Equity and the Enacted Science Curriculum

Abstract

At the beginning of the 20th century, the world was on the brink of technological revolution. Science and technology were partners in a process of change that rapidly would transform the way in which people lived their lives and shaped their dreams. Today, as we approach the onset of the 21 st century, the world is transformed radically from that world of 100 years ago. The computer has found its way into every imaginable facet of human life and has enabled an information revolution to accelerate its way through the latter years of the present decade. This revolution has the capacity to transform the way in which science education proceeds. In the privacy of the home, potential learners can ‘surf’ cyberspace, capture evocative images of comets colliding with Jupiter, examine data of all forms at an enormous number of sites, communicate with others through the computer on an eye to eye basis, participate in discussions between teachers on how science ought to be taught and learned, and read exchanges on virtually any topic associated with myriad news groups. Although the internet has found its way into only a handful of schools and its use is limited by the availability of computers and networking software, an explosion in the ownership of personal computers has brought the internet into many homes in the USA and around the world. Widespread availability has increased the accessibility of learning resources for science education in a manner that is potentially blind to colour and gender, although not to social class. The advent of the information revolution promises to permeate the conservative boundaries of schooling and science education. It is within this context, one of a possible revolution in the nature of schooling, that it is critical to consider issues of gender equity in science education.