Bookbeat: August 1997
Re-Engineering Female Friendly Science
by Sue V. Rosser, Department of Women's Studies
Available through Amazon
Rosser, Director of the Center for Women's Studies and Gender Research, is also the author of the pioneering book Female Friendly Science (19990), which introduced feminist teaching methods to math and science education and outlined a six-stage model for transforming curricula to attract and retain women in the sciences. This book was so successful that its reforms were assimilated into mainstream science education but, ironically, lost their appeal to women in the process. Now, in Re-Engineering Female Friendly Science, Rosser revisits the feminist origins of curriculum transformation and puts the gender back in gender equity.
- Publisher
Excerpt
Although the mainstream of science education now advocates curricular transformations that overlap with those advocated by feminist scientists, in some cases, such as when all examples in teaching about the history of science are white men, curricular reforms represent cooptation rather than transformation. Similarly, the impact of gender issues has been overlooked in some of the current science education trends, such as the school-to-work reform movement in high school, group work in undergraduate classes, and the transition to graduate school. In other cases, such as the creation of single-sex sections in the coeducational environment, too much credence may have been placed in a single, gender-based solution.
