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.