Dinosaur discourses: taking stock of gendered learning myths

Abstract

The persistence of gendered learning myths in educational contexts and the wider imaginary continues to trouble feminist educational researchers and practitioners. The tracing of such myths and the categories they create through authoritative and elite discourses of the past suggests how they have functioned across different fields to preserve a hierarchised binary. Gendered myths seem to be lent authority by some of the more popular claims of contemporary neuroscience as they were by the nascent Victorian psychological sciences. Adopting Michele Le Doeuff's (2003) heuristic of identifying which attributes are absorbed into masculine intellectual legacies and which 'cast off' to women allows for a focus on patterns of privileging of learning discourses across the humanities and sciences, and the ways these are constituted in historical and contemporary contexts.

Negotiating Intelligence, Nerdiness, and Status in Physics Master’s studies

“…Ideas of authentic intelligence have been shown to be a possible stumbling block for learning, as a Bfixed mindset^about intelligence implies expending effort is fruitless (Dweck 2006). Then again, the position of an effortless achiever or a genius is already gendered and classed (Jackson and Nyström 2015;Paule 2015). The results of this article point to how ideals of authentic intelligence, effortless achievement, and nerdy interest are reproduced and negotiated among master's level physics students.…”

“…This article has demonstrated how this social recognition of intelligence comes to matter for master's students. One expression of this can be seen in the investment in Bbrainy^positions by some physics students, something which, with a phrase borrowed from Sara, can be called Bgoing Albert.^Regardless of the competence and capabilities of these students, the possibilities for taking such a position are structured by gendered and classed notions of who can be a genius (Jackson and Nyström 2015;Paule 2015).…”

“…For example, intelligence testing has from the beginning been associated with dubious claims about the natural superiority of already privileged groups (Privateer 2006), and this association also plagues discussions about giftedness to this day (Kerr and Kronborg 2015). Discourses that position boys as more authentically intelligent and girls as more hardworking are widespread inside and outside education and seem hard to do away with (Paule 2015). While hard work, or collaboration, can be seen as valuable behaviors, the raw intelligence of the genius still evokes more respect (Paule 2015), and a position as an effortless achiever is thus desirable in many education contexts, but often more readily available to white middle-class boys/men (Jackson and Nyström 2015).…”

“…Discourses that position boys as more authentically intelligent and girls as more hardworking are widespread inside and outside education and seem hard to do away with (Paule 2015). While hard work, or collaboration, can be seen as valuable behaviors, the raw intelligence of the genius still evokes more respect (Paule 2015), and a position as an effortless achiever is thus desirable in many education contexts, but often more readily available to white middle-class boys/men (Jackson and Nyström 2015). The gendering and racialization of notions of intelligence and brilliance seems to be one mechanism whereby women and racialized academics are discouraged from pursuing certain academic fields such as physics where the beliefs about the necessity of raw talent are stronger (Leslie et al 2015;Storage et al 2016).…”

“…For Sara, these students appear as authentically intelligent, but also as putting on a kind of show where this supposed intelligence may give status in physics. This status is achieved by appearing to possess the raw, authentic intelligence generally valued in western society and in that way being Beffortless achievers,^a position generally more available to privileged men (Castles 2012;Jackson and Nyström 2015;Paule 2015). However, Sara's identification of this behavior as a kind of act serves to make visible the positioning work that enables someone to appear as intelligent.…”