Thinking Gender and Science in Chemistry classes: the appreciation of women based on the Periodic Table

Abstract

(Re)telling episodes of the history of science, we recognize that the acceptance and ascension reserved for women scientists are presented in different ways from those destined to men, a scenario created by strengthening narratives that suggest that scientific identity is contrary to socially established female identity. In attention to such inequalities, we aim to explore the results achieved in the development of a Didactic Sequence (DS) aimed at female valorization in the context of the History of the Periodic Table. By qualitative research, we analyzed the perception of students of the 1st grade of high school about said didactic content from the existing relationships between Gender and Science. The data were constructed through the development of a DS, being analyzed from the steps proposed by discursive textual analysis. The results achieved allowed us to recognize how students understand the women's women's payment in science, the reasons that engendered this scenario, the prejudices that still persist in our society and their attitudes towards this context. We conclude that, by establishing perspectives on gender relations, it was possible for students to tension beliefs and certainties that shape an unequal society, denying female bodies and thoughts.