Love the Subject, Defy the Label: Empowering Students Beyond Stereotypes

Love the Subject, Defy the Label: Empowering Students Beyond Stereotypes
By Lucinda Powell, Assistant Director of Teaching and Learning and Joint Head of Psychology, Abingdon School

I was 16 when I became a ‘science person’. My memory of the moment is still clear. I was sitting in my GCSE English class (all girls) when our teacher asked who would be continuing English beyond GCSE. Scanning the room her eyes alighted on me, the only one without my hand raised: ‘Ah! Yes, Lucinda, you’re more of a science person’. That was it, my teacher had confirmed what I knew to be true, I wasn’t very good at writing and I wasn’t very good at English, science was who I was.

It was a small moment, but it made a big difference. I internalised it. I became a student who was good at Science and not good at English.

At school, in common with all girls who liked science in the early ‘90s, I was in the minority. Many years later I am writing this as a woman whose career has been based in a STEM subject – Psychology (yes, it is a science!). Psychology is the second most popular A Level subject (Maths being top) but only around 25% of those taking the subject are male, making it the most popular subject for girls. There has been a gender shift in other STEM subjects too – biology is also predominantly chosen by girls and Chemistry has a 50:50 split. This shift may be explained by the recent trend for medicine: in England in 2023/4 60% of the UK medical student intake was female. Further Maths, Physics and Computer Science, however, remain the dominant choices for boys. As a result few boys are opting for English literature or language at A Level, or art and design subjects which remain the preserve of girls.

The popularity of Psychology A Level amongst girls concerns me (in both senses of the word). More broadly the gender imbalance across all subjects is something we, as teachers, should be reflecting on and addressing. Just like my 16 year-old-self, I wonder if they are influenced by single moments or by a drip feed of subtle messages about what they should be choosing based on who ‘typically’ does which subject. The choice at 16 to be an ‘arts’ or ‘science’ student is often based on stereotyped expectations: ‘maths is too hard for girls’, ‘Psychology is a ‘soft’ subject, so boys shouldn’t do it’. Making choices based on incomplete data has consequences for both the individual and society.

When young people internalise others’ beliefs and stereotypes they may limit their own beliefs about what they can do and achieve. Making choices based on gendered expectations or internalised beliefs about who they are (whether conscious or not) may not reflect who they are at their core. They might think of themselves as ‘creative’ or ‘analytical’ and equate these with specific subjects (arts being the former, STEM the latter), this then drives their subject choices.

From a societal perspective, diversity matters in all subjects. When we work in homogenous groups, whether in the classroom or the workplace, we severely limit the diversity of knowledge, skills and abilities brought to the table. Discussion is inevitably limited, which in turn impacts decision-making. More heterogeneous groups will draw on and leverage a broader range of experiences and expertise. Take for example designing a car: ultimately a company will want to appeal to as many customers as possible, but what features will appeal to both men and women? Without women in the room to contribute to the discussion the company may miss 50% of their potential market. Equally if all nurses are female, can medical facilities be well designed for the comfort of male patients? As Carole Criado Perez demonstrates in her book Invisible women, a world in which the vast majority of technology and infrastructure is designed and built by men has resulted in a world built largely for men, with pervasive biases that profoundly impact women’s lives.

Understanding how young people make their A Level subject choices should enable us, as teachers, to encourage a diversity of students to opt for subjects that they may not see as traditionally for them. How can we enable this?

The most cited reason to choose a subject is because students love it. Encouraging a love of your subject is probably the single most important factor in getting students to continue. Students quickly pick up on a teacher’s love (or not) of their subject and simply enjoy it more if their teacher is also enjoying it.

The second reason young people choose subjects (closely linked to the first) is because of the teacher. If a teacher demonstrates belief in their students’ abilities, makes a good role model within the subject and champions students, then students are more likely to fall in love with the subject and will feel they can counter the negative stereotypes or messages they may otherwise hear.

In encouraging students to make good choices, teachers should point out the opportunities that different subjects offer, not the barriers. Providing rich super-curricular opportunities for students to really understand what may lie in store if they take a subject forward is also important – students may well be surprised! In addition, it may help highlight how transferable the skills they learn in one subject may be to another, seemingly unrelated, discipline. Students in their mid teens may well not appreciate that one has to be creative in STEM subjects or that being analytical is important for journalism and many aspects of art. Understanding how these skills permeate all subjects may be part of the conversation we need to have with young people as they make choices.

Finally, we need to watch how we may be communicating our own biases. Take for example a female history teacher who was talking about how many articles are contained within the Magna Carta and couldn’t remember, saying ‘Oh! me and numbers!’. Would a male colleague have done the same thing? Such small moments reinforce stereotypes, in this instance that ‘women can’t do maths’. Instead we need to drip feed positive examples and constantly counter stereotypes.

As teachers we can only do small things in our classrooms. We cannot fix larger societal and systemic gender biases that exist. We can do little to impact parental attitudes or what is portrayed in the media. We can, however, contest and contradict them. We do have power – one moment in one classroom can tip a choice one way or the other. Make sure that that choice is not going to be one your students regret! As for me, having become a ‘science person’ at age 16, can I now be a writer 32 years on? I will leave that for you to decide…