Repairing Elementary School Science

Abstract

The heterogendered cultural discourse that privileges heterosexuality and normalizes sexual and gender binaries damages the science knowledge and opportunities to engage in science learning that children experience in elementary school science. This article analyzes a typical science lesson on crayfish to show how the heterogendered obsession with dichotomies and categorization hides the diversity of sexual morphologies and reproductive processes of the natural world. Furthermore, although sexuality, defined here as an innate desire to satisfy curiosity and use bodily experiences to build knowledge, is a foundation of science, typical elementary school science lessons repress children's curiosity and constrain their embodied understandings. Repairing elementary school science by providing a more expansive view of the diversity of life, inspiring and following children's curiosity, and providing opportunities for children to build embodied knowledge can create a more gender and sex-inclusive curriculum and encourage all children to flourish as learners of science.