Research on education shows that girls are less likely to consider a career in STEM. Many factors construct the archetypal scientist in our minds and lead youth to be interested in sciences. Some of these factors include cultural context, home environment, and teaching methods¹. Fortunately, the concept of a “scientific identity” can be influenced. After parents, teachers have the most impact in moulding young people, and research shows that certain attitudes or educational strategies can encourage young women to see themselves as scientists².
Parité sciences develops training content to help teachers embrace these attitudes and strategies, encouraging young women with an interest and gift for STEM to pursue higher education and careers of their choice.
Why does Parité sciences exist?
STATISTICS
The situation
Society often fuels the idea that STEM is a masculine domain. However, women's and men's skills are equal. On a local or global scale, women in STEM are continuously working on promising research for the benefit of society as a whole.
Did you know?
In Quebec, the graduation rate for women in STEM programs has been stagnating for nearly 50 years. However, graduation rates from all university programs combined has increased markedly for women during this same period.
Reference:
Do you teach at a high school or college level?
You and your colleagues from across Quebec are at the heart of the solution for creating a significant impact, remove barriers, and deconstruct stereotypes in STEM.
We work to help the teaching community to understand issues related to the representation of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) so that they can increase girls' interest in science.
Educational tools and
clear steps
Here are our educational tools to be used in the classroom. These tools are designed to have an impact on increasing female students' interest in STEM careers:
Free training on the tools and ways to adopt inclusive teaching strategies in the classroom for the classroom for college and secondary school teaching community
Pedagogical strategies to reinforce student interest in STEM
Printable poster on the representation of women in STEM
Turnkey presentations on STEM education and careers
Parité sciences has designed, developed, and distributes a free educational kit containing concrete teaching tools that are easy to implement in any classroom. We also offer free training on integrating these tools so that you have everything you need to proactively support your students pursuing STEM education.
Information pulled from:
¹ Analyse des attitudes envers les sciences chez des élèves du secondaire d’origine haïtienne de milieux défavorisés de la région de Montréal et Interest, motivation and attitude towards science and technology at K-12 levels: A systematic review of 12 years of educational research
https://papyrus.bib.umontreal.ca/xmlui/handle/1866/4953 and https://doi.org/10.1080/03057267.2014.881626
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² La dualité ethnographe-physicienne: Étude réflexive sur les négociations identitaires en physique [Doctoral dissertation, Université de Montréal ; Connecting high school physics experiences, outcome expectations, physics identity, and physics career choice: A gender study ;
Diversité des genres en SG : un résumé de la situation des femmes en sciences et en génie ; and Des actions pédagogiques pour guider des filles et des femmes en STIM: Sciences, technos, ingénierie et maths