Science Education Seminar Series (SENSE): Chemistry Capital: The Transmission of Inequalities between Generations

The SENSE seminar series aims to make sense of current issues and challenges in science teaching and learning. Guest lecturer in this seminar is Dr. Lilith Rüschenpöhler from the Ludwigsburg University of Education, Germany.

Two students working on chemistry experiment in school laboratory.

This seminar adreses how external factors can influence students’ relationship with chemistry and their ability to engage in chemistry learning through the lens of chemistry capital. (photo illustration by Coourbox).

Welcome to the Science Education Seminar Series! This event is part of the master course NATDID4002 Naturfagene, forskning og samfunn. The seminar is open for all.  To register, please fill out the registration form (nettskjema.uio.no).

About the seminar

Speaker: Dr. Lilith Rüschenpöhler (Ludwigsburg University of Education, Germany).

Abstract

In school, all students are equal, and success depends on their efforts and talents—so goes a popular narrative. In reality, science identities are not equally distributed. They depend on gender, social class, and ethnicity.  In this seminar, we examine how external factors can influence students’ relationship with chemistry and their ability to engage in chemistry learning through the lens of chemistry capital. On the one hand, these external factors include aspects related to students’ home environments (e.g., parents’ knowledge of chemistry content, sharing chemistry-related activities at home). On the other hand, aspects of the school system can also intensify the tendency to reproduce social structures. Implications for teaching practice, as well as comparisons with experiences in Norwegian schools, can be discussed.

About the speaker

Dr. Lilith Rüschenpöhler (ph-ludwigsburg.de) is a researcher in chemistry education and a secondary school teacher in chemistry, French, and German as a foreign language. She obtained her PhD in 2020 from Ludwigsburg University of Education in Germany. Before this, she studied chemistry, French, philosophy, and political sciences in Bremen, Germany, and Paris, France. Her research interests include structural inequalities in chemistry education, the influences of sociocultural factors on science learning and the development of teaching approaches to promote equal access to science.

Contact

Nani Teig, postdoctoral researcher and course coordinator of NATDID4002 Naturfagene, forskning og samfunn.

Published Sep. 28, 2021 2:37 PM - Last modified Oct. 1, 2021 4:48 PM