Starting by some examples of “the image of science” conveyed in society by for example media, educational institutions as well as by scientists themselves, this presentation will discuss a research and intervention project that introduced critical feminist perspectives on science education to pre-service teachers in two Swedish universities. In the project we have followed a cohort of approximately 120 pre-school and primary school pre-service teachers through their first year of science courses. As an integral part of these science courses our intervention has introduced critical perspectives on gender and science as related to the culture of science and a feminist critique of the sciences. In doing so, the project aimed to provide the pre-service teachers with tools for articulating and reflecting on their thoughts about science, gender and teaching. The empirical material consists of students’ written tasks, audio-recorded group discussions and interviews. The presentation will outline the intervention as such, but also present results from some of the current strands of analysis. In one such analytical strand we seek to understand the pre-service teachers' meeting with the intervention through conceptualizing their educational experience as shaped by a participation in multiple ‘cultures’. In another analytical strand the focus is implications of gender (un)awareness for the teaching of science and an additional strand has the focus how a sense of place, including affective dimensions, is reflected in the student teachers’ science learning narratives.
Invited keynote presentation.