Feminine learner identities in middle-school science: making visible the compliant, ambivalent and hardworking girls

Educational research highlights persistent gender disparities in STEM participation, where the global underrepresentation of girls and young women remains a serious concern. This paper explores the science learner identities of 21 middle-school girls (aged 11–14 years), drawing on theoretical work in girlhood studies. We highlight how the girls’ perceptions of a good scientist and a good science student influence how they discursively see themselves as science learners. Our findings point to a tripartite typology regarding how they position themselves as science learners 1) ‘the compliant learner’; 2) ‘the ambivalent and waning science learner’; and 3) ‘the hardworking scientist in the making’. The data illustrate that despite performing confident science learner identities, many of the girls do not aspire to a science-related career. The paper concludes with an argument for further research that foregrounds the ways girls construct themselves as science learners to help foster parity of participation in the sciences.