Chemistry for whom? Gender awareness in teaching and learning chemistry

Marie Stahl and Anita Hussenius have defined what discourses dominate national tests in chemistry for Grade 9 in Sweden by using feminist, critical didactic perspectives. This response seeks to expand the results in Stahl and Hussenius's article Chemistry inside an epistemological community box!-Discursive exclusions and inclusions in the Swedish national tests in chemistry, by using different facets of gender awareness. The first facet-Gender awareness in relations to the test designers' own conceptions- highlighted how the gender order where women are subordinated men becomes visible in the national tests as a consequence of the test designers internalized conceptions. The second facet-Gender awareness in relation to chemistry-discussed the hierarchy between discourses within chemistry. The third facet-Gender awareness in relation to students-problematized chemistry in relation to the students' identity formation. In summary, I suggest that the different discourses can open up new ways to interpret chemistry and perhaps dismantle the hegemonic chemistry discourse