2025 Theses Doctoral

Beyond Binary: Understanding Gender-diverse Students’ Experiences in Science Education

Darin, Caroline

Past decades of research on gender in science education have yielded important insights into the experiences of cis women and girls and have also facilitated their increased participation in scientific fields. However, in recent years as understandings of gender have become increasingly constructivist and fluid, especially among young people, a gap has emerged between the way that many students understand gender, and the binary way that it is presented in most research. Highlighting the specific experiences of students of diverse gender identities in science classrooms is especially crucial given an increasingly polarized and hostile political climate around gender.

This study uses the theoretical frameworks of Fourth Wave Feminism and Queer Theory to focus on the experiences of gender-diverse young people along the construct of sense of belonging, engagement in science, and perceptions of science. These constructs are explored through an explanatory sequential mixed methodology, using a quantitative survey (n = 232) with demographic questions, questions about social media, and three survey instruments used to assess each of the research question constructs. The quantitative strand was analyzed and used to inform the qualitative strand (n = 5), conducted using critical-case sampling from the quantitative participants to collect detailed experiences using a semi-structured interview protocol.

These findings added context and depth to the overarching patterns found in the quantitative data. The triangulation of quantitative and qualitative data uncovered stark differences in sense of belonging between gender-diverse participants and their cis peers. Though the quantitative data around engagement showed few significant differences between groups, the qualitative interviews revealed the complex ways gender-diverse students navigated science curriculum and pedagogy, indicating a tension between interest in science and comfort in science learning communities. Furthermore, despite feeling less welcome, many gender-diverse participants expressed high regard for science’s importance and value for society.

The qualitative data analysis yielded five interconnected themes that were also aligned with quantitative findings: (1) representation and visibility gaps, (2) finding and building community, (3) evolution of scientific understanding, (4) navigating social spaces in science classrooms, and (5) intersectional identities. These results point toward needed reforms in science education, including explicit institutional support structures for gender-diverse students, curricular adaptations that reflect contemporary gender understandings, and pedagogical approaches that build community rather than isolation. This study expands science education equity research beyond binary gender constructs and provides concrete directions for supporting students whose experiences have remained underrepresented in previous literature.