High School Students’ Stereotypic Images of Scientists in South Korea

This study explored stereotypical images of scientists held by tenth-grade students at three different gender organized institutions. The three institutions included an all-male, an all-female, and a co-educational high school located in South Korea. A total of 393 tenth-grade students from these three respective schools participated in a Draw-A-Scientist-Test (DAST), which was designed to reveal students’ perceptions about what scientists look like. After initial assessment of the DAST results, small numbers of students from each school were selected for follow-up focus group interviews. A mixed methods technique was used in order to analyse the DAST scores and data from the transcribed interviews. Quantitative results indicated that the groups from the three different types of schools were significantly different in terms of their stereotypical images of scientists in that the male and female students from the co-ed school had significantly fewer stereotypical images of scientists versus students in the all-male school. Qualitative results from analysis of selected students at the all-male, the all-female, and the co-ed schools corroborated the quantitative findings. Additional discussions address possible ways to improve equitable learning opportunities in South Korea.