By Clare Sweeney
WORKING in early years education, it’s necessary to update resources to ensure they are appropriate for the modern world. I recently came across an outdated illustration of a South-east Asian character in a textbook – the resource was thrown away, just as the stereotype used should be confined to the dustbin of history.
Unfortunately, it can be easy to miss anachronistic and equally harmful depictions. Another book featured an illustration of a fire station and its six-person crew, all of whom were white and male.
How are young girls expected to picture themselves in certain professions if they do not see females in these roles?
This is one of the great obstacles in encouraging females into STEM (Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) professions. According to Scottish Government figures, in 2018 only 19 per cent of Scotland’s engineers and 10% of senior managers in Stem professions were women. Although female representation is improving through the work of organisations such as Equate Scotland, it’s far too low.
The 2020 Logan Report – commissioned by the Scottish Government to review how Scotland’s technology sector can contribute to post-pandemic recovery – called for improvements in education to help nurture talent at school and university. That must include addressing the under-representation of women that begins in early years.
Girls need to see people like them in roles they can aspire to. Field trips to STEM environments and in-school visits from STEM professionals are essential, but they have diminished post-pandemic. It will take a concerted effort to establish substantial early years exposure to Stem.
We need to allow children to take on these subjects early. At Kelvinside Academy we are lucky to have the world’s first NuVu X Innovation School – a project developed by a team of MIT graduates where young people take a problem-based approach to learning more applicable to the real world. It gives our early years learners access to industry level equipment and expertise to experience science and technology in a meaningful and practical way.
However, facilities like this are not the only way to make an impact – taking children on visits to labs, research projects, or factories; encouraging women working in STEM to come in and speak to our young children; and adopting an advanced approach to science in early years are just as effective, and accessible to all schools.
Our pupils learn coding during early years. It will be a vital skill for jobs of the future. Even if they don't go on to use it in their career, it embeds computational thinking. Subjects are just words. If a child can learn a banana is a banana, they can learn an algorithm is an algorithm.
STEM qualifications should be part of training for the early years workforce. The effect will take years – that’s why it must begin now. If we don’t update our teaching methods and approach around STEM and the representation of women within it in early years, they too will seem as out of place as the antiquated images in out-of-date textbooks – and equally as damaging.
Clare Sweeney is head of junior school at Kelvinside Academy, home of the world’s first NuVu X Innovation School.
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