The Norms of Chemistry and How Students Figure Them

This study investigates how Danish upper secondary school students, with elective chemistry, figure the norms and practices of chemistry. This gives a way to better understand what kind of students can build a positive chemistry identity. Because of concerns about uptake in chemistry-related education, there is an interest in chemistry education research (CER) to understand students' considerations and aspirations about chemistry (Archer et al., 2022). This study is significant as it provides empirical insights into students' conceptions of the norms, nature, relevance, and celebrated practices in chemistry and how these support or hinder students' chemistry identity work. By using a novel approach in CER, figured world (Holland et al., 1998), to theorise how students figure chemistry and celebrate practices (Günter et al., 2023), this gives insights into what kind of students can build chemistry identity (Hosbein & Barbera, 2020). Classroom observations at 3 diverse upper secondary and focus group interviews with 45 students compromise the data. Analysis shows that students figure chemistry in two distinct ways: the lab and the theoretical classroom. The lab world characterises a creative, cooperative, process- and methods-focused way of doing chemistry. Lab is seen as the essence of chemistry which is made relevant with applied and sociochemical aspects (Sjöström & Talanquer, 2014), and practical knowledge is celebrated above mathematical knowledge. The classroom world is characterised by the high-stakes performance of chemical language, chemish (Markic & Childs, 2016). Even though students label the lab world as essential and desirable, their characterisation of a good chemistry student majorly describes what is celebrated in the classroom world. Such a strong celebration of a narrow and purist way of performing chemistry hinders students, especially female students and those without science-educated relatives, from identifying with chemistry. The performance in the lab is however not neutral either, as those students who perform the greatest variety of tasks seem to be those who have science-educated relatives. This calls for change in what performance is formally celebrated in chemistry, like in exams, and an increased investigation of roles in lab work.