Social Perceptions of Science and Technology Among Students of Early Childhood and Primary Education

Abstract

The objective of this article is to analyse social perceptions of Science and Technology among trainee pre-school and primary school teachers. The study will pay particular attention to how perceptions vary according to the training course studied and to gender. To reach these objectives we used a questionnaire based on Spain’s Survey of Social Perceptions of Science and Technology Survey (SSPST), a study that has taken place every two years since 2002. We gathered responses from (N = 383) young people in professional training preparatory to careers teaching in either pre-school or primary school settings. The interest in focussing on such a narrow section of the population stems from the fact that, in order to address the gender gap still found in science and technology professions, it is necessary start with schools. To this end, we must first consider teacher training, hence the need to investigate trainee teacher’s perceptions of science and technology. Preliminary results show that while perceptions do not seem to vary as a function of training course (pre-school or primary), there do appear to be differences depending on participants’ gender.