Europe’s future economy and social coherence is depending on young generation with interests, skills and capacity far beyond what is offered in the traditional educational system.

Europe needs young people deeply engaged in science, research and innovation – and based on positive and engaging experiences of what science, research and innovation is at a very early age and in early schooling.

Young people are increasingly disengaged from science learning in schools and this is causing great concern in the European Commission and other global players.

We call this the Commission’s SCIENCE LEARNING INNOVATION AGENDA, described and documented across numerous Commission documents, research papers and guidelines.

The core message is that science learning in schools needs dramatic change and fundamental re-thinking to appeal to the young generations.

We thus conclude that science aspirations sit in an uneasy tension with femininity and must be continually carefully negotiated and defended against challenges from wider popular discourses which align science with masculinity.  The root of continued gender inequalities in girls’/women’s participation in, and experiences of. Science is, therefore, complex, multiple, and highly resistant to change –and is especially problematic for girls who are not middle class and who do not occupy “clever” learner identities.

“Balancing Acts”: Elementary School Girls’ Negotiations of Femininity, Achievement, and Science, 2012 (archer et al).