How children's media and teachers communicate exclusive and essentialist views of science and scientists.

ABSTRACT: Language that uses noun labels and generic descriptions to discuss people who do science (e.g., "Let's be scientists! Scientists discover new things") signals to children that "scientists" is a distinctive category. This identity-focused language promotes essentialist beliefs and leads to disengagement from science among young children in experimental contexts. The extent to which these cues shape the development of children's beliefs and behaviors in daily life, however, depends on (a) the availability of identity-focused language in children's environments and (b) the power of these cues to shape beliefs over time, even in the noisier, more variable contexts in which children are exposed to them. Documenting the availability of this language, linguistic coding of children's media (Study

SUBMITTER: Wang MM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9413300 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature