Dr. Allison Gonsalves

I teach graduate and undergraduate courses on secondary science teaching methods and sociocultural issues in math and science education. I am currently the Director of Graduate Programs in the Department of Integrated Studies in Education, and the Director of the Science Education Laboratories in the same department. I am the co-chair of the European Science Education Research Association’s Science Identities Special Interest Group, and I serve on the editorial board of both the Journal for Research in Science Teaching and Gender & Education.

My research is motivated by pressing concerns about the unequal access that many historically under-represented groups (such as women and people of colour) in Science, Technology and Engineering (STE) disciplines face, and the concomitant privilege that these disciplines have in contemporary society. My research seeks to understand processes of inclusion and exclusion in STE education through the lens of “science identities”. I carry out this research with students in post-secondary STE contexts (involving graduate students in physics programs, undergraduate science majors and novice teachers in teacher education programs), and in out-of-school-time (OST) contexts (e.g., after-school programs in community centres and schools with youth). My current research program involves the tracing of "science identity trajectories" across learning spaces and the affects and experiences that shape these movements. My current funded research projects entail mapping students’ affective engagement in equity and sustainability initiatives on campus, and the impacts this has on their identity work in and beyond science learning.