Abstract
The South African science curricula aim to equip learners, from all socioeconomic or cultural backgrounds, with essential knowledge, skills, and values to meaningfully participate in their communities as informed citizens. Furthermore, the curricula stipulate that issues of inequality and social justice, such as gender inequality, should be addressed in science classrooms. Historically, the female child has been marginalised when tackling fundamental life challenges which require STEM-related knowledge and skills. Learners' interests in science-related subjects also remain a critical issue in South African schools, more so for females as they are often demotivated and find science challenging. Previous studies have blamed the curricula for lack of explicit guidance to teachers, resulting in poor curricula implementation. The present study argues that poor female learners' participation and performance, and lack of interest in science, emanate from the curricula silence on how gender inequalities can be addressed in science classrooms. The study sought to determine the extent to which the science curricula guide teachers to respond to gender issues in their classrooms. This paper reports on the extent to which science curricula deliberately guide teachers on what gender issues they need to address, why they should address them and how they can do this, whilst teaching science topics. The study is guided by critical social theory as theoretical framework. In a qualitative case study, data was collected through analysis of curricula documents for the three science domains: Natural, Physical and Life Sciences, in terms of how content should be taught in relation to gender issues. Data collected were subjected to content analysis. Findings revealed that science curricula documents show superficial relationships between content and gender issues. There is a lack of guidance to teachers on how to enact gender responsive teaching. One example is the superficial reference shown in the Life Sciences curriculum on the importance of a balanced diet for different genders, and human population growth and gender distributions. The findings provide implications for both science curricula designers and policy makers on the need to articulate gender matters in the science curricula and also provide guidance on how science teachers may implement gender responsive teaching and learning in their classrooms to reduce or eradicate inequalities. The author acknowledges the study's limitations in portraying gender as binary rather than as a continuum.