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. 2024 Jun;23(2):ar24.
doi: 10.1187/cbe.23-07-0125.

How Do Students Critically Evaluate Outdated Language That Relates to Gender in Biology?

Ryan D P Dunk  1 , Sarah J Malmquist  2 , Kristina K Prescott  2 , Sharday N Ewell  1 , Jeremiah A Henning  3 , Cissy J Ballen  1
Affiliations

How Do Students Critically Evaluate Outdated Language That Relates to Gender in Biology?

Ryan D P Dunk et al. CBE Life Sci Educ. 2024 Jun.

Abstract

Cisheteronormative ideologies are infused into every aspect of society, including undergraduate science. We set out to identify the extent to which students can identify cisheteronormative language in biology textbooks by posing several hypothetical textbook questions and asking students to modify them to make the language more accurate (defined as "correct; precise; using language that applies to all people"). First, we confirmed that textbooks commonly use language that conflates or confuses sex and gender. We used this information to design two sample questions that used similar language. We examined what parts of the questions students modified, and the changes they recommended. When asked to modify sample textbook questions, we found the most common terms or words that students identified as inaccurate were related to infant gender identity. The most common modifications that students made were changing gender terms to sex terms. Students' decisions in this exercise differed little across three large biology courses or by exam performance. As the science community strives to promote inclusive classrooms and embrace the complexity of human gender identities, we provide foundational information about students' ability to notice and correct inaccurate language related to sex and gender in biology.

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Figures

FIGURE 1.
FIGURE 1.
Edits of gender-associated terms to sex-associated terms at all three sites in each question. Question 1 is displayed on the left (A), and Question 2 on the right (B). Across questions, students most frequently noticed and changed the site about a baby’s gender.
FIGURE 2.
FIGURE 2.
Edits from gender-associated terms to sex-associated terms at all three sites across courses. Question 1 is displayed on the left (A), and Question 2 on the right (B).
FIGURE 3.
FIGURE 3.
Edits from gender-associated terms to sex-associated terms at all three sites by course performance. Question 1 is displayed on the left (A), and Question 2 on the right (B).
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