Dedicating, faking, and surviving: disclosing tensions in how three women university students negotiate collectively celebrated norms across European contexts

Higher education biology (HEB), a discipline where women undergraduates are numerically overrepresented in most Western universities, has been given little attention in exploring norms of scientific practice from a student perspective. This study brings into focus how biology students negotiate identities in relation to figured worlds of HEB. Through thematic analysis of 27 timeline interviews from a Swedish, German, and British university as a collective case, we identified three hegemonic imaginaries across narratives: <i>showing dedication through sacrifice, faking it to make it,</i> and <i>surviving as the fittest</i>. Using a theoretical framework of feminist science critique, science identity, and figured worlds, we then offer a multiple case approach to how three women students negotiate the collective imaginaries identified, while simultaneously disavowing and challenging them. This conflict suggests they consider themselves successful <i>despite</i> the pressure to engage in ‘typical’ scientific practices they simultaneously contest. Consequently, this study demonstrates that celebrated imaginaries do not remain unproblematised by successful students, but create tensions in their identity work. This provokes discussions on how science imaginaries shape women’s participation in HEB and beyond. Visualising these tensions makes it furthermore possible to challenge and change hegemonic academic norms in HEB, moving towards more socially just and inclusive spaces.

高等教育生物学（Higher Education Biology，HEB）是一门在多数西方高校中女性本科生人数占优的学科，但从学生视角探索科学实践规范的相关研究却极少关注该学科。本研究聚焦于生物学学生如何围绕高等教育生物学的想象性语境（figured worlds）协商自身身份认同。研究以瑞典、德国与英国三国高校的27份时间线访谈数据为集体案例，通过主题分析从叙事文本中识别出三类贯穿始终的霸权式想象：**以牺牲彰显奉献**、**伪装以求得成**与**适者生存**。本研究采用女性主义科学批判、科学身份认同（science identity）以及想象性语境（figured worlds）的理论框架，随后针对三名女学生展开多案例分析，探讨她们如何在抵制、挑战上述已识别的集体霸权想象的同时与之协商。这种身份协商中的冲突表明，这些学生认为自己的成功尽管需要参与那些她们同时在质疑的“典型”科学实践。因此，本研究证实，广受赞誉的霸权式想象并未被成功学生视作无可置疑的准则，反而在其身份建构工作中制造了内在张力。这一发现引发了关于科学想象如何塑造女性在高等教育生物学乃至更广泛科学领域参与度的讨论。此外，通过可视化这些张力，还有助于挑战并变革高等教育生物学中的霸权学术规范，推动构建更具社会公正性与包容性的学术空间。