Document Type
Dissertation
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)
Major/Program
Physics
First Advisor's Name
Geoff Potvin
First Advisor's Committee Title
Committee Chair
Second Advisor's Name
Zahra Hazari
Second Advisor's Committee Title
Committee member
Third Advisor's Name
Laird Kramer
Third Advisor's Committee Title
Committee member
Fourth Advisor's Name
Joerg Reinhold
Fourth Advisor's Committee Title
Committee member
Keywords
educational methods, other physics, science and mathematics education
Date of Defense
3-30-2023
Abstract
Physics has underrepresented women and people of color throughout its history. Several groups of physicists and physical societies have begun to address this problem with systematic, research-based approaches. Understanding the effectiveness and these approaches’ driving mechanisms is important to cause change within the field of physics. This collected papers dissertation will: (1) develop a novel analysis framework by combining two theoretical perspectives which have not previously been used together in the context of physics learning; (2) examine discussions of underrepresentation that occur via in-person lessons from STEP UP, a national initiative to empower high school teachers to encourage their female students to pursue physics in college; and (3) conduct a quantitative analysis of student identities to understand barriers that may prevent certain groups from pursuing physics. The initial blending of frameworks benefits the field of physics education by combining two independent lines of thinking that have historically been treated as unaligned. Analyzing lesson data will help to understand how STEP UP lessons may empower female students to pursue physics, providing a better understanding for other initiatives to drive change (including potentially for other demographically underrepresented groups). Analyzing student’s physics identities will help understand how classrooms could better develop students’ desire to pursue physics. All this work is aimed at understanding how to remedy the problem of underrepresentation in physics and improve our collective ability to cause meaningful change within the field of physics.
Identifier
FIDC011061
ORCID
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5645-5042
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Archibeque, Benjamin, "Understanding Students’ Figured Worlds of Physics and Their Physics Identity to Address Underrepresentation" (2023). FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 5273.
https://digitalcommons.fiu.edu/etd/5273
Included in
Educational Methods Commons, Other Physics Commons, Science and Mathematics Education Commons
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