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

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Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
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