Exploring Physics departments' ecosystems*

We studied the ‘physics experience’ of students and faculty in two physics departments, one in Europe and one in North America, to understand the socially constructed criteria and norms that shape how students and faculty perceive the culture of university level physics education, with the goal of empowering physics departments to understand and respond to social and structural issues that lead to gender inequity in Physics. To minimize researcher bias, an a priori framework was formulated to construct the interviews and the analysis. Since individuals experience their environment in different ways, semi structured interviews were used with techniques that elicit various responses and provide triangulation, to uncover the experiences of participants by stimulating them to discuss issues for which they did not have a readily formulated response. The data will be analyzed following principles of grounded theory and a reliability index will be established. This presentation will discuss the need for and the process of formulating an a priori framework, the methods used for the collection and analysis of qualitative data and for establishing the reliability index, and some initial findings in examining the interplay of the various axes of identity of the participants and the collective culture of the physics department.