Session L16: Research on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility

Social Cognitive Theory Explains Influences on Self-Reported Inclusive Teaching Practices

Students with disabilities make up about 20% of students enrolled in US postsecondary institutions. Physics instructors might support disabled students by providing accommodations. However, challenges might arise when students request and instructors attempt to provide accommodations. Universal design offers an alternative strategy for supporting students with disabilities as instructors are encouraged to build accessibility into their course during the design phase. Social cognitive theory posits that participating in disability-focused training and working with/teaching students with disabilities might influence how instructors view the value of accommodations and inclusive teaching practices. In this study, we administered the Inclusive Teaching Strategies Inventory (ITSI) to investigate physics instructors' self-reported attitudes and actions with accommodations and inclusive teaching practices. We used statistical analysis to explore how participants responded with respect to the type of training they received and their experience working with disabled students and found several significant associations. Here, we discuss the implications of our findings.   

Understanding Neurodivergent Physicists' Identity Development Through the Critical Disability Physics Identity Framework

Neurodivergent identity is characterized by non-normative sensory and cognitive differences. When immersed in neurotypical-normative environments such as a physics classroom, neurodivergent physics students often encounter marginalization and discouragement from pursuing careers in physics. This issue persists in workplace environments, where neurodivergent physics professionals face similar marginalization. Recognizing the need for greater understanding of neurodiversity issues in the classroom and the workplace, it is imperative for us, as researchers and educators, to delve into the experiences and identity development of neurodivergent physicists. The Critical Disability Physics Identity framework, developed and operationalized by McDermott, Mosley, and Cochran, serves as a valuable tool for comprehending how neurodivergent physicists forge their identity, exert political agency, and attain success in their field. By employing this framework, researchers can draw meaningful conclusions and formulate recommendations to foster the inclusion and support of neurodivergent physicists. In this presentation, I share key findings from my dissertation study, which explores the identity development of neurodivergent physicists across various career stages, sparking a crucial dialogue on how physicists and educators can enhance the inclusion, support, and meaningful access of these individuals in both academic and professional environments.   

Queer Failure: a theoretical framework for reimagining career pathways in physics

In discussions of the "leaky pipeline" in physics, we often interrogate how individuals fail to persevere, achieve, and ultimately be retained in physics. Even when we try to move beyond this idea and towards "pathways" through and outside of physics, the focus is on individuals as the negotiator of whether being a successful physicist is worth the costs. Implicit in this discussion is the idea that there is a cogent and unambiguous definition of "physicist," that "being a successful physicist" is a real or attainable goal, and consequently that "retention" as an academic is a good measure of the climate of the field or career satisfaction. This talk will interrogate what it means to be a successful physicist through the synthesis of works in physics education research and queer theory, specifically through the framework of "queer failure," which treats deviations from prescribed paths as opportunities for growth and personal fulfillment. I will use this framework to expand our ideas of how to approach DEI research and provide a preliminary analysis of qualitative data on physics careers utilizing this framework.   

How are DEI initiatives impactful for women and LGBT+ physicists: Insights from a Social Network Analysis Research

Women and LGBT+ people experience an uneven climate within the field of physics,, and numerous studies have demonstrated challenges with harassment and exclusion. This presentation will move beyond climate and focus on the use of communities to support their careers. . In this research we adopted a qualitative Social Network Analysis (SNA) approach and interviewed 100 women and/or LGBT+ physicists, who hold a Ph.D. in physics or a closely related field and currently work in an area related to their degrees. By doing this, we try to understand why and how participants stay in physics instead of why they leave. In investigating this topic, participants discussed the relevance of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) efforts in their workplace and the types of DEI initiatives they consider to impact their careers. In this presentation, we will focus on this subset of findings. We also explore the connection between the professional networks built in participants’ workplaces and what they consider to be impactful regarding DEI initiatives.   

Investigating students' self-identified and reflected appraisal of femininity, masculinity, and androgyny in introductory physics courses using gradational gender measures

In this study, we adapted gradational measures from prior research to investigate students' self-identified femininity, masculinity, and androgyny, as well as their reflected appraisal of femininity, masculinity, and androgyny (i.e., perceptions of how others perceive them) in both algebra-based and calculus-based introductory physics courses. The use of gradational measures revealed significant variation in students' self-identified femininity, masculinity, and androgyny within the binary categories of women and men, providing new insights into gender dynamics in physics. We found that self-identified women in the calculus-based courses, where they are underrepresented, tend to perceive themselves as more masculine and less feminine than how they believe others perceive them. Similarly, students of color are also more likely than White students to perceive themselves as more masculine than they believe others perceive them. Using structural equation modeling, we found that students' gender stigma consciousness plays an important role in mediating the effects of identifying as women and students of color on the observed discrepancies. Additionally, we found that women also exhibit a tendency to perceive themselves as more androgynous than they believe others perceive them in both algebra-based and calculus-based physics courses, and this phenomenon is also related to gender stigma consciousness. Moreover, our analyses revealed that students in the calculus-based courses tend to have a higher level of gender stigma consciousness even after controlling for gender and race. Our findings underscore the potential of gradational gender measurements in deepening our understanding of gender-related issues in physics education, shedding light on the complex interplay between students' gender identity, perceptions from others, and their educational experiences in the field.   

Physics stands out when it comes to driving women out of the discipline and out of STEM entirely

The national six-year graduation rate in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is far lower than most college majors, and STEM So far, relatively little research has studied the problem of retention within physics specifically. Indeed, the problem of retention in physics is perhaps more salient than in other disciplines as physics typically has the lowest rates of representation of marginalized students among STEM disciplines. In a single institution study, we found that the one-year retention rate of women in physics was lower than all other majors at a public research university. Similarly, the fraction of women leaving physics for non-STEM majors was among the highest of all STEM disciplines. Data collected from women who left physics suggest that increased support (academic and otherwise), more positive interactions between women and their male peers and professors, and improved instruction in introductory weed-out courses would help to keep women in physics. To this end, I will discuss data showing how both evidence-based teaching practices and external support programs at this same university have improved the persistence of women in engineering and discuss related programs in physics that should be studied and replicated. I will also discuss the limits of working with institutional data and provide suggestions on how equity issues in retention should be studied within departments and universities to avoid over-simplification of the retention problem.   

Structuring Group Work for Equitable Role Distribution in Labs

Throughout physics lab courses, students are expected to gain experience with various tasks such as note-taking, data analysis, equipment usage, and group management. Previous research, however, has found gendered differences in task division in introductory physics lab courses, with such differences exacerbated in less structured lab courses. More recent work suggests that implementing partner agreements can mitigate these disparities in courses with groups that change throughout the semester. Building on preliminary findings that indicated remote labs with instructor-formed groups fixed throughout the semester alleviated inequities, we investigated the effects of different group work structures on gendered role-taking in an introductory, skills-based lab course. Over three semesters, we conducted observations throughout the entire semester utilizing a codebook implemented in previous studies. We compared three lab conditions: in-person sessions with weekly random student-formed groups, remote sessions with semester-long instructor-formed groups, and in-person sessions with semester-long instructor-formed groups. This work aims to provide instructors additional ways to structure lab group work to remedy inequities.   

Physics Faculty Perspectives on Empathy and Empathetic Action

We explore physics faculty conceptions of empathy and empathetic action  in STEM academic spaces, including classrooms, research labs and the general department. Specifically, we ask 1) in what ways, contexts, and to what degree empathetic action manifests; 2) how empathy and empathetic action evolve across different dynamics, including faculty-student, faculty-mentee, and faculty-faculty; 3) what mediating factors influence this evolution; and 4) what barriers physics faculty perceive to empathetic action. We answer these questions through semi-structured, longitudinal individual interviews, using Constructivist Grounded Theory/Emergent Coding analysis to identify prominent themes. Preliminary results identify Shared and Adjacent lived experiences as mediating factors to the development of empathy and the progression to empathetic action. Shared (or common) Lived Experiences promote an emotional empathy in which faculty feel what another feels. Adjacent Lived Experiences, however, primarily promote a cognitive (intellectual) empathy in which one understands, but may not necessarily feel.  In addition, we find a variety of key faculty-student dynamics that determine whether and how faculty take on empathetic action, in particular a desire in (some) faculty to establish and maintain personal and professional boundaries.   

Exploring Empathy in Physics: Insights from Faculty Perspectives and Identity Engagement

I present results from a qualitative study into the development and expression of empathy within physics faculty. We employed semi-structured interviews with 19 participants and used thematic coding to discern patterns in their interactions. We crafted personas to represent distinct approaches, seen in the data, of how faculty engage their identities in the classroom. The findings illuminate the interplay between identity, empathy, and the formation of meaningful connections, contributing to a nuanced comprehension of empathy's role in the culture of physics. This research addresses a gap in our understanding of how empathy manifests among faculty and advances DEISJ efforts that implicitly rely on empathy to motivate action.