Physics Seminar: Allison Gonsalves (McGill)

Professor Allison Gonsalves will join us for an informal discussion about gender and PER from 4:30-5.  A description of topics to be discussed may be found below.  From 5-5:20, representatives of the Reed College STEM-GeMs will take over the seminar and continue the discussion.

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Gender and Identity in Physics Education Research

Traditional research on gender in physics education has focussed on how to attract more women and girls into physics, documenting differences between men and women in achievement or participation, or seeking social or psychological explanations for differences in physics engagement. An epistemological shift in research on gender and physics education is turning our gaze away from documenting differences and rather moving towards understanding how gendered identities are constructed in physics learning and practice. Dr. Allison Gonsalves will discuss newer directions in physics education research (PER) that broaden our theoretical understandings of identity to explore the construction of gender in PER.

Professor Gonsalves has provided the following recommended background readings:

• Andreas Ottemo, Allison Gonsalves, and Anna Danielsson, (Dis)embodied Masculinity adn the Meaning of (Non)style in Physics and Computer Engineering Education, Gender and Education, to be published 2021.
• Francis, B., Archer, L., Moote, J., de Witt, J., & Yeomans, L. (2017). Femininity, science, and the denigration of the girly girl. British Journal of Sociology of Education, 38(8), 1097-1110
• Archer, L., Moote, J., & MacLeod, E. (2020). Learning that physics is ‘not for me’: Pedagogic work and the cultivation of habitus among advanced level physics students. Journal of the Learning Sciences, 1-38.