Physical Society Colloquium

Problematizing the “there's no problem” discourse about gender in physics learning

Allison Gonsalves

Integrated Studies in Education
McGill University

Doctoral physics students have stories about the kinds of actions, behaviours and ways of doing physics that enable them to be recognized as physicists. This presentation will illuminate some of these stories through a lens that scrutinizes how discourses about gender can shape both the stories that students tell and the behaviours they practice to achieve recognition in their field. The results of this study revealed that recognition was often achieved through the reproduction or reworking of persistent discourses of gender norms, grounded in symbolic masculinity that is pervasive in the field of physics. This presentation will also explore how a persistent discourse of gender neutrality is constructed, how it can be contested, and how it may be constraining for both men and women students. The construction of physics as gender neutral can pose conflicts of identity for students who feel the need to refigure their gender performances in ways that permit recognition as ‘physics people’. In addition, this presentation will survey the landscape of gender research in physics education and present new information on masculinities in physics education; the occurrence and impacts of implicit bias and micro-aggressions in physics learning spaces; the experiences of women of colour in physics; and reports on the current climate for LGBT students in physics. It will conclude with some suggestions for best practices to construct inclusive environments for learning in physics departments.