| 1. |
- Andersson, Staffan, et al.
(författare)
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“You’re viewed in a different way”– intersecting norms in science and technology education
- 2016
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Much concern is given to increasing participation of “minorities” in Science and Technology. Simultaneously, research shows how these areas can appear hostile to people outside the norm. However, formation of and inte- ractions with the norm is complex and occur in the intersection of various aspects, such as gender and program belonging.To explore the dynamics of unequal treatment in science and technology, we have analysed reports of negative experiences from students at a Swedish research university. 3123 students responded to web-based questionnaires about educational experiences in 2012 and 2014. Negative experiences were reported by 14% of the female respondents and 7% of the male re- spondents.Qualitative analysis of answers about negative experiences identified more than two thirds of the responses as regarding how students are perceived, valued and treated, primarily in relation to gender and programme belonging. Female students were positioned as less knowledgeable and therefore needing and receiving more, often unwanted, help than their peers. Responses related to the expected masculinity of science and technology were more than four times as common among female respondents. Students in “non- traditional” programmes were perceived as having lower status and mee- ting unfair treatment. These programs often recruit larger fractions of female students and, consistently, responses regarding program status was three times more common among female respondents.Our study illustrates how normative factors affect higher education experiences in science and technology, especially for female students, who may be subject to unequal treatment both as women and as students on non- traditional programmes.
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| 2. |
- Berge, Maria, et al.
(författare)
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Lecture Jokes - a Litmus Test of Physics Discourse?
- 2017
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Earlier studies in physics education research have shown the importance of analysing students' processes of ‘becoming a physicist' in a wider sense. For example, it is often expected of physicists to have a kind of ‘authentic intelligence' or ‘smartness', which is generally perceived as male. In this study we contribute to this area of research by analysing an area often forgotten in educational research: humour. Empirically, this study is based on 177 jokes from physics lectures, collected from three different higher education contexts, the US and two Scandinavian countries. With a discourse analytical framework we explore the question of how teacher's jokes in physics lectures portray physics and physicists. In the analysis of the teacher's jokes, physics is constantly constructed as difficult and very advanced, mainly through ironically speaking of it as ‘easy'. Physicists are portrayed as single minded and very passionate, not to say obsessed, about physics. In this study we argue that although none of the jokes were mean the jokes contributed to a discourse that can be perceived as problematic in limiting the conceptions of who a physicist may be.
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| 3. |
- Johansson, Anders, 1987-
(författare)
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Analysing discourse and identity in physics education: Methodological considerations
- 2016
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Physics education research has for a long time primarily been concerned with helping students to learn physics and to "think like a physicist". The results I present here contribute to the emerging subfield where students' identity development is analyzed to explore processes of "becoming a physicist" in a wider sense. Drawing on sociocultural theories and methodologies, and specifically analyzing identity and discourse, I focus on what happens when students with different outlooks on physics encounter advanced physics courses. A discourse analytical framework allows me and my colleagues to inquire into the messages about "who one should be as a physicist", communicated to students during courses. This enables a discussion of what physicist identities are made available to physics students. I argue that focusing on these social aspects of physics learning contributes to a better and more inclusive physics education that may also attract a more diverse student body.
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| 4. |
- Johansson, Anders, 1987-
(författare)
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Analyzing discourse and identity in physics education : Methodological considerations
- 2016
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Ingår i: 2016 Physics Education Research Conference Proceedings. - : American Association of Physics Teachers. - 9781931024303 ; , s. 180-183
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Physics Education Research has for a long time primarily been concerned with helping students to learn physics and to “think like a physicist.” This paper explores the emerging subfield where students’ identity development is analyzed to examine processes of “becoming a physicist” in a wider sense. Drawing on sociocultural theories and methodologies, and specifically analyzing identity and discourse, I focus on what happens when students with differing outlooks on physics encounter advanced physics courses. A discourse analytical framework allows one to inquire into the messages about “who one should be as a physicist” communicated to students during courses. This enables a discussion of what physicist identities are made possible for physics students. In this way, a discourse perspective can be one way of analyzing identities in physics without taking the norms of the discipline for granted.
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| 5. |
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| 6. |
- Johansson, Anders, 1987-, et al.
(författare)
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Gendered cultures in STEM education: Nuancing the picture
- 2016
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Konferensbidrag (refereegranskat)abstract
- Discussions about gender equality in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education often focus on the lack of women. Researchers and teachers approach the issue by exploring obstacles facing women, as a minority, in the often masculinely coded cultures of STEM. However, a more nuanced picture of what happens in STEM programmes is of vital importance for increasing equality in STEM education.Our mixed-methods study on engineering students’ approaches to learning electromagnetism was motivated by an apparent gender gap in grades perceived by teachers. We found that students related their experiences of and approaches to the course to their identification as certain types of engineering students, rather than gender. However, gender plays an important role on the level of recruitment to different engineering programmes, where the different programmes in our study recruited from 15-70% women.Our findings illustrate how nuancing the picture of STEM participation involves taking different dimensions of gender into account; for instance, the association of certain concepts, like “nature” or “environment”, with femininity and how this might structure the gendered “market” of higher education STEM. Different programmes appeal to different, and partly gendered, student populations. However, as our study illustrates, these programmes are made up of courses that sometimes limit the possibilities for identification, not necessarily along gendered lines. This shows the importance of discussing gender issues in STEM in a nuanced way, analysing the specific discourses around STEM subjects and gender that students relate to.
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| 7. |
- Johansson, Anders, 1987-
(författare)
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Learning the right physics: Master’s students’™ negotiations of legitimacy
- 2017
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The last years have seen an increase in science education research focused on social identity. Studies of university physics education have used identity frameworks to address issues of gender and equality in transitions to and from University educations. This study highlights the specific situation of physics students starting on an international Master’s programme and the identity negotiations that take place there. With a poststructuralist discourse analytical framework, I analyse negotiations of legitimacy in interviews with first-semester Master’s students. Several themes emerge from the analysis, pointing out negotiations of legitimacy related to discourses about the perceived quality of educations from different universities, the central value of knowledge and ‘smartness’ in physics, and the ranking of different directions of physics along lines of ‘coolness’ or ‘smartness’. This relates to norms about masculinity connected to physics practices. In the ends my study contribute to a picture of a physics education discourse that is still constructing some positions as more ‘valued’ and legitimate than others, on grounds that partly appear unjustified and discriminatory.
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| 8. |
- Johansson, Anders, 1987-, et al.
(författare)
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Reaching out across epistemological borders
- 2016
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- There is a broad consensus that gender equality is a crucial issue in science education. However, science education researchers approaching issues of gender have often used the quantitative research methods that dominate the natural sciences. This means that introducing a qualitative, feminist tradition into science education research potentially presents several difficulties. Several “paradigm gaps” have to be bridged in order for fruitful dialogues to occur.The organizers of this round table are all science education researchers who have experience of publishing in science education journals. Drawing on our experiences, we will initiate a discussion of the challenges of bringing interpretative research perspectives in dialogue with traditionally positivist research fields. We invite researchers facing similar challenges to join this roundtable to share experiences, problems, and strategies for doing feminist research, for example, discussing the hurdles of publishing in journals unaccustomed to feminist perspectives. Questions to be discussed during the roundtable include: How can we as feminist researchers make a difference in research fields where the research questions and methodologies we employ are often seen as “unscientific”? How do we communicate results from experience-based research about in/equality in contexts infused with taken-for-granted notions of objectivity and meritocracy?
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| 9. |
- Johansson, Anders, 1987-, et al.
(författare)
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“Shut up and calculate” : the available discursive positions in quantum physics courses
- 2018
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Ingår i: Cultural Studies of Science Education. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 1871-1502 .- 1871-1510. ; 13:1, s. 205-226
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Educating new generations of physicists is often seen as a matter of attracting good students, teaching them physics and making sure that they stay at the university. Sometimes, questions are also raised about what could be done to increase diversity in recruitment. Using a discursive perspective, in this study of three introductory quantum physics courses at two Swedish universities, we instead ask what it means to become a physicist, and whether certain ways of becoming a physicist and doing physics is privileged in this process. Asking the question of what discursive positions are made accessible to students, we use observations of lectures and problem solving sessions together with interviews with students to characterize the discourse in the courses. Many students seem to have high expectations for the quantum physics course and generally express that they appreciate the course more than other courses. Nevertheless, our analysis shows that the ways of being a “good quantum physics student” are limited by the dominating focus on calculating quantum physics in the courses. We argue that this could have negative consequences both for the education of future physicists and the discipline of physics itself, in that it may reproduce an instrumental “shut up and calculate”-culture of physics, as well as an elitist physics education. Additionally, many students who take the courses are not future physicists, and the limitation of discursive positions may also affect these students significantly.
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| 10. |
- Johansson, Anders, 1987-, et al.
(författare)
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Shut Up and Calculate: Becoming a Quantum Physicist
- 2016
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Educating new generations of physicists is often seen as a matter of attracting good students, teaching them physics and making sure that they graduate. Sometimes, questions are also raised about what could be done to increase diversity in recruitment. Our qualitative study of introductory quantum physics courses in Sweden, instead asks what it means to become a physicist, and whether certain ways of becoming a physicist and doing physics is privileged in this process. The results show that, although students have high and diverse expectations of the courses, a pronounced focus on techniques of calculation seem to place students in a position where the only right way of doing quantum physics is “shutting up and calculating.” This raises questions of how best to accommodate varying student motivations and make different ways of being a physicist possible.
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