Spatial Justice in Physics Teaching and Learning

Western Washington University, Bellingham WA

Investigators

Abstract

This project will prepare scientists, mathematicians, engineers, and technicians who understand how to address the roles of race and racism in physics education. This project seeks to address racism in physics by building knowledge about the spatiality of injustice in physics teaching and learning environments – how racism gets inscribed in space, including the physical layout of the classroom, the policies and practices that shape instructional approaches and student-teacher interactions, and the ways students and faculty think about and are allowed to “take up” or inhabit space. Spatiality is an often-ignored dimension in justice work, which more often attends to historical and sociological dimensions. The spatiality of injustice focuses on how injustice can be embedded in space. The overall goal of this project is to support physics instructors, students, and researchers to build an awareness of how racism shapes physics teaching and learning spaces to transform how the discipline is taught in higher education. The research team will partner with undergraduate students to conduct in-depth case studies of physics classrooms, bringing existing methods to the study of STEM spaces and developing new methodological tools that can be applied to other STEM disciplines. The project will analyze video from physics classrooms, interviews with physics students, and other artifacts to identify how and to what extent issues of race arise in physics classrooms and how space is experienced and negotiated by physics students. The project will produce design principles for more racially and spatially just physics teaching and learning, methodological tools that can be used by STEM researchers, artistic renderings of reimagined learning spaces (counter-maps), reflections on anti-racist practices and authentic participant research, and publications and presentations that share project insights. This collaborative project is funded through the Racial Equity in STEM Education program (EHR Racial Equity). The program supports research and practice projects that investigate how considerations of racial equity factor into the improvement of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education and workforce. Awarded projects seek to center the voices, knowledge, and experiences of the individuals, communities, and institutions most impacted by systemic inequities within the STEM enterprise. This program aligns with NSF’s core value of supporting outstanding researchers and innovative thinkers from across the Nation's diversity of demographic groups, regions, and types of organizations. Funds for EHR Racial Equity are pooled from programs across EHR in recognition of the alignment of its projects with the collective research and development thrusts of the four divisions of the directorate. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.