Dr. Geoff Potvin
Florida International University
For a number of years, much attention has been paid to the dearth of women in physics. Discussion has centered on various explanatory frameworks as to why women do not pursue physics in college as a career and on their persistence in such pursuits. In this talk, I will present several efforts to investigate recruitment and persistence issues for women in high school and undergraduate physics. Viewed through the lens of identity, we have repeatedly seen the importance of high school students' beliefs about the recognition they receive as a ``physics person'' to their physics-related career choices (especially so for women). Relatedly, we have studied the ways in which students evaluate their physics teachers, which is an avenue to unravel students' beliefs and (possible) gender biases towards competency in physics. We have found statistically significant and replicable bias (in repeated independent measurements) against female physics teachers, exhibited by both male and female students. Lastly, I will report on interventions that we have developed in introductory physics classrooms as attempts to positively affect women's attitudes towards physics, and their physics identities specifically.
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