Connecting high school physics experiences,outcome expectations,physics identity,and physics career choice: A gender study

This study explores how students' physics identities are shaped by their experiences in high school physics classes and by their career outcome expectations. The theoretical framework focuses on physics identity and includes the dimensions of student performance, competence, recognition by others, and interest. Drawing data from the Persistence Research in Science and Engineering (PRiSE) project, which surveyed college English students nationally about their backgrounds, high school science experiences, and science attitudes, the study uses multiple regression to examine the responses of 3,829 students from 34 randomly selected US colleges/universities. Confirming the salience of the identity dimension for young persons' occupational plans, the measure for students' physics identity used in this study was found to strongly predict their intended choice of a physics career. Physics identity, in turn, was found to correlate positively with a desire for an intrinsically fulfilling career and negatively with a desire for personal/family time and opportunities to work with others. Physics identity was also positively predicted by several high school physics characteristics/experiences such as a focus on conceptual understanding, real‐world/contextual connections, students answering questions or making comments, students teaching classmates, and having an encouraging teacher. Even though equally beneficial for both genders, females reported experiencing a conceptual focus and real‐world/contextual connections less frequently. The explicit discussion of under‐representation of women in science was positively related to physics identity for female students but had no impact for male students. Surprisingly, several experiences that were hypothesized to be important for females' physics identity were found to be non‐significant including having female scientist guest speakers, discussion of women scientists' work, and the frequency of group work. This study exemplifies a useful theoretical framework based on identity, which can be employed to further examine persistence in science, and illustrates possible avenues for change in high school physics teaching. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 47: 978–1003, 2010     

Learning in physics by doing laboratory work: towards a new conceptual framework

Drawing on a study that explores university students’ experiences of doing laboratory work in physics, this article outlines a proposed conceptual framework for extending the exploration of the gendered experience of learning. In this framework situated cognition and post‐structural gender theory are merged together. By drawing on data that aim at exploring the gendered experience of learning in physics in the laboratory setting, a case is made for the proposed conceptual framework to facilitate an analysis of gender as an active process that relates the dynamics of this process to the emerging physicist identities of the students. In other words, this framework allows for an analysis of the gendered learning experiences in a context such as physics education that goes well beyond the usual ‘women‐friendly’ teaching approaches.     

Rights-based education and conflict: a cross-national study of rights discourse in textbooks

This paper investigates the extent to which rights-based education is utilised in textbooks from conflict-affected countries. Drawing on a unique dataset of 528 secondary social science textbooks from 71 countries from 1966 to 2008, we analyse factors that predict a rights discourse in texts. We find that textbooks from conflict-affected nations are significantly less likely to emphasise a rights-based discourse, while more recently published textbooks from more democratic countries are more likely to emphasise a rights discourse. Our findings have ramifications for curricular reform and rights-based education in conflict-affected nations.     

Buzzwords at play: gender,education, and political participation in Kenya

The discourse around development is full of buzzwords, including gender and a myriad of variants that underscore the importance of development policies addressing gender imbalances. Despite their prevalence in development policy and research, terminology related to gender is often used broadly, inappropriately, and without nuance. For international education policy in particular, discussions related to gender equality and equity in education are engaged in such a way that assumes shared meanings between policy designers and policy recipients. Using Kenya as a site of analysis, and in the spirit of a vertical case study for data collection, this study explores how the abstractness of a buzzword functions in the microcosm of the school classroom. In comparing gendered representations in textbooks with students' perceptions of those representations to explore how development discourse plays out in Kenyan schools, findings here demonstrate that there is minimal impact due to textbooks' mixed messages, reinforcing women's marginal position in community and political engagement and demonstrating that broad-based understandings of gender empowerment are not always translated in application.     

World War II in Ukrainian school history textbooks: mapping the discourse of the past

The main objective of this paper is to illustrate the conceptualisation of a textbook as a site of memory, a discourse and a genre. This paper investigates the semantic and linguistic elements of the discourse of World War II in Ukrainian school history textbooks for the 11th grade, centring on the following distinct key themes: the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, the German attack on the Soviet Union and the ensuing Nazi occupation regime, the Soviet army offensive followed by the restoration of the Soviet regime, and resistance movements. The textbooks analysed dismantle the Soviet myth of the Great Patriotic War and reveal the atrocities of Stalinism. They also create a new hero-and-victim paradigm: the heroic deeds of Ukrainians in the Soviet army and of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) fighting for Ukraine’s independence are emphasised, as is the suffering of Ukrainians under the German occupation and the Stalinist regime.     

Persistent discourses in physics education: gender neutrality and the gendering of competence

In her article, Karin Due presents us with a contradiction in physics: the construction of physics as a symbolically masculine discipline alongside a simultaneous discourse of the “gender-neutrality” of the discipline. Due’s article makes an important contribution to the study of the gendering of physics practices, particularly in group dynamics, and how this serves to simultaneously reinforce the two competing discourses of physics as a masculine discipline, and the discourse of physics as a gender neutral discipline. Due also suggests that an implication of this contradiction is a limited number of available positions for girls in physics compared to those available to boys. I wish to take up this observation and discuss how available positions for boys and girls in physics are related quite closely to two other concepts discussed in Due’s article: competence and recognition.     

Sexist stereotypes in the language textbooks of the Greek primary school: a multidimensional approach

School textbooks are the main means of instruction and the main tool for the organisation of the teachers’ pedagogic practices. Stereotypes concerning the two genders are inscribed in the curriculum and become evident inside the school textbooks. The present study, through a content analysis of the Greek-language textbooks used in the third grade of the Greek primary school, examines the existence of gender stereotypes throughout the full range of these books. Additionally, semi-structured interviews with a sample of teachers who have taught the particular subject in the past are carried out. The findings show that there is a need for evaluation of the existing language textbooks in primary schools, with the aim of promoting a more gender-balanced learning material. Moreover, the classroom teachers raise the need for the promotion of initial as well as in-service training for teachers on issues of ‘gender stereotypes’, ‘language sexism’ and ‘gender-mainstreaming policies’.     

Explaining a reverse gender gap in advanced physics and computer science course-taking: An exploratory case study comparing Hebrew-speaking and Arabic-speaking high schools in Israel

In the past three decades in high-income countries, female students have outperformed male students in most indicators of educational attainment. However, the underrepresentation of girls and women in science courses and careers, especially in physics, computer sciences, and engineering, remains persistent. What is often neglected by the vast existing literature is the role that schools, as social institutions, play in maintaining or eliminating such gender gaps. This explorative case study research compares two high schools in Israel: one Hebrew-speaking state school that serves mostly middleclass students and exhibits a typical gender gap in physics and computer science; the other, an Arabic-speaking state school located in a Bedouin town that serves mostly students from a lower socioeconomic background. In the Arabic-speaking school over 50% of the students in the advanced physics and computer science classes are females. The study aims to explain this seemingly counterintuitive gender pattern with respect to participation in physics and computer science. A comparison of school policies regarding sorting and choice reveals that the two schools employ very different policies that might explain the different patterns of participation. The Hebrew-speaking school prioritizes self-fulfillment and “free-choice,” while in the Arabic-speaking school, staff are much more active in sorting and assigning students to different curricular programs. The qualitative analysis suggests that in the case of the Arabic-speaking school the intersection between traditional and collectivist society and neoliberal pressures in the form of raising achievement benchmarks contributes to the reversal of the gender gap in physics and computer science courses.     

变异：新闻语篇话语权力的实现策略

本文以批评话语分析理论为指导,兼顾系统功能语言学和传统的文体分析方法,通过具体的实例分析,从指称变异、句法变异、焦点变异等方面,探究了英语新闻语篇中话语权力的实现方式,揭示出英语新闻语篇如何通过特定的语言表达,成功构建其意识形态。该研究有助于读者认清西方媒体一向标榜的新闻＂客观性＂。     

The problem of gender categorisation: addressing dilemmas past and present in gender and education research

Developments in the field of gender theory as applied to education since the 1970s are briefly reviewed in order to highlight key challenges and debates around gender categorisation and identification in gender and education. We argue that conundrums of categorisation have haunted, and continue to haunt, the field of gender theory, and empirical applications (such as the case of education) in particular. We explain how we have attempted to address some of the conundrums arising in our own theoretical work, and analyse remaining challenges that we feel the field of education needs to address in order to advance theoretically. Identifying two key tensions underpinning this empirical dilemma of gender categorisation – the tension between agency and determinism in gender identification, and that between gender deconstruction and gender analysis – we seek to weave a path through some of these complex debates, and to indicate ways in which they may be addressed in future work. We argue that in order to avoid essentialism and reification of gender distinction, we need to apply a ‘three-fold’ analysis that incorporates three different elements in our categorisation of gender: spectator perspective; respondent perspective and social context.     

The context dependence of physics identity: Examining the role of performance/competence,recognition, interest,and sense of belonging for lower and upper female physics undergraduates

While there is a growing body of work that examines disciplinary identity development, unlike qualitative work in this area, quantitative research has not fully incorporated the importance of different contexts, nor has it uniquely focused on underrepresented groups (in this case, women in physics). This study examines how the constructs posited by prior work as important for physics identity, as well as an additional theorized construct, may interrelate and affect female students' physics identity differently depending on the context. Context in this study refers to two different experiential levels in college. The constructs examined include performance/competence, recognition, and interest, as well as sense of belonging. In particular, we used structural equation modeling to examine the effect that these constructs have on the physics identity of two groups of female physics undergraduates: first year students and senior year students. The results reveal that the relationship of the theorized constructs with physics identity vary between the two groups as well as compared to prior research with broad college student populations (not just physics majors). Unlike broad college student populations, for our sample of female physics undergraduates, interest did not have a direct effect on physics identity while sense of belonging was significant only for senior year students. These results exemplify the importance of examining context or different types of student experiences when studying disciplinary identity development rather than generalizing previous frameworks to all contexts.     

Examining relations between physics-related personal epistemology and motivation in terms of gender

The gender gap continues to exist in physics education. The author examines the gender-related differences in the relations and strengths among personal epistemologies, motivation, and achievement in physics among Turkish high school students. Established questionnaires were used to identify students’ personal epistemologies, motivations and achievement in physics. A total of 567 ninth-grade students from three high schools in Mugla Province in Turkey participated in the study. Multigroup structural equation modeling was used to determine the gender differences in the relations and strengths among personal epistemology, motivation, and achievement in physics. Results from the structural equation modeling showed that students’ personal epistemologies directly predicted their motivation and indirectly their achievement in physics. Multigroup structural equation modeling analysis showed that the strength of the relations between personal epistemology and motivation varied for female and male students. Implications for future directions are discussed.     

High school textbooks in turkey from teachers’ and students’ perspectives: The case of history textbooks

This study investigates how teachers and students assess the textbooks they use in history courses at the high school level in Turkey. Through a survey questionnaire, teachers and students were asked their perceptions of the textbooks. Then a sub-sample of the teachers and students were interviewed to collect more in-depth data on their assessment of the textbooks. The results indicated that the textbooks assist the teacher in instructional planning and in preparing exams, and help the students deal with the content. However, both teachers and students point to problems in textbooks in terms of their physical aspects, content presentation and organization, language, teaching and learning aids, and their impact on students. The textbooks focus mostly on transmission of knowledge, and they are found ineffective in leading students to read the information with interest and develop an understanding of the content area. They are found ineffective in developing students’ thinking skills and positive attitudes toward the subject.     

The power of positioning: on the normalisation of gender,race/ethnicity,nation and class positions in a Swedish social work textbook

This article presents a feminist reading of a Swedish social work academic textbook as a case study. We use a discourse analytic approach and positioning theory, focusing on author positions through different story lines. The aim is to make visible how differences are created and positions of the author/reader normalised in terms of gender, race/ethnicity and class. The analysis illustrates how the organisation of the book privileges a particular story line by presenting gender research in a special section of the book and as a perspective. A neutral, unmarked author position is assumed, presented as a common ‘we’ by identifying ‘women researchers’ and ‘feminist’ points of departure as different. If the unmarked author/reader ‘we’ position appears desirable and morally superior, the clients’ gender, ethnicity and class are often openly discussed in relation to social problems, positioning them as ‘the other’. Finally there is also a story line of more critical and ambivalent knowledge positions.     

Decolonising and globalising English studies: The case of English textbooks in West-Bengal, India

The paper examines the changing status of English studies through English textbooks in contemporary West-Bengal, India. The texts are marked by the cross-currents of the post-colonial impulse to discard the English literary canon, the acceptance of the historical role of English literature in the Bengal Renaissance, and the new demand for English language proficiency in a globalising India.     

Executive power and scaled-up gender subtexts in Australian entrepreneurial universities

Deputy Vice Chancellor and Pro Vice Chancellor positions have proliferated in response to the global, corporatised university landscape [Scott, G., S. Bell, H. Coates, and L. Grebennikov. 2010. “Australian Higher Education Leaders in Times of Change: The Role of Pro Vice Chancellor and Deputy Vice Chancellor.” Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management 32 (4): 401–418]. Senior leadership is the sphere where academic and management identities are negotiated and values around the role of the university are decided. This paper examines the changing and gendered nature of the senior leadership setting and its implications for diversity in and of university leadership. The analysis draws from a three-year empirical study funded by the Australian Research Council on leadership in Australian universities. It focuses on executive leaders in three universities – one which is research-intensive, the second, in a regional site, and the third, university of technology. The article argues that the university landscape and its management systems are being restructured in gendered ways. It utilises the notion of organisational gender subtexts to make explicit how gender works through structural and cultural reform.     

Text interpretation and educational design in Norwegian textbooks of religious education

Drawing on sociocultural perspectives on educational design, this article presents a qualitative study investigating how religious texts emerge as educational objects and mediating artefacts in Norwegian textbooks of religious and moral education. The article describes how the distribution of text references in textbooks influences the formation of religious traditions as objects. It also describes how religious texts are given various roles and how textbook assignments use various means to facilitate the interpretation of religious texts in a response to the demands posed by Norwegian syllabuses of religious and moral education.     

"数字化、结构化、探究式"教学模式在工科大学物理教学中的运用——电子科技大学大学物理精品课程建设的探索与实践

电子科技大学大学物理教研室探索大学物理教学方法和内容改革，形成“数字化、结构化、探究式”的教学模式，以精品课程建设为契机，深化工科大学物理教学改革，实现传统教育向素质教育的转变和人才培养。     

Perceived autonomy support,relatedness with students,and workplace outcomes: an investigation of differences by teacher gender

Abstract

We examined the role of gender in teachers’ perceived autonomy support (PAS), relatedness with students, workplace buoyancy, and organizational commitment. With 276 Australian secondary school teachers, structural equation modelling showed predominant similarities across gender in associations between PAS, relatedness, buoyancy, and commitment. For example, for both female and male teachers, PAS predicted greater relatedness with students and both factors were positively associated with organizational commitment. However, there were some noteworthy differences across teacher gender. For example, relatedness with students was positively associated with buoyancy for male teachers only. In addition, findings showed that male teachers reported higher levels of workplace buoyancy.