Listening to Young Women About Their Learning Needs in High School Physics Education

• In Event: 61.016 - Equity and Diversity in Science Teaching and Learning

Abstract

This paper presents a study that qualitatively investigated how young women in Ontario experience barriers in their high school physics education. The basis of the research is the longstanding issue of underrepresentation of women in physics in Canada and around the world. The study asked questions that aimed at better understanding this issue: What barriers do young women in high school physics experience? What meanings do these students attribute to the barriers encountered in their physics education? The concepts of physics identity and social cognitive career theory were used together as a lens through which students’ experiences of barriers could be understood. This paper’s focus is presenting findings on what young women report as requirements for successful, continued physics learning.

Author

• Lindsay Mainhood, Queen's University - Kingston