Actor Networks and Ambivalent Others in Students' Decision Making About Studying Physics in a Reform Context

• In Event: Implementation of STEM and Technical Education Policies

Abstract

Participation in science, physics in particular, is a matter of international concern. Drawing upon Actor-Network Theory, this study explored how students in a high school in China negotiated with various entities to decide whether to choose physics as an entrance examination to college. Tracing a particular student’s decision-making practice, this study shows how the newly enacted reform, associating with heterogeneous entities (e.g. teachers, cousin, early experience, film, and feeling), played a critical role in enrolling students into choosing physics. The more stably the entities connected with each other, the firmer the student’s choices were. Nevertheless, the unpredicted entities and associations outside the reform might refute the reform, making its network fragile and ambivalent.

Authors

• Weiwei He, East China Normal University

• Sihan Xiao, East China Normal University