Unpacking science identity through the lens of the listening subject: Implications for language, race, and gender-based equity in physics education.

In recognition of inextricable links between content learning and social identification, over the past decade STEM education researchers with interests in promoting equity have taken up science identity and identity construction processes as fruitful areas of research. However, much work focuses on identities as held or performed by individuals with less attention given to examining how those individuals are perceived by others and interact with others while learning science. This paper examines the identities-in-practice (Varelas, Martin & Kane, 2013) of three Spanish-English bilingual Latina high school students as they engaged in physics labs over the course of one academic year. Analysis draws on 8 months of ethnographic field work with data sources including classroom artifacts, student interviews, and audio and video recordings of classroom interactions. Inoue’s (2006) notion of the “listening subject” is applied here to reveal the ways in which students co-construct identities related to science expertise and to demonstrate how adolescents interweave their language-based, racial, and gender identities with their construction of disciplinary or science-based identities. Findings suggest peer group interactions can lead to the marginalization of students who are traditionally underrepresented in science professions. Implications for promoting equity in physics education will be discussed.