Introductory Physics Student's Perspectives on Their Social Identities

Physics students often see their social identities as irrelevant to their physics learning. This perpetuates a culture in which physics is neutral and objective while ignoring broader social issues’ impact on physics students. We analyzed 669 written survey responses from calculus-based introductory physics courses, where students were asked “how has your perspective influenced your understanding of physics?” Using the Critical Physics Identity framework, we characterized the kinds of experiences and perspectives students brought up. Most students agreed that their perspective influenced their physics understanding, but very few connected their perspectives to their social identities, despite previously being asked about their demographics in the survey. We also found that students most commonly referred to their Personal Characteristics of the Ideational Resource construct, followed by their Material Resources. We argue that these results are a reflection of greater physics culture which is centered on privileged identities and disregards marginalized physicists’ lived experiences.