Cultivating an Inclusive Culture in the Physics Department through a Learning Assistant Program

Eleanor Close and Xandria Quichocho, Texas State University

Physics lags almost all other STEM disciplines in our lack of diversity[1]. Gendered and racialized stereotypes of physicists as brilliant geniuses permeate American culture and create barriers for many students before their first physics course. To counter these enculturated biases, we are working to create a department culture that supports collaborative student community, recognizes many different strengths as valuable, and acknowledges and addresses bias. In the physics department at Texas State University, we have created a Learning Assistant (LA) Program with structures specifically designed to promote inclusive community among students. In this article we will describe some specific elements of our LA Program and share some of our research on how participation in the program impacts our LAs.

In the LA Model[2], undergraduate LAs meet weekly with faculty to prepare for instruction. In our implementation, all LAs and LA-supported faculty meet together each week, creating opportunities for students to get to know each other and to meet faculty in an informal setting. One of the community norms we promote is that LAs will continue to learn physics as they prepare for and assist in the introductory courses. This also means we expect LAs to make mistakes while working through material in weekly LA Prep meetings, and we work to normalize this. During LA Prep, we discuss ways of supporting student learning as well as identify the content we hope they will learn, and we encourage LAs to share their own struggles with the material as guidance for what to expect in the classroom.

As part of an ongoing study of physics identity development, we collect video data during LA Prep. These videos can give us insight into the kinds of discourse LAs engage in with each other, and the community norms they express and enact. In our analysis of these episodes, we find that discussions about teaching often merge seamlessly into new content learning for LAs. For example, in a preparation session early in the semester, Dustin (pseudonym), a new LA in introductory mechanics, asks the experienced LAs at his table how to explain a concept to students:

So how would you explain, though, ... “how is the direction of the change of velocity vector related to the direction.” Like, I know they’re the same, I’m just trying to figure out how I would explain that to them. Other than just be, like, “it just is.”

Ava, a physics major in her third semester of LAing, walks through an explanation using the equation for average acceleration. At the end of her explanation, Dustin responds: “That makes sense. … I’m probably going to get more out of that than any student would ...I’ve already learned a lot more than I thought I would.” Beau, a second-semester LA, replies “Oh, you learn SO much more doing this.” No one in the group seems either surprised or disconcerted that Dustin is learning more physics as they are preparing for the next week’s class; in fact, Beau affirms that this is a valued part of the experience.

The experienced LAs preparing with Dustin are not only able to help him better understand the physics concept at hand; they’re also reinforcing the idea that the practice of learning physics is more than immediately finding the right answer. Using a theoretical framework drawn from Communities of Practice[3] and Physics Identity[4], we understand these interactions as both providing recognition to the experienced LAs and creating a body of shared experience that can support a sense of community membership. The community practice of valuing and affirming ongoing physics learning also reinforces the idea that it is “okay to be wrong”[5], which challenges the idea of physicists being natural geniuses and creates a more accessible and accepting environment.

This environment has helped students from multiple minoritized groups gain confidence in their physics knowledge and reconcile their multiple identities. In another research project, we use intersectionality1, [6], [7], body performance[8], and the Critical Physics Identity framework[9] as lenses to understand the personal narratives of women of color and LGBTQ+ women who study physics. Many of the women interviewed had participated in the LA program, and describe it as an important factor contributing to their success during their studies.

For example, one interviewee—Nadya, who identifies herself as a Guatemalan, White, and straight woman—told us how being an LA helped her build her confidence. In response to the question “Do you see yourself as a physics person or a physicist?” Nadya first described how her answer to that question had changed over her time as a student, then reflected on what helped her develop her identity as a physicist:

...even doing Pedagogy- like that helped to- becoming in L.A., oh my God, that helped me so much with gaining my confidence—because I really lacked confidence in my skills, because I just didn't- I didn't do well in intro levels, because I was just so, like, not focused [on] school and I was going through a hard time. But, um, it- being an L.A. made me more confident in myself, and ... it helped me define how I see myself as a physicist—and how I can be able to say like, "I'm a physicist."

Nadya’s response shows that the community practices and norms of the LA Program not only support collaboration and continued learning, but also, through these, opportunities to gain competence in physics content and strengthen physics identity.

Nadya and other interviewees often talk about the LA Pedagogy course (required of all first-time LAs) and its impact on their physics experience. At Texas State this course is an upper-division physics elective, described by another interviewee, Autumn, as a “crash course on...how you learn.” Autumn identifies herself as a White and bisexual woman. This piece of Autumn’s narrative was part of her response to the interviewer’s question “How did you get into physics?” which generated the follow-up question “Can you talk about that, the psychological educational aspect of the department?” Autumn replied:

I feel really strongly that I wouldn't have done as well, or as been as successful ...at a different university that doesn't do the LAs or- doesn't have the kind of supportive, um - like, all the professors are on your side... I just feel like the kind of person that I am is that I am really shy and timid and have a lot of fear of failure. So being in an environment where it was kinda- maybe more cut-throat—I feel like that might affect me more than somewhere like here. And the fact that they pretty much give you a crash course of what, how you learn, and the psychology behind that. And I think that really opens your mind up to- to kind of believing in yourself.

In a program with a more competitive environment, Autumn’s “fear of failure” might have been a stumbling block towards development of positive physics identity. However, in her physics community with practices that normalize making mistakes and prioritize collaboration and continued learning, Autumn was supported and encouraged to embrace the “wrong” ideas as a tool for learning and to work with her peers to develop a deeper understanding of the material.

Our LA program creates an inclusive environment in ways both planned and emergent. We hope this description of the structures that have proven successful for supporting our students will help other departments discover new ways to foster inclusion.

Eleanor Close is an Associate Professor of Physics at Texas State University. She is the Director of the TXST Physics Learning Assistant Program and teaches the LA Pedagogy course most semesters. She is a member of the Leadership Council of the National Learning Assistant Alliance (LAA), and is grateful to be part of thriving, supportive communities in the LAA and at Texas State.

Xandria Quichocho is a student in the Texas State Physics program, doing Physics Education Research work on intersectional identity development of marginalized women. She is currently the Associate Director of the TXST Physics Learning Assistant Program. She served as an LA for three semesters, two of them in the LA Pedagogy course. She will be beginning her graduate studies at Michigan State University in the Physics Ph.D. program in the Fall 2020 semester.

[1] Quichocho, X. R., Conn, J., Schipull, E. M., and Close, E. W. (2019). Who does physics? Understanding the composition of physicists through the lens of women of color and LGBTQ+ women physicists. In 2019 PERC Proceedings [Provo, UT, July 24-25, 2019], edited by Y. Cao, S. Wolf, and M. B. Bennett, doi:10.1119/perc.2019.pr.Quichocho.

[2] Otero, V. K. (2015). Nationally scaled model for leveraging course transformation with physics teacher preparation. In C. Sandifer & E. Brewe (Eds.), Recruiting and Educating Future Physics Teachers: Case Studies and Effective Practices (pp. 107–127). American Physical Society.

[3] Wenger, E. (1998). Communities of Practice: Learning, Meaning, and Identity. (Cambridge University Press, New York, NY.

[4] Hazari, Z., Sonnert, G., Sadler, P., and Shanahan, M.-C. (2010). Connecting high school physics experiences, outcome expectations, physics identity, and physics career choice: A gender study. J. Res. Sci. Teach. 47, 978.

[5] Close, E. W., Conn, J., & Close, H. G. (2016). Becoming physics people: Development of integrated physics identity through the Learning Assistant experience. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 12(1), 010109. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.12.010109

[6] Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory, and Antiracist Policies. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1989(1), 39–52.

[7] Schipull, E. M., Quichocho, X. R., and Close, E. W. (2019). “Success Together”: Physics departmental practices supporting LGBTQ+ women and women of color. In 2019 PERC Proceedings [Provo, UT, July 24-25, 2019], edited by Y. Cao, S. Wolf, and M. B. Bennett, doi:10.1119/perc.2019.pr.Schipull.

[8] Ong, M. (2005). Body Projects of Young Women of Color in Physics: Intersections of Gender, Race, and Science. Social Problems, 52(4), 593–617. https://doi.org/10.1525/sp.2005.52.4.593

[9] Hyater-Adams, S., Fracchiolla, C., Williams, T., Finkelstein, N., & Hinko, K. (2019). Deconstructing Black physics identity: Linking individual and social constructs using the critical physics identity framework. Physical Review Physics Education Research, 15(2), 20115. https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevPhysEducRes.15.020115

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