Doing Physics--Doing Gender

An Exploration of Physics Students' Identity Constitution
in the Context of Laboratory Work


By Anna T. Danielsson
June 2009
Uppsala University
Distributed By: Coronet Books
ISBN: 9789155474546
270 Pages
$69.50 paper original


How do students learn to become physicists? What does it take for a physics student to identify themselves as a physicist? Is it possible to simultaneously 'do physics' and 'do femininity'? What skills do physics students value? These are some of the questions explored in this thesis, which focuses on how physics students in the context of laboratory work simultaneously 'do physics' and 'do gender'.

By viewing both learning and gender as aspects of identity constitution it captures the complexity of learning to become a physicist and provides new and deeper insights into issues of physics, learning and gender. In doing so, it both joins the discussion about women's under-representation in physics and inspires critical reflections about the teaching and learning of physics.

 

Science & Sociology
Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Science & Technology 83
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