While physics is often promoted as being for everyone, its cultural narrative, i.e., what physicists do and who they are, has been and continues to be created by a dominant social group. As such, many students who come from marginalized backgrounds in physics are required to fit themselves into its narrow culture that does not reflect who they are and how they see the world. As physics educators, we have unconsciously internalized this narrow physics culture and need resources to help broaden our perceptions. To this end, we suggest some design principles for creating materials that help physics educators reflect on these issues and disrupt inequitable structures in their classrooms. We draw on the STEP UP project to exemplify how these design principles were implemented.

2.
A. C.
Barton
,
E.
Tan
, and
A.
Rivet
, “
Creating hybrid spaces for engaging school science among urban middle school girls
,”
Am. Educ. Res. J.
45
,
68
103
(
2008
).
3.
G. P.
Carreón
,
C.
Drake
, and
A. C.
Barton
, “
The Importance of presence: Immigrant parents’ school engagement experiences
,”
Am. Educ. Res. J.
42
,
465
498
(
2005
).
4.
C.
Emdin
, “
Seven Cs for effective teaching
,”
Educ. Leadersh.
74
, n1 (
2016
).
5.
K.
Tobin
, “
Learning to teach through coteaching and cogenerative dialogue
,”
Teach. Educ.
17
,
133
142
(
2006
).
6.
S.
Getenet
, “
Using design-based research to bring partnership between researchers and practitioners
,”
Educ. Res.
61
,
482
494
(
2019
).
7.
Bree Barnett Dreyfuss, Justine Boecker, John Burk, Kristin Cotton, Kevin Dwyer, Justin Fournier, Catherine Garland, Kristin Holz, John Metzler, Daniel Plas, Moses Rifkin, Shannon Stone, and Andres Torres.
8.
Beth Cunningham, Zahra Hazari, Theodore Hodapp, Raina Khatri, Robynne Lock, Laird Kramer, Geoff Potvin, Rebecca Vieyra, and Kathryne Woodle.
9.
Nicole Cook and Ingelise Giles.
10.
Hemeng Cheng, Thomas Head, Michelle Layana, Camila Monsalve, and Krystina Williamson.
11.
M.
Boveda
and
A. E.
Weinberg
, “
Facilitating intersectionally conscious collaborations in physics education
,”
Phys. Teach.
58
,
480
483
(
2020
).
12.
S.
Hyater-Adams
et al, “
Critical look at physics identity: An operationalized framework for examining race and physics identity
,”
Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.
14
,
010132
(
2018
).
13.
W.
James
et al, “
Using universal design for learning to support students with disabilities in a SCALE-UP physics course
,”
Phys. Teach.
59
,
320
324
(
2021
).
14.
K.
Rosa
et al, “
Resource letter RP-1: Race and physics
,”
Am. J. Phys.
89
,
751
768
(
2021
).
15.
Energy and Equity Portal
,” https://www.energyandequity.org/.
16.
H. B.
Carlone
, “
The cultural production of science in reform-based physics: Girls’ access, participation, and resistance
,”
J. Res. Sci. Teach.
41
,
392
414
(
2004
).
17.
Z.
Hazari
et al, “
Connecting high school physics experiences, outcome expectations, physics identity, and physics career choice: A gender study
,”
J. Res. Sci. Teach.
47
,
978
1003
(
2010
).
18.
Z.
Hazari
,
C.
Cass
, and
C.
Beattie
, “
Obscuring power structures in the physics classroom: Linking teacher positioning, student engagement, and physics identity development
,”
J. Res. Sci. Teach.
52
,
735
762
(
2015
).
19.
R. M.
Lock
and
Z.
Hazari
, “
Discussing underrepresentation as a means to facilitating female students’ physics identity development
,”
Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.
12
,
020101
(
2016
).
20.
M.
Bruun
,
S.
Willoughby
, and
J. L.
Smith
, “
Identifying the stereotypical who, what, and why of physics and biology
,”
Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.
14
,
020125
(
2018
).
21.
U.
Kessels
,
M.
Rau
, and
B.
Hannover
, “
What goes well with physics? Measuring and altering the image of science
,”
Brit. J. Educ. Psychol.
76
,
761
780
(
2006
).
22.
S. J.
Leslie
et al, “
Expectations of brilliance underlie gender distributions across academic disciplines
,”
Science
347
,
262
265
(
2015
).
23.
J. B.
Guerra
et al, “Kay’s coat of many colors: Out-of-school figured worlds and urban girls’ engagement with science,” in
Identity Construction and Science Education Research
, edited by
M.
Varelas
(
Brill Sense, Leiden
,
2012
), pp.
43
60
.
24.
E. S.
Weisgram
and
R. S.
Bigler
, “
Effects of learning about gender discrimination on adolescent girls’ attitudes toward and interest in science
,”
Psychol. Women Q.
31
,
262
269
(
2007
).
25.
D. G.
Solorzano
and
T. J.
Yosso
, “
Critical race and LatCrit theory and method: Counter-storytelling
,”
Int. J. Qual. Stud. Educ.
14
,
471
495
(
2001
).
26.
S.
Herrera
,
I. A.
Mohamed
, and
A. R.
Daane
, “
Physics from an underrepresented lens: What I wish others knew
,”
Phys. Teach.
58
,
294
296
(
2020
).
27.
S. M.
Malcom
, “
Diversity in physics
,”
Phys. Today.
59
,
44
47
(
2006
).
28.
M. W.
Nielsen
,
C. W.
Bloch
, and
L.
Schiebinger
, “
Making gender diversity work for scientific discovery and innovation
,”
Nat. Hum. Behav.
2
,
726
734
(
2018
).
29.
L. F.
Gerard
,
M.
Spitulnik
, and
M. C.
Linn
, “
Teacher use of evidence to customize inquiry science instruction
,”
J. Res. Sci. Teach.
47
,
1037
1063
(
2010
).
30.
H.
Cheng
et al,
“Examining physics identity development through two high school interventions,” in
Proc. Phys. Educ. Res. Conf.
2018
.
31.
G.
Potvin
et al, “
Examining the effect of counter-narratives about physics on women’s physics career intentions
,”
Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.
, in press.
32.
A.
Madsen
,
S. B.
McKagan
, and
E. C.
Sayre
, “
How physics instruction impacts students’ beliefs about learning physics: A meta-analysis of 24 studies
,”
Phys. Rev. Spec. Top. Phys. Educ. Res.
11
,
010115
(
2015
).
36.
Z.
Hazari
et al, “
The importance of high school physics teachers for female students’ physics identity and persistence
,”
Phys. Teach.
55
,
96
99
(
2017
).
37.
C. S.
Dweck
,
Mindset: The New Psychology of Success
(
Random House Digital, Inc
.,
New York
, 2006/
2016
).
38.
O.
Eickerman
and
M.
Rifkin
, “
The elephant in the (physics class)room: Discussing gender inequality in our class
,”
Phys. Teach.
58
,
301
305
(
2020
).
39.
T.
Espinosa
et al, “
Reducing the gender gap in students’ physics self-efficacy in a team- and project-based introductory physics class
,”
Phys. Rev. Phys. Educ. Res.
15
,
010132
(
2019
).
AAPT members receive access to The Physics Teacher and the American Journal of Physics as a member benefit. To learn more about this member benefit and becoming an AAPT member, visit the Joining AAPT page.