Physics teachers’ dispositions related to culturally relevant pedagogy

ABSTRACT

In light of recent efforts to increase the diversity of the physics workforce, the need to counter the long-term marginalisation of students of colour from physics has received more attention. Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) is a multicultural approach to teaching and learning designed to attend to students’ culture as starting points toward learning canonical disciplinary knowledge (Ladson-Billings, 1995). This research explored physics teachers’ dispositions regarding implementing culturally relevant practices in their classrooms. The study participants were a select group of physics teachers expressing interest in culturally relevant instruction (n = 6). The teachers participated in interviews using a semi-structured protocol. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using inductive coding. Interview analysis showed four categories of teacher dispositions about CRP: (1) recognition of CRP as a need for various approaches to teaching, (2) use of culture as a pedagogical reference, (3) recognition of systemic inequities, and (4) recognition of the role of socio-political factors in CRP. Despite the productive beginning identified, the results also suggest that these physics teachers had difficulty identifying precisely how to enact culturally relevant practices in their physics instruction. This result indicates the need for further research into physics teachers’ thinking about and using culturally relevant pedagogy.

KEYWORDS:

• Physics teachers’ dispositions
• culturally relevant pedagogy

Introduction

There has been a long-term, national push for more involvement of students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. However, there are many groups of students who remain underrepresented. Indeed, according to the American Institute of Physics, only approximately 25% of Black and Hispanic high school students take physics in high school compared to 41% of White students and 52% of Asian American students (White & Tesfaye, 2010). Previous studies have described several reasons for this underrepresentation of Black and Hispanic students in physics, which include students’ perception of physics (Brewe et al., 2009), lack of access (Heitin, 2016), and lack of support from administrators (Chang et al., 2018). Such concerns largely revolve around students’ access to physics, and these students suggest that there are often tangible roadblocks that result in inequitable access to physics for students of color. However, access is only part of the problem, and a growing body of literature also speaks to needed changes in the nature of physics instruction that underrepresented students receive (Rifkin, 2016). We, as well as other authors (e.g. Johnson, 2019), argue that we need to engage and motivate a broader range of students in physics, particularly those underserved in traditional schooling patterns.

In order to enhance the quality of the experience underrepresented students have in physics, many researchers and teacher educators argue that teachers must learn to identify and analyse critical cultural resources and experiences students have so that these can be used to shape their learning experiences (Mathis, 2020; Johnson, 2019). More specifically, this line of reasoning suggests that physics teachers must have the ability to develop pedagogical practices that are relevant and have meaning to students’ cultural realities (Mathis, 2020). However, the research literature is replete with examples of failed attempts at instructional reform.

It is well-documented that what teachers think about proposed pedagogical changes ultimately influences the outcomes of those efforts (Southerland et al., 2003, 2016). Indeed, this body of work suggests that the classroom teacher ultimately decides how and to what extent efforts to change pedagogy will crystallize within the classroom. Guided by this insight, this research examines the dispositions related to Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (CRP) that teachers bring to the physics classroom. We view dispositions as beliefs and tendencies on how individuals will use CRP in their classroom (Villegas, 2007). We believe understanding dispositions will give insight into how researchers and teacher educators can identify the challenges, affordances, and suggestions teachers can use to implement CRP in their teaching. In this effort, we will describe the dispositions that could serve as productive beginnings in physics teachers’ thinking about CRP as a first step in understanding how to best support these teachers in their adoption of CRP in the physics classroom.

Theoretical frameworks

Asset-based approaches to STEM learning

Recent educational reforms have positioned the development of science proficiency as the end goal of science instruction – that is, students’ abilities to engage in the concepts and practices of science in the service of explaining natural phenomena (NGSS, 2013). With this goal, science learning is thought to be best supported by engaging students in sensemaking about phenomena, which requires that they use the big ideas and concepts of the disciplines as they engage in science practices to construct explanations. In short, school science, to some degree, should mirror authentic scientific work (Duschl, 2008) as they learn to share, discuss, and refine thinking about scientific phenomena (Bamberger & Davis, 2013).

A science classroom in which science learning experiences require engaging students in science sensemaking must take an asset-based approach to STEM teaching; this requires that teachers notice, value, and leverage the resources that students bring to their sensemaking work. Just as with learners engaging in science, the same is true for teachers-as-learners. That is, as described by Gray et al. (2022) in their call for an asset-based approach to teacher education, we should view teacher knowledge as resources to be activated, employed, and shaped during teacher education experiences instead of viewing them as deficits to be filled or misconceptions to be erased. Taking an asset-based perspective to teacher learning requires that teacher educators work to understand teacher thinking employed to understand a problem of practice and how this thinking shapes their teaching practice.

Culturally relevant pedagogy

Culturally relevant pedagogy (CRP) was developed after decades of research investigating practical approaches to teaching diverse students, and from its outset, it was designed to pay particular care to address the achievement gap experienced by multiply marginalised (e.g.low-income students, students of color, and students from linguistically and culturally diverse environments). CRP is a framework that points to the need for teachers to support students in developing intellectually, socially, and politically by using students’ cultural references as starting points as they construct knowledge, skills, and attitudes. While Ladson-Billings (1995) first developed this framework, a host of scholars have gone on to explore its utility for supporting the learning of students traditionally marginalised in educational spaces (e.g. Leonard et al., 2009; Morrison et al., 2008; Sleeter, 2012).

Ladson-Billings (1995) described three pillars of the CRP framework: academic excellence, cultural competence, and critical consciousness. To practice culturally relevant pedagogy, teachers must develop caring, respectful relationships with their students and families, creating a safe learning environment in which students are urged to excel and supported to see the relevance of schooling to their lives. In her development of CRP, Ladson-Billings (1995) described how the three central pillars can be used effectively in various contexts, with diverse students, with curricula, through instruction, during professional development, and as a framework for educational research.

There is often confusion between the frameworks of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy (Ladson-Billings, 1995) and Culturally Responsive Pedagogy (Gay, 2002), as they share many commonalities (Mensah, 2021). Indeed, some scholars have merged the two approaches as a framework for their studies (Brown & Crippen, 2016; Brown-Jeffy & Cooper, 2011; Morrison et al., 2008), while others have called for the reimagining of these frameworks such that teachers ‘sustain [the] linguistic, literate, and cultural pluralism [of their students] as part of the democratic project of schooling’ (Paris, 2012, p. 95). Within science education specifically, Atwater (1993) developed Multicultural Science Education, a framework predicated on the idea that all students belong and that their cultural diversity is an asset rather than a liability within the science classroom. Although each of these frameworks clarify the role of culture in teaching and learning, each framework has nuanced differences. While Culturally Relevant Pedagogy focuses on using students’ incoming knowledge and experiences, it also emphasises students’ cultural identity development to support students in challenging inequities within the broader society. Because of its emphasis on social justice and critical learning approach, CRP was selected as the theoretical framework for this work. In the sections below, we describe each of the central pillars of the CRP framework.

Academic excellence

Academic excellence is the belief that all students can learn and that teachers must hold high expectations for their students and work to help them meet those expectations (Ladson-Billings, 1995). Academic excellence involves working from students’ incoming knowledge and interests, allowing them to understand the information in new ways. Several techniques to promote academic excellence include communicating high expectations, promoting student-led classroom discourse, and small group instruction. For students to attain their full potential, CRP describes that teaching should be practiced in ways that promote the learning of complex concepts and skills in a social climate that fosters collaboration and participation among all students (Callins, 2006).

CRP emphasises that student learning must not come at the expense of one's cultural identity(ies). Ladson-Billings (1995) argued that students should be motivated to ‘pursue’ academic excellence and not feel forced to learn. However, she felt the need to clarify what she meant by academic excellence because the term had become misused in the current era of high-stakes standardised testing. She argued that focusing on long-term academic achievement instead of end-of-year tests is a criterion to achieve academic excellence, as students need social, technological, and political skills to thrive. To establish academic excellence, teachers must attend to students’ educational needs, urging them to engage in the hard work of learning and not just make them ‘feel good.’

Cultural competence

CRP describes that students should be allowed to maintain their cultural integrities while pursuing academic excellence. To do this well, Ladson-Billings (1995) argued that culturally-relevant teachers must exhibit cultural competence, which refers to helping students recognise and honour their cultural beliefs and practices as they engage in discipline-specific thinking – a balance which allows them to make informed decisions about the lives they wish to lead (Ladson-Billings, 1995). Every day, as described by Aikenhead and Jegede (1999) and Brown (2019), students learn to switch between home and school, and teachers must find approaches to support students attain the necessary knowledge to succeed once they leave the school system.

Most educators are aware that part of their professional responsibilities is to maintain a focus on student achievement. CRP describes how the two tenets, academic achievement, and cultural competence, are not competing for ideals but must be merged. ‘Among the scholarship that has examined academically successful African American students, the student's academic success came at the expense of their cultural and psychological well-being’ (Ladson-Billings, 1995, p. 475), a pattern that CRP was designed to halt.

Ladson-Billings (1995) acknowledged that cultural competence is difficult to instil in teachers. Cultural competence is not about being culturally sensitive for its own sake but is designed to help students recognise and honor their cultural beliefs and practices. Thus, a goal of cultural competence is to empower students to understand the value of their cultural backgrounds. As a facet of cultural competence, teachers must recognise the inherent political, social, and cultural undercurrents in all texts that constitute the curriculum. Additionally, teachers need to accommodate all the ways these texts will inevitably marginalise and disempower some students in our classes. An essential piece of recognising student cultures is the understanding that unforeseen dangers may arise when discussing identity (Milner IV, 2007). This insight provides a valuable resource as teachers seek to appreciate and affirm their students’ cultural wealth and capital, which is a solution to moving beyond the misunderstanding of cultural competence as merely some level of cultural celebration (Sleeter, 2012).

Sociopolitical consciousness

The last pillar of CRP, sociopolitical consciousness, addresses the need for teachers to support ‘students to recognise, understand, and critique [the] current and social inequalities’ (Ladson-Billings, 1995, p. 476). Sociopolitical consciousness starts with teachers recognising socio-political issues, such as race, class, and gender, within themselves and understanding their structural roots before incorporating these issues into instruction, where students are taught to analyse such problems using the tools of the discipline critically. Therefore, the development of a sociopolitical consciousness takes culturally relevant pedagogy beyond the classroom and improves a student's ability to engage the world critically (Ladson-Billings, 1995).

Teachers must develop their consciousness of the more significant social, economic, and political issues that impact their schools and incorporate such consciousness into their daily teaching practice. While incorporating sociopolitical consciousness, teachers typically experience two difficulties: 1) they may not have sociopolitical consciousness of their own, and 2) it may seem challenging to incorporate sociopolitical issues into their teaching practice. Our study will use the three pillars of CRP to interpret teachers’ thinking regarding productive beginnings toward using CRP in their physics classrooms.

Research question

In this research, we worked with a diverse group of physics teachers who share an interest in learning more about culturally relevant approaches to physics. The research question that guided our study of this group was: What dispositions related to culturally relevant pedagogy do physics teachers hold that can serve as a productive beginning in adopting a CRP perspective in physics teaching?

Methods

Participants

To provide for the broadest range of physics teachers’ thinking about CRP, we purposely selected a diverse group of participants, even though the vast bulk of physics teachers in the U.S. are white males (Rushton et al., 2017). This choice was propelled by our efforts to identify any productive beginnings around attention to culture, and we anticipated that teachers’ from minoritized groups might be more likely to hold potentially useful ideas or insights related to this work. Given this, we recruited volunteer teachers from attendees of an international conference of physics teachers, and six agreed to participate in the study. These teachers did not have experience explicitly using CRP; however, each expressed an interest in pursuing more equitable instruction in their class.

We were successful in terms of a diverse set of participants, as the teachers included individuals who were African American, Hispanic American, Vietnamese American, and European American. Two were women, four were men, and each taught in either high school or community college contexts. Table 1 is a description of the participants.

Table 1. Description of Participants Interviewed for Study.

Name	Description
Charles	A White male physics teacher working in an International Baccalaureate programme in a high school in the Western part of the United States with less than five years of experience. Charles was very passionate about issues of social justice in physics. Charles students are predominantly white from upper-income families.
Jamie	A White female physics teacher working at a high school in the southeast United States with less than five years of experience. Jamie was very passionate about issues of equity in physics. Jamie's students were racially diverse, but primarily came from middle-income families.
Justin	A male Asian-American physics teacher at a community college in the Western United States with three years of teaching experience. Justin is an immigrant from Vietnam who came to the U.S. for graduate school in physics. Justin led organisations to increase the participation of marginalised groups in physics teaching. Justin students are racially diverse from middle income families.
Sam	A Black male professor of physics at a Historically Black College and University in the southeast United States, with over twenty years of experience. Sam was active in diversity initiatives addressing the underrepresentation of marginalised groups in physics. Sam students are predominantly Black American from middle-income families.
Sofia	An Black female physics teacher at a school in the Southeast United States with five years of teaching experience. Sofia primarily taught at a school that served a high percentage of students of colour, primarily from low-income families. Sofia was originally a chemistry teacher, but due to her success in that course and the paucity of physics teachers, she was asked to teach primarily physics.
Thomas	A Hispanic-American male physics teacher at a high school located in the Midwestern United States with less than ten years of experience. Thomas taught physics at a suburban high school. He spent 20 years as an engineer before becoming a physics teacher. Thomas students were predominantly white from upper income family backgrounds.

Data collection

Interview questions were developed to elicit their thinking around the three pillars of CRP. We also recognised that accessing science teachers’ resources related to culture and CRP can be difficult. Directly inquiring about culture and sociopolitical ideas can trigger discomfort and anxiety for some, triggering socially acceptable responses from participants (McDiarmid, 1992). To reduce potential anxiety among the teachers, we structured the interview to focus more on the participants’ thoughts about culture in the early questions, which teachers in the sample were comfortable discussing. These questions were designed to elicit teacher thinking about cultural competence, the first pillar of CRP. Then we asked about the role of culture in physics instruction and how one might work to establish rigour in the classroom while affirming culture, identifying aspects of students’ culture related to physics concepts, and how to help students see the contradictions and inequities that exist outside the classroom related to physics concepts. These questions were designed to elicit teacher thinking about CRP's pillar of academic excellence. Only then did we focus on how the teachers viewed issues of injustices and inequities and their possible application in the physics classroom to elicit teacher thinking related to the CRP pillar of sociopolitical consciousness.

All interviews were conducted online (via Skype, Facetime, or Zoom) and lasted between 30-35 min during non-working hours. Each teacher was given a non-disclosure form assuring the anonymity of their data.

Data analysis

Each interview was transcribed verbatim. These transcription data were analysed using a thematic coding approach (Gavin, 2008) to identify categories of teachers’ responses. This process involved multiple steps: during the first round of coding, the authors reviewed and discussed transcript data coding line by line to reveal commonalities in the participant's responses. Codes that accounted for data across multiple answers were retained and named using the participants’ language. During the second round of coding, the coding scheme was revised so that similar codes were collapsed and reapplied to the data set to ensure reliability. Emergent themes were then examined to determine their alignment with the three pillars of CRP.

To establish trustworthiness in our findings, we met throughout the analytical process to discuss our identified instances of similarities, differences, tensions, and patterns within and across our codes. While we initially had more frequent disagreements, our discussions revealed high levels of agreement in our discussion of these codes over time. Developing this agreement required careful listening, lengthy discussion, and a joint reflection on the phenomenon (Sweeney et al., 2012). As a result, we were able to resolve any disagreements and reach a consensus about our analysis of the data.

Limitations

The research presented here is qualitative in nature, thus it is not designed to provide generalisations that speak to all physics teachers, rather it is designed to provide insights into the aspects of thinking that teachers may bring with them to their work. Beyond this, our participants included a diverse group of physics teachers, but each of whom were actively engaged in the national physics education community (evidenced by their attendance at a conference) and shared an interest in teaching more equitable (evidenced by their volunteering for this study). It is important to note that these factors certainly have shaped our findings, as these will be discussed.

Results

The themes that emerged from our analysis of the data included: varied approaches to teaching, recognition of systemic inequities, using culture as a pedagogical reference, and willingness to address socio-political concerns. The themes were examined using the framework of CRP to determine their relationship to one of the central pillars of this framework (academic excellence, cultural competence, sociopolitical consciousness). This section is organised around the themes emerging related to each of the three pillars.

Academic excellence

Varied approaches to instruction

The participants in this study explained that students from non-dominant backgrounds would best be supported by using a wide range of instructional approaches. These teachers explained that various approaches to teaching and learning should be sought when teaching minoritized learners, something they described as requiring multiple pedagogical approaches. These approaches can range from creating engaging lectures to which students can relate to demonstrations using images of cultural artifacts as a pedagogical reference. They understood these cultural artifacts to vary, from the accounts of accomplished physicists from similar cultural backgrounds to that of the students and the use of objects from students’ neighbourhoods to explain physics ideas.

Two participants, in particular, Sofia, an African American high school teacher, working in a school where the majority of the students were from families below the poverty line, and Jamie, a white female physics teacher at a more affluent high school, explained their dispositions of CRP through describing examples of their attempts to use varied approaches to instruction for the benefit of their students. Sofia noticed that many students in her class were creative in art and used different materials to build things. Sofia described using creativity in her lesson designs through a class activity where her students focused on Newton's Laws of Motion. In this lesson, students used parts from plastic soda bottles to create a balloon-powered car. The bottles represented the car, and the bottle tops were the wheels. Students had to describe how the release of air pumped into the balloon represented the action force required to move the car. In addition, students had to explain how the air from the balloon caused the car to move and how it slowed down and stopped. Sofia believed this activity aimed to help students provide a visual explanation of Newton's Laws of Motion. Another part of the activity required students to explain how the balloon-powered car speeds up and slows down when adding mass to the car, which described the relationship of force, mass, and acceleration for Newton's Second Law. Because Sofia's school did not have enough equipment to perform a laboratory experiment explaining Newton's Laws in a more conventional way, she improvised and used objects students regularly use in their home lives, such as soda bottles and air balloons. This allowed Sofia to show students how physics can be used to explain their everyday materials, which aligned with CRP.

Jamie described her instructional approach as typically more discussion-oriented to help students understand physics ideas. She explained that physics teachers often use mathematics to explain most, if not all, concepts. According to Jamie, using mathematics is the central vehicle for physics. This instruction focuses students primarily on procedural approaches to solving problems. Jamie argued that her students were disengaged when she began a lesson by simply writing equations on the board. Instead of primarily using mathematics, Jamie tried to gather what students knew through class discussions and build her instruction from that information. Jamie did not dismiss using mathematics, but she only used it after her students understood the central idea of what was being taught. Jamie began to use this largely conceptual approach because she noticed, through assessing her students, that performing mathematical equations of traditional physics instruction became a gatekeeper for many as she describes:

I use a few more examples. I took a little more time on the front end of the discussion aspect, making sure they understand the concepts instead of just running through the basics and drilling problems, so I spend more time on the front-end scaffolding.

It is well documented that the focus on engaging students in concepts through discussion can effectively support their conceptual development in physics (Taşlıdere & Eryılmaz, 2009).

Whether it is through focusing on concepts first when students struggle with mathematics, building discussions mindful of the ideas that students bring with them, or ensuring that students are engaged through activities with everyday materials to make sense of the physics that they are charged with learning, teachers who showed evidence of the recognition of the need for varied approaches to teaching and learning acknowledged that they must be willing to explore the use of different resources and strategies if they are to be successful in teaching diverse groups of students. The focus engaging students in concepts through discussion can effectively support their conceptual development in physics (Taşlıdere & Eryılmaz, 2009)

Cultural competence

Recognition of systemic inequities

Issues such as race, class, and gender can be complex for teachers to approach when attempting to become culturally relevant pedagogues (Leonard et al., 2009). Recognition of such complexities involves teachers understanding students’ resistance to their learning. One teacher, Jamie, explained how some students are not commonly ‘pushed’ to embrace academic challenges, as many parents of her students do not have a college degree and, in some cases, a high school degree. Her students seldom saw many people who looked like them in physics. Jamie acknowledged the lack of representation of diverse identities in her curricula, particularly in communities of colour, as she describes:

If you have a kid that doesn't have role models around that have looked at this material before … have tackled it … have done well … or perceived to be headed on the same track … so the perception of physics is you are going places after this class. If you have kids that don't have that kind of model around, they are not necessarily interested in taking this class or putting in the work it requires.

She recognised the stigma of physics being ‘hard,’ a belief that reflects the literature about students’ beliefs about the difficulties of physics (Bray & Williams, 2020). She described that a perception exists that physics is only for the ‘smart kids,’ which inhibits students from even attempting it. Also, Jamie believed that only a ‘certain kind of student’ should enrol in physics. Here Jamie describes the issues of low enrolment in physics:

So, if you get a kid that's a low reader or low mathematics and they’re in your physics class, there is a lot of: ‘This kid doesn't belong here’ … ‘right’ … and you don't see that in other subject areas as much.

Jamie also described the elitist attitude in physics. Jamie discussed how many children are not taught to embrace challenges in physics and do not see other people who look like them in physics.

I think kids that aren't taught to embrace challenges [in physics] or kids that don't see other people that look like them talking about physics or talking about when they learn physics.

Another problem discussed in the interviews was that nontraditional students are intentionally ‘tracked out’ of taking courses such as physics, as Jamie discussed.

If you don't do good in biology or if you don't do good in algebra, they ‘track you out’, they put you into earth space science, or they put you into physical science, so they make it a little less demanding that doesn't require the same amount of mathematics levels.

Sofia and Jamie learned about the family backgrounds of their students and stated that many of them came from homes where physics was not embraced or promoted by their parents or peers. An excerpt of Jamie's statement articulating her understanding of the lived experiences of her students and their families is below.

Your teaching style might be different than if you are teaching to disadvantaged kids … kids that are below the poverty level … kids that maybe aren't prepared, they don't have the basic skills set, they don't have the outside resources … I also think if you have kids that … because physics has a stigma … it's hard … and when you are 12, 13, 14, 15 years 16, 17 years old, it is hard … especially if you are not prepared. I think kids that don't see other people that look like them talking about physics or talking about when they learn physics … you are starting at a disadvantage and if you aren't implementing things to make them more comfortable with the material, then you are not doing a good job

The teachers in this study recognised that academic and personal struggles often happen in students’ development. Jamie recognised the efforts her students were grappling with from an institutional, personal, and academic perspective. The institutional resistive factors, where students are tracked out of physics, can impact students’ educational and personal experiences in terms of access, self-efficacy, and performance. Understanding the multitude of factors that inhibit success and developing strategies to overcome them is an aspect of effective CRP instruction because it helps motivate and inspire non-majority students to achieve academic excellence.

Using culture as a pedagogical reference

Teachers in this work recognised that students come to class with varied cultural experiences. These cultural experiences can be drawn from family experiences, community interactions, work in other courses, and students’ socio-emotional development. Research suggests that students perform better when they believe their teacher understands their background and is supportive of it (Banks & Banks, 2009). In this study, some of the teachers’ dispositions around CRP were based on having an appreciation of students’ lived experiences allowing them to understand the challenges and successes their students encountered.

Additionally, these teachers investigated the causes of these circumstances and helped students achieve their goals. For example, Sofia discussed supporting students by attending extra-curricular activities, such as football games or club events, and learning about their home life and interactions with friends, and leveraging this knowledge in instruction. Sofia congratulated students on their accomplishments and described the importance of advising them on ‘real-life’ concerns.

To achieve the goal of enacting CRP, teachers must attend to the needs of the total student. Students have influences from cultural socialisation norms from community and family that impact their academic identity when entering the classroom. These influences can affect how students perceive and respond to classroom norms and behaviours (Brown-Jeffy & Cooper, 2011). Students who feel connected with their teacher are more comfortable demonstrating their knowledge and receptive to scaffolding. Many of the teachers in this study brought this resource to considerations of physics instruction – appreciating students’ life experiences and recognising them as building blocks for community building and teaching.

Teachers using culture as a pedagogical reference refer to teachers using students’ cultural resources and connections to develop pedagogical practices. Five teachers, Sofia, Jamie, Sam, Thomas, and Charles, mentioned using culture as a pedagogical reference in their interviews. All teachers expressed some dispositions around CRP, but Sofia was the most expansive in their explanations.

An interesting statement from Sofia was when she explained how many times her students ask: ‘When am I ever going to use this in life?’ Questions like this indicate many cases where students have no cultural connection to what is learned in the physics classroom, which leads to disengagement. The CRP framework suggests that it is necessary to contextualise student learning by relating content to students’ real-life experiences (Torres-Velasquez & Lobo, 2005). If teachers can show the practicality of what is learned in class, it helps students see a connection with what is learned in class in a real-life situation. Additionally, Sofia stated that students seeing practicality in their instruction help their motivation to engage in the material. An excerpt of Sofia's statement was: ‘If physics teachers cannot give cultural and practical connections to their instruction, they will have difficulty motivating their students.’

Sofia emphasised using culture as a pedagogical reference because she believed it helps physics teachers connect with students. Charles, an early career secondary physics teacher, stated the need to integrate physics culture with students’ home culture interchangeably, describing:

That's something that kind of needs to be explicitly taught so that students can engage in that [physics] culture, but it needs to be done in a way that they can kind of go back and forth and like integrate into their home culture without it taking over and replacing their home culture.

Jamie discussed using students’ language patterns as a pedagogical reference because it helps connect students’ ideas. She also stated the need to understand the ethnic behaviour patterns between groups within the classroom. Thomas, a veteran engineer, and early career secondary physics teacher, mentioned that the idea of using role models for students would help bring a change to inequities in physics. He discussed how it would be helpful to reference scientists from students’ cultures as someone who can inspire them, although he rejected the idea of employing culture in instruction. Sam, a university physics professor, spoke on the importance of drawing students into the culture of physics and helping them understand certain norms and principles of the physics culture.

Sofia, Jamie, and Justin, a community college physics instructor, described their efforts to gather students’ funds of knowledge in their physics classroom. Jamie talked about giving a balance of explaining physics concepts in students’ language with using the language from textbooks and other classroom materials. She stated this balance could be through assessing learning patterns, understanding where students are in their development, more scaffolding, and discussion. Justin explained that he uses group activities for students to demonstrate their ideas and expand their knowledge base. After each group activity, Justin brings the class together to discuss a specific topic, in which he takes care to draw on their funds of knowledge as they build the physics idea together. Instead of students believing they compete with each other, Justin wants to use more of a communal environment in the classroom. Justin described this student-centered, group work approach as necessary because many of his students come to his community college classroom without formal experience in physics.

Attending to students’ funds of knowledge is an essential trait for a culturally relevant teacher. Sofia, Jamie, and Justin showed that learning about students’ knowledge, interests, and learning strengths can be building blocks for effective pedagogical moves. Half of the teachers in our study brought to our interview the resource of recognising cultural artifacts’ role in supporting students’ physics learning. Ideas such as appliances at home, parents’ occupations, and interests outside of school can be cultural information teachers use for instruction. A feature of culturally relevant pedagogy is to use students’ resources to affirm their culture. When students have a sense of belonging and feel their culture matters within the physics culture, it impacts their engagement and performance.

Sociopolitical consciousness

Willingness to address socio-political concerns

Three of our participants evidenced a recognition of the importance of helping students understand the challenges that they may encounter after leaving high school. Jamie described the importance of making students aware of the discrimination they may face. Below is an excerpt of Jamie's statement:

Because part of our job is not just teaching the content but teaching them how to be successful and pursuing that content … if physics is something that they like, and they feel like it's something they want to pursue, to throw them out there with no idea of the socioeconomic and gender inequality challenges they are going to face

The demographics of physics were mentioned and how it impacts access and participation. Most physics courses are primarily for white males and black students of colour. Jamie explains

You tend to have kind of your typical Caucasian, upper-class students take this class, and they expect to take this class because it is a higher-level class, and they are expected to do well.

Jamie's statement speaks of potential causes of inequities in physics enrolment. She recognised this to be due to many factors such as minimal access to physics courses, prerequisite course requirements (e.g. mathematics), and lack of encouragement to take physics from administrators, teachers, peers, or family members – factors that have been described in the literature (Chang et al., 2018). The physics teachers in this study were willing to discuss issues of inequality. One teacher, Thomas, was open to addressing issues of inequality if students willingly brought up the topic. Thomas stated:

If they bring it up, I will talk about it; how there are so many inequalities going on and some issues they have.

Sofia described how she uses topics that matter most to students, such as global warming and gun control, and attempts to create a connection to physics ideas. From Sofia's experiences in the classroom, she understood students to be more engaged and ask more questions when controversial topics were discussed. These topics, such as racism, immigration policies, and school trips, were often topics drawn from popular culture, and Sofia thought their inclusion made physics much more ‘real’ for her students. However, it is essential to note that Sofia was the only teacher in this sample of interested teachers that touched on this technique; the others did not mention attempts to draw ideas from students’ lives as topics to consider in physics. Using such instructional models presupposes that teachers bring the resource of willingness to address socio political concerns to the work of physics teaching. Given that Sofia was the only one of the teachers in our study who showed evidence of using this resource, this speaks to the need for additional work in this area.

Discussion and conclusions

Our findings make two contributions to the nascent literature related to culturally relevant pedagogy in physics, these include (1) the productive beginnings of physics teachers’ understanding that could be leverages as they move to consider CRP, and (2) the understandings of these same teachers that could serve as barriers to actualising the pedagogy. In this section, we will discuss each in turn.

It is important to recognise that the selection of teachers at the centre of our study have certainly shaped our findings, that is in our quest to identify potentially productive resources related to CRP, we selected to study teachers interested in equity in physics instruction. Some of these teachers were people of colour, others taught in schools serving large numbers of students traditionally underrepresented in STEM – and it is quite likely that these facets of their identities and/or contexts shaped the teachers’ interest in equity. But importantly for this work, by selecting to study these teachers, we ‘stacked’ the deck or improved our odds of finding productive beginnings for CRP. Thus, in this discussion, we do not suggest that all physics teachers have such resources; rather, we argue that these resources may be available to serve as productive beginnings for physics teachers’ consideration for CRP. This group placed a premium on varied approaches to instruction, a recognition of the systemic inequities, and a recognition of the use of culture as a pedagogical reference.

This first resource, teachers placing a premium on varied approaches to instruction, is a valuable contribution to the CRP research, because much of the CRP literature around instruction does not go in depth in informing the structure of instruction, the physics or STEM context (Morrison et al., 2008). In particular for physics education, historically there has been a strong emphasis on problem solving to the neglect of developing students’ conceptual understanding (Docktor et al., 2015). In contrast, teachers in this study used an assortment of activities and modes of interaction (i.e. discussions, projects involving students’ artistic expression, construction) in their instruction to build from students’ strengths. As has been described in mathematics education by Gutierrez (2009), teachers’ attention to structure instruction, to draw on students’ resources and interest, is an essential component of equitable instruction. The research community needs to examine such pedagogical moves within the context of physics instruction to describe how teachers can accommodate students too-often marginalised in physics spaces, and share those findings with physics teachers to provide more varied portraits of effective physics instruction.

Another resource evidenced in our sample was the teachers’ disposition around CRP in terms of recognising the ways in which systemic inequities influence their students and their physics learning. This is a useful resource because within physics and physics education, systemic concerns regarding students’ access to equitable resources to support their learning are simply not highlighted, but the recognition of such inequities accompanied by ways to address these shortcomings is essential if one is to support the learning of students traditionally marginalised in schooling (Gutierrez, 2009; Ladson-Billings, 1995). The teachers in this study recognised inequities built into students’ academic lives (e.g. limited access to necessary mathematics courses, limitations in the rigour of their prior STEM courses), and took steps in their instruction to modify instruction and curriculum to assist students in learning physics despite these limitations. Likewise, their recognition of difficulties stemming from students’ personal lives were acknowledged by several of these teachers, and their willingness to accommodate students’ difficulties in instruction is an essential resource that can be capitalised upon in efforts to assist them in moving toward CRP. What is important to note here, CRP in physics involves more than just physics and physics instruction; indeed, it requires teachers to look at forces at play outside of the classroom to determine how they may be countered within their instruction. The last resource that we consider that was evidence in our data was the disposition toward the use of culture as a pedagogical reference. We understand this to be a particularly promising resource that could be leveraged to help move them toward CRP. Several of the teachers described their role as identifying their students’ strengths through instruction, and featuring these strengths in later instruction. Drawing upon students’ cultural assets or strengths and leveraging these as instructions as a tool to engage students and support their success is a staple of CRP (Ladson-Billings, 1995). Dispositions from teachers in our study call our attention to students’ cultural norms as a tool to reduce the tensions that occur when intersecting culture and school (Atwater, 1993; Banks & Banks, 2009; Gay, 2002; Ladson-Billings, 1995). Understanding how to merge the culture of physics classroom with students’ culture is not a straightforward feat. Students’ cultural experiences and their impact on physics learning have been described (Carlone & Johnson, 2012; Corbett, 2016). Banks (2015) argued that school learning must connect with students’ identities to maximise student growth. However, there are few representations of what this leveraging of students’ culture in physics instruction could look like. This is a valuable definition, but not quite what Ladson-Billings means. Ladson-Billings (1995) suggests that CRP will require teachers to create environments that allow students to ‘maintain some cultural integrity as well as academic excellence’ (p. 160), allowing students to avoid alienation from their home cultures as they gain academic success. Given this concern, Johnson (2019) urges physics teachers to create classrooms where students do not experience a conflict between excelling in physics in other parts of their identities. She describes how an emphasis on group work, collaboration, and inclusion of a growth mindset toward students’ learning can be an important component of such efforts.

The teachers in our study cared about students’ well-being and wanted them to succeed once leaving the classroom; however, they struggled to use what the students knew and brought to the school as a pedagogical reference for learning. These teachers understood students’ sometimes difficult lives, such as having to work outside of school or not having the support academically from their parents or peers, and they were willing to help motivate their students to learn physics in some way despite these difficulties. These teachers’ willingness to assist students propelled their efforts to implement varied approaches to instruction, being willing to address systemic inequities issues, and identifying the challenges students may have. It is heartening to find that the physics teachers in this study had productive beginnings toward movements to CRP, as the prominence of these resources can be capitalised in professional development, as each of these resources will be useful in moving them toward one or more of the three pillars of CRP.

Despite the prominence of these dispositions, which, on their face, seem supportive of the adoption of CRP, we must acknowledge that even given these dispositions, some aspects of this framework will be easier for physics teachers to enact than others. A resource that showed productive beginnings while simultaneously being a potential barrier was teachers’ dispositions around addressing socio political concerns. It is important to note that teachers in our study primarily drew on ideas aligned with the academic excellence and cultural competence pillars of CRP while largely shying away from sociopolitical consciousness. We understand this hesitance to wrestle with socio-political concerns on the part of these teachers to be a potentially powerful barrier to their movements toward CRP. This hesitance could be due to external influences that impact teachers’ ability to address socio political concerns in the classroom. This concern is particularly acute given current political discourse in the US limiting consideration of critical race theories in K-12 classrooms (Sawchuk, 2021). Researchers have long identified that many teachers are not comfortable supporting a critique of social conditions or supporting students in their efforts to effect social change as part of their classes (Mathis & Southerland, 2022; Johnson, 2019). Others may see physics as very different from the social and political concerns at the centre of students’ lives (Morales-Doyle, 2020). These findings suggest the need to directly target this pillar in professional development. One approach to this could be through the inclusion of SocioScientific Issues, an innovative instructional approach that engages students in considerations of controversial issues (Sadler et al., 2007). Likewise, Morales-Doyle’s (2020) exploration of the use of a chemistry unit focusing on aspirin also illuminates how the discipline can be used to understand and respond to a wide political controversy that has particular salience to students’ lives. We argue that the field needs more examples of the socio-political applications of physics within physics classrooms to allow teachers to see what is possible, particularly in this time in which the role of teachers in supporting students in considering social change have become so polemic.

The findings of our study have implications for professional development providers focused on the movement toward CRP in physics. Teacher education programmes can develop courses designed to provide teachers experience in the use aspects of students’ culture in instruction, these experiences will help the teachers develop an awareness of the effects of such instruction as well as ways to enact such efforts, as we know both the conceptual awareness and practical tools are essential components of pedagogical change (Grossman et al., 1999). Further research is needed to explore.the structure of professional development that will be effective in supporting physics teachers activation of resources useful in supporting culturally relevant pedagogy.

Ethics statement

This study met the ethics requirements for human subjects research through the Institutional Review Board. The Assurance Number is FWA00000168/IRB number IRB00000446.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

APPENDIX A

List of Codes, Themes, and Associated Pillar of CRPs.

Table

Theme	Code	Description and Example Data Point
Varied approaches to teaching	Using Scaffolding	Helping other students within the classroom context
		Ex: ‘if you kind of use scaffolding to remove that blocker, it will better help them grasp the information,’
	Varying Visuals to Support Learning	Using different visuals to explain physics concepts
		Ex: ‘I have a creative mind, so I bring out the creativity in my students.’
	Creating opportunities for injected relevance	Having innovative approaches to explaining physics concepts
		Ex: ‘it's also important to broaden their horizons so that they will think about things that they hadn't thought about before.’
	Conceptual Target	Conceptual understanding is the target of instruction
	Communicating Expectations	Establishing and communicating standards of performance for students
Appreciative of Students’ Life Experiences	Showing concern for students	Trying to understand students' interests / demonstrating your interest in students.
		Ex: ‘their extra-curricular activities, I go to football games, I go to sports activities … I am always there being visible’
	Examining students' home life	Obtaining knowledge of students' home life
		Ex: ‘Getting to know your students’; ‘determining what matters to them most’
	Getting to know your students	Attempting to understand your students’ backgrounds, interests, and home life
		Ex: ‘attempting to understand what aspects of their home life connects to physics.’
	Overtly drawing from my own experience	Using teachers’ experiences as a pedagogical reference to help students learn
Using Culture as a Pedagogical Reference	Planning around student culture first	Using students’ culture as a lesson planning tool as an initial reference
	Integrating science culture with the home culture	Merging students’ cultural backgrounds with the norms within science
	Representing in students’ language	Using students’ language as a pedagogical reference
		Ex: ‘Putting physics in students’ terms’
	Understanding ethnic patterns of behaviour	Understanding behaviour norms of students within ethnic/cultural groups within the classroom
	Use scientists as racial/ethnic role model	Connect other scientists who have similar cultural backgrounds as your students
		Ex: ‘I try to bring in other scientists.”
	Attempt to draw students into the culture of physics	Making moves intended to attract students into the physics culture
		Ex: ‘incorporating aspects of students’ culture into the curricula’
Recognition of Systemic Inequities	Lack of encouragement	Students not being given positive feedback
		Ex: ‘I think kids that aren't taught to embrace challenges or kids that don't see other people that look like them talking about physics or talking about when they learn physics.’
	lack of parent education	Parents not being high school or college-educated
		Ex: ‘maybe their parents did not go to college … you know, so they are like … I don't know what I am doing here, and I’m not going to college … I don't need this class.’
	Lack of role models	Students do not have role models to identify with
		Ex: understanding the lack of mentorship some students have
	Demographics of physics	The current racial/ethnic backgrounds in physics
	Students tracked out	Students are being filtered into nontraditional curricula tracks.
	Elitist attitude	Physics teachers have an attitude of superiority
		Ex: understanding how students may feel overwhelmed in physics courses
		Ex: ‘Yes, so there is a bit of an elitist attitude towards particular groups of students: like this kid shouldn't be in this class.’
	Perception of low performance	The stigma attached to the performance of students in physics
		Ex: ‘So, if you get a kid that's a low reader or low mathematics and they’re in your physics class, there is a lot of: this kid doesn't belong here … right … and you don't see that in other subject areas as much.’
	Affecting student participation	Factors that impact students’ participation in physics
		Ex: ‘ … I also think if you have kids that … because physics has a stigma … it's hard.’
	Make sure all students have the same opportunity	Giving students the same opportunities to have exposure to physics
		Ex: ‘and so I think that one of the things I try to focus on is trying just to make sure that the students who come from the area have access to it and kind of are plugged into the same opportunities’
Willingness to address socio-political concerns	Helping students understand challenges	Bringing awareness and aid to students towards external challenges they will encounter
		Ex: ‘Because part of our job is not just teaching the content but teaching them how to be successful and pursuing that content.’"
	Being aware of struggles	Knowing challenges students encounter
		Ex: ‘you got socioeconomic parameters which are huge influences on culture.’
	Embracing discussions on inequities	Welcoming open dialogue on controversial issues if inequities
		Ex: ‘if they bring it up, I will talk about how there are so many inequalities going on and some issues, and they have.’