Scholars spend $500K in taxpayer funds to deconstruct whiteness in physics

ANALYSIS: The unbearable whiteness of physics

Deconstructing whiteness in an introductory physics classroom may seem like a nonsensical goal, but according to a pair of critical whiteness scholars from Seattle Pacific University, this endeavor is actually an important step toward the larger undertaking of freeing students and professors alike from the weighty fetters of whiteness.

Funded through a $495,847 National Science Foundation grant, researchers Amy Robertson and W. Tali Hairston aim “to develop a knowledge base that could lead to awareness of how power relations may be embedded in the way physics is taught and learned.”

The two record introductory physics classes and interview participants, then analyze them using a critical whiteness theory lens “to show how privilege operates in undergraduate physics teaching and learning.”

In one study funded through the grant, Robertson and a colleague from SPU examined the demographic characteristics of students in introductory physics classes at six universities to see which groups were over- or underrepresented.

In another, Hairston and two of his colleagues recorded nearly two weeks of footage from introductory physics classes at three universities, then analyzed a single, seemingly uneventful episode in which a group of students completed a hands-on, in-class assignment dealing with mass and acceleration.

The scholars carefully evaluated the footage for instances of marginalization through displays of “certain characteristics that U.S. culture typically associates with white masculine behavior, including control, independence, and decisiveness.”

Yet, to date, the most notable study born from the Robertson and Hairston NSF-funded collaboration is “Observing whiteness in introductory physics: A case study,” recently published in the prominent physics education journal Physical Review Physics Education Research.

For this study, the two researchers viewed and analyzed six-and-a-half minutes of footage from an introductory physics course, then interviewed the key players involved.

According to Robertson and Hairston’s description of those six-and-a-half minutes, a biracial but culturally white female physics professor gave an assignment to a group of students comprised of a male student of Middle Eastern descent, a female Hispanic student, and a white female student.

That assignment was to draw an energy interaction diagram on a whiteboard within a limited amount of time. During that limited amount of time, the male student of Middle Eastern descent, referred to by the pseudonym Drake, took charge, proceeding to work on the assignment while the two female students, referred to by the pseudonyms Paris and Gail, attempted to make sense of some of the relevant instructions and concepts, making some contributions of their own along the way.

Nothing about the described interaction would seem that out of place in a physics class. No one ostensibly behaved in a disrespectful or offensive manner. No one was recorded using a slur or telling an off-color joke. Yet, as banal as the episode may have seemed, according to the trained-eyes of Robertson and Hairston, the episode was actually riddled with blinding whiteness from...

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