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In introductory physics laboratory instruction, students often expect to confirm or demonstrate textbook physics concepts. This expectation is largely undesirable: labs that emphasize confirmation of textbook physics concepts are generally unsuccessful at teaching those concepts and even in contexts that do not emphasize confirmation, such expectations can lead to students disregarding or manipulating their data in order to obtain the expected result. In other words, when students expect their lab activities to confirm a known result, they may relinquish epistemic agency and violate disciplinary practices. We present a contrasting case where, we claim, confirmatory expectations can actually support productive disciplinary engagement. In this case study, we analyze the complex dynamics of students’ epistemological framing in a lab where students’ confirmatory expectations support and even generate epistemic agency and disciplinary practices, including developing original ideas, measures, and apparatuses to apply to the material world. Published by the American Physical Society2024 

IntroductionResearch-based instructional strategies in physics promote active participation in collaborative activities as a primary means for students to construct understanding. Discussions of physics content are also negotiations of social relations. MethodsVideo analysis of small-group collaborative learning activities in introductory physics classrooms at three different universities, using situated learning theory analyses that include a critical consciousness lens. ResultsStudents’ ability to actively participate in sensemaking may be limited by their peripheral or marginalized position. Some people seem to be centered (or marginalized) for reasons other than the strength of their physics reasoning, and some people’s contributions are elevated (or neglected) for reasons other than their scientific merit. DiscussionSome of the behavioral patterns that we observe typify racialized and gendered interactions that are common in broader U.S. society. 

Physics teachers’ definitions of equity inform how they identify inequity and take action to transform it. In this paper, we adapted Gutiérrez’s equity framework from mathematics education research to physics education research. The framework defines equity in terms of four dimensions: access , achievement , identity , and power . We used this equity framework to characterize the equity conceptions shared by 23 teachers who participated in an equity-focused professional development. We found that the access and achievement dimensions of equity are popular with teachers compared to the identity and power dimensions, and that teachers share a common understanding of conceptions of access and achievement in ways that is consistent with educational literature and discourses. 

In this study, we showcase the various ways high school physics teachers make connections between science content and social justice, pushing the boundary of what is counted as science content by bringing social justice engagement to the center of science learning. We analyze lessons submitted by eighteen high school physics teachers who participated in a professional development program that supported the integration of equity into their science teaching. Three themes represent teachers' approach toward integrating social justice in their science lessons: (1) investigating the nature of science in specific science concepts and re-evaluating/redefining science concepts, (2) connecting students' everyday activities with science and global social justice issues, and (3) using science knowledge to engage with and advocate for social justice issues in students' local communities.