Research on Gender, Intersectionality, and LGBTQ+ Persons in Physics Education Research

Abstract

Research on gender and intersectionality in Physics Education Research (PER) has begun to grow over the last decade, with a new emerging focus on the experiences of LGBT+ persons in the field. Across the literature we find a propensity to compare marginalized groups to majority groups without a firm focus on how individual identities are intersectional in composition. This work has been an important foundational first step, but is limited in its ability to capture and address the complicated experiences of students in physics. Furthermore, the burgeoning work on LGBT+ physicists demonstrates a problematic climate for their persistence while also underlying the compounding impact of LGBT+ physicists who are also women and/or transgender. We suggest that future research in PER should take anti-gap framing and methodologies to truly uncover students’ experiences, so policies can be developed to support their inclusion.