Becoming a physicist: Major educational transition points impact women's physics self-efficacy and sense of belonging

Abstract

In this investigation, we analyzed individual interviews with six female undergraduate physics majors at a large, public, research university in the US to understand their progression at different transition points to becoming physicists. Following the frameworks of standpoint theory, Schlossberg's transition theory, and domains of power, we focused our analysis on how these women initially developed an interest in physics before coming to college and how important transition points in college impacted their physics self-efficacy and sense of belonging. We find that the transitions from high school to college introductory courses and then into the physics major were bottlenecks at which women faced new challenges. Our findings suggest that although women develop initial fascinations with physics in a myriad of unique and interesting ways, they tend to follow a similar trajectory that harms their physics self-efficacy and sense of belonging over time. Finally, although we focused on women who had persisted in pursuing a physics degree thus far, their accounts point to an unsupportive physics culture that could drive other women and students from marginalized demographic groups out of the discipline.