Frameworks to enhance inclusion in physics education: everyone must participate

Abstract

The essential work of cultivating inclusive environments in organizations, communities, and society too often falls to those who are themselves members of marginalized and underrepresented groups. This can be especially true in masculinized and male-dominated professions, where the conditions of work and productivity and the valuation of knowledge and skills has historically been defined by those with a combination of dominant social identities, such as being white, being male, being heterosexual, and being cisgender. A good example of such a profession is that of physics and physics education. More recently, there have been calls to move the work of inclusion from the margins of such environments more to the center. Such a movement could prove important in the process of recreating and positioning the work of inclusion as the obligation of everyone, rather than the responsibility of the marginalized and underrepresented. The purpose of this plenary paper is to discuss how bystander intervention and ally development frameworks can be utilized in physics education to promote and sustain greater inclusion for marginalized and underrepresented groups by framing inclusion as the obligation and responsibility of everyone.