Educational reconstruction of physics of complexity within a creative writing classroom activity

Abstract

Disciplinary identity is widely studied in physics (and science) education research. Great attention has been devoted to studying the role of sociocultural factors in students’ career choices and persistence, such as students’ participation or gender differences. However, few works within the literature have investigated the role of the cognitive-epistemic core of scientific disciplines in identity work. In the first section of the paper we discuss the state of the art about science-identity. Then, we discuss the theoretical frameworks that informed the construction of our idea of epistemic-personal consonance/dissonance: the “Reconceptualized FRA to NOS framework” and the “Model of Educational Reconstruction”. In section 4 we introduce a qualitative analysis of data collected within a classroom activity held in 2021 and discuss it according to our Research Question. The findings show that students used complex systems epistemology as scaffolding for the expression of personal needs; they reconceptualized personal demands by borrowing epistemological structures and practices of complexity as tools to change perspectives about personal issues. The findings of this first dataset call for the need for further data to analyze and enrich the discussion around physics epistemology and identity.