Motivations for Teaching Energy and Social Justice in Physics

Abstract

Energy justice has garnered more attention within educational settings due to the relevance it has to students’ environments. Recent events such as the power grid failure that occurred in Texas in 2021 have also facilitated these classroom discussions as most students witnessed these events take place on national television. Although energy justice has been integrated in many scientific courses such as environmental science and studies, it is still not as present within physics classrooms. Energy is a fundamental core concept that is taught in the physics curriculum, yet the physics concept of energy focuses more on conservation of energy, energy efficiency, and work. Therefore, it is harder for physics to cohesively connect energy justice to these theories. Additionally, the current political debates are making it harder for physics teachers to consider teaching about energy justice in their classrooms. However, there are physics educators who are highly motivated to teach about energy justice in their classrooms. To identify the main motivators that are pushing physics educators to be inspired to integrate energy justice in their physics classrooms, we interviewed 13 physics educators. Their responses identified three main motivators that inspired them to incorporate energy justice, especially in their energy unit. These three motivators include disproving that physicists do not care, addressing economic disparities, and prioritizing climate change in their curriculum.