Framing Reform: Change Agents' Conceptualizations of Student Performance in Physics Graduate Education

Despite calls to modernize STEM graduate education, attempts to reform key aspects of graduate programs (e.g., admissions, coursework, and candidacy) often encounter resistance rooted in existing departmental culture and beliefs. Drawing on deficit framing literature, we articulate three potential frames for characterizing stakeholders' understanding of student performance: Student Deficit, Student Asset, and Structure Deficit. We characterize these frames in the context of physics graduate education reform by asking: (1) How do these framings appear in change agents' discussions of reform, and (2) How does the occurrence of specific frames relate to the reforms the change agent designed and implemented? To address these questions, we analyzed interviews with change agents at three R1 institutions that recently reformed their doctoral candidacy requirements. We find that all seven change agents expressed statements aligned with both Student Asset and Structure Deficit framings, and five of the seven also expressed statements aligned with Student Deficit. Additionally, we identified the specific deficits that participants discussed and linked them to the reform implemented. We argue that the Structure Deficit frame is crucial for driving meaningful structural change, as overemphasis on student-based problems often obscures the need to address underlying structural contributors.