How can early career ecologists encourage diversity in our field?
As a professional society and a generation of early career ecologists, I’d argue that collectively we’re more aware of the importance of diversity than ever before. ESA has a diversity statement, dedicated diversity staff, and multiple programs focused on maintaining and improving a diverse community of ecologists. And with good reasons – our community’s own traditional currency, published peer reviewed science, has repeatedly shown that diverse teams produce better science, make better decisions, and generally outperform less diverse teams. Even an analysis of 1.5 million peer reviewed articles found than the more diverse the research team, the more highly cited the paper was (check out a description of the study here).
Many of these initiatives, like SEEDS, start at the undergraduate level. This is probably for many reasons, including that ecology as the focus of an entire course is not often in K-12 curriculum. (That’s not to say ecology isn’t being taught in K-12 classrooms, there are multiple publicly-funded projects to connect university-level ecology concepts and lessons into K-12 education.) And programs like SEEDS have accomplished some amazing things.
But I’m here to say something that might sound a little harsh: it’s not enough. I don’t mean there aren’t enough resources (although, are there ever enough reasons for education?). I mean it’s not early enough, by a long shot. Youth are being discouraged from the sciences and academic careers much earlier. It’s important for those of us with and working towards advanced degrees to understand the realities of educational outcomes in the country right now – and how they disproportionately impact students of color, in foster care, growing up in poverty, or with disabilities. For example, black and Latino high school students are twice as likely as white students not to graduate high school. See this fact sheet from PBS/Tavis Smiley for more information. (That website also has suggestions and resources to ‘be part of the solution.’) Meanwhile, the graduation rates of high schoolers with disabilities varies widely by state – from 23% in Mississippi to 80% in Arkansas.
So we can’t just ask why the diversity of tenure track university hires doesn’t match the diversity of PhD recipients. Nor can we ask why the diversity of college classrooms, including ecology classes, doesn’t match the diversity of high school students around the country. The diversity of aspiring scientists and ecologists narrows almost from day 1 in the educational system.
So what can you and I, as early career scientists, do? Admittedly, this a huge, complicated problem that can’t just be solved by early career scientists. But we can contribute to the solutions by making incremental changes in ways we approach activities we already do.
If you do science outreach
Reach out to community organizations and school that don’t already have working relationships with your university or intuition, especially ones that are too far away or may not have the resources to normally be connected with university visitors. For example, near my own graduate institution, schools within an hour of the university get lots of outreach opportunities, while the ones further away don’t. Consider skyping into a classroom to give a presentation or answer questions about life as a scientist if you can’t get there in person. Remember to ask community organizations and schools what kinds of outreach would be most useful to them; you or your colleagues can help outreach topics and activities complement the existing curriculum and interests of students.
Also remember that you don’t need to have all of the skills yourself! Focus on what you do and know best. If you plan to do outreach to a group that includes people with disabilities, partner with people and organizations who have the relevant skillsets and expertise to make it a successful event. For example, a preschool near me that has some children with varying levels of hearing gets presentations from the local zoo. The zoo staff are not fluent in American Sign Language or other communication methods – they work together with school interpreters and staff to make the event enjoyable and educational for the kids. The important part is that they don’t let the fear of communication barriers stop them from outreach with the students, and neither should you.
If you teach undergraduates
Reflect on your teaching materials. Are your materials accessible? Caption videos, describe images – don’t wait for someone to ask for accommodation. This is best practice and the law, especially if you’re at a public school or institution.
Creative inclusive environments for a diverse student body isn’t just about described and captioned media though. Reflect on whether case studies and examples in your class assume a certain class background or childhood experiences. Great diversity in teaching workshops I’ve taken have pointed out that even innocuous-seeming first day ‘icebreakers’ like asking What did you do this summer? can lead to a lot of anxiety. Students working and paying their way through school will likely have very different answers than those whose parents are paying for their education.
Improving pedagogy for inclusive and diverse classrooms is a career-long practice you can start now as an early career scientist. There are lots of resources available. For example, the nationwide Center for Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning Network offers a free webinar series called CIRTLCast Series every academic year. This year’s topic list and schedule can be found here. Two of the upcoming spring 2016 webinar sessions are about planning for inclusive research and teaching environments. CITRL has a huge online resource library, including entire sections focused on diversity and inclusion, sourced from universities around the country.
These are just a few ideas to get a conversation started – no blog post on planning for and nurturing diverse classroom environments and students could be exhaustive! So if you have suggestions, ideas, or tried-and-true techniques from your own experiences, please share them with everyone in the comments.
Kaitlin Stack Whitney is an insect ecologist and PhD candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is currently a visiting scientist at the Rochester Institute for Technology, which is home to the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, and the proud mother of a toddler who is Deaf and loves bugs. You can reach her at whitney3@nullwisc.edu or on Twitter @KStackWhitney.