Supporting physics educators who want to be better prepared to address Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) within a physics classroom context.
Purpose
This program developed a cohort of physics with training and mentoring from our social science and senior physicist team to offer workshops to translate social science concepts into content that physics educators can implement to more effectively intervene when microaggressions, insults, and similar occurrences happen in their classrooms. This program was originally funded by an American Physical Society (APS) Innovation Fund grant.
The Curriculum Development Team
The Curriculum Development Team (CDT) consists of two social scientists, Dr. Peggy O’Neill (Smith College) and Dr. Sharon Jones (Wake Forest University), and two senior physicist, Dr. Martha-Elizabeth Baylor (Carleton College) and Dr. Jesús Pando (DePaul University) who train physics educators who become EDI Fellows. Dr. O’Neil has a social work background and has expertise in Critical Conversations in a classroom context. Dr. Jones has expertise in cultural competency and has provided EDI training in a variety of academic contexts. Dr. Baylor and Dr. Pando are physics educators who have a passion and lots of experience discussing EDI in their physics classrooms and in the physics community more broadly. The CDT works to translate foundational social science concepts into language that physics educators can understand and apply in their classrooms to improve the climate and engagement of all students in their classrooms, particularly in addressing when microaggressions, insults, and similar occur that disproportionally impact students whose sociocultural identities are marginalized in physics..
The Fellows
Through a competitive application process, the CDT selected a cohort of 6 Fellows to work closely with the CDT to build their capacity for cultural competency and critical conversations. They also developed a 3-hour workshop that was piloted 6 times with select audiences to iteratively improve the workshop so that it could be maximally effective in supporting physics educators. Over the two-year duration of the grant, engaged in significant virtual and in-person community building activities with the CDT and other Fellows, participated in virtual monthly training and/or workshop development meetings, attended two in-person intensive training and workshop development meetings, co-facilitated the workshop with one of the social scientists, and received stipends to support the time and effort they spent on this project.
The Reception
Here are quotes from workshop participants:
"I used ideas from the workshop on facilitating critical conversations the very next semester I taught, in a course on Identities in STEM. I felt far more confident in my ability to address potentially difficult or emotional situations. Being up front with my students about the possibility that difficult conversations could arise -- and that we had a response plan in place -- encouraged psychological safety in our classroom." - Amy Lytle, James Madison University
"In my experience, a salient limitation of my effectiveness in the classroom regarding DEI issues is a lack of self-awareness of how I present to others, including the biases and assumptions that can remain implicit. These workshops provide practical techniques to uncover those assumptions and implement better responses using realistic examples." - Chris West, Macalester College
Here is an APS News article about the program and its impact on the Fellows: It’s Hard to Talk About Inclusion in Physics Classrooms. Meet the Physicists Making Inroads.
Want to Get Involved?
Is your department, program, or organization interested in hosting a workshop? Please send us an email. If you are interested in general updates, please subscribe to our newsletter using the form below.
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Interested in Being a Fellow?
We will be applying for a future grant and want to know whether you would be able to apply to be a Fellow under the current criteria (available here and in the linked form below). Your feedback will help us decide which criteria we may want to revise.
Give us feedback on the current eligibility criterion using this anonymous google form.
