Training – Aims
Aim 1. Receive yearly training on teaching practices that promote success of URM students
- Work with the UO Center on Diversity and Community (CoDaC, https://inclusion.uoregon.edu/content/center-diversity-and-community) to learn how to discuss bias in science in a sensitive and thoughtful manner.
- Additional workshops available through the UO Teaching Engagement Program (https://tep.uoregon.edu/past-workshops-events) and nationally through (https://www.facultydiversity.org/courses).
- NIH-based modules on implicit bias also available: https://diversity.nih.gov/programs-partnerships
Aim 2. Adopt teaching strategies that better support URM student learning
- Include a diversity statement in course syllabi to call attention to issues of bias in science, to make it clear that bias of any kind will not be tolerated in the classroom, and to provide instructions for anonymously reporting instances of bias in the classroom.
- Be aware of the challenges students from historically excluded groups have experienced during secondary education and seek to diminish these challenges in their UO learning environment
- Recent report on inclusive learning in Oregon: https://www.klcc.org/post/were-scared-need-inclusive-school-curriculums-oregon
- Research indicates that students from URM backgrounds show stronger performance in active learning environments compared to traditional teaching styles (10.1187/cbe.16-12-0344). Educators should embrace a diversity of teaching strategies to support a wider range of learning styles. Work with the Teaching Engagement Program at UO to develop a curriculum that engages and values every student (https://tep.uoregon.edu/inclusion-class-climate).
- Work with the UO Accessible Education Center (https://aec.uoregon.edu/) to ensure that all course instruction is accessible to disabled individuals. For example, do not adhere to strict attendance policies or laptop bans that may disproportionately impact disabled students. See: https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/creating-accessible-learning-environments/ for more information.
- Consider incorporating Universal Design for Learning to proactively accommodate students with diverse learning styles and challenges. See: https://aec.uoregon.edu/faculty-resource-universal-design-learning
- To gain an understanding of perceived belonging in STEM, modify course evaluation forms to include questions about enthusiasm towards the course topic as a career path pre- and post- class.
- Promote accessibility to low-income students, encouraging adoption of open-source textbooks, or textbooks that can be loaned.
- Be mindful of who authored the texts used in your classroom and be prepared to modify your choices accordingly or directly address these issues with your class. Do they have a history of racist or sexist behavior (https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/dna-pioneer-james-watson-loses-honorary-titles-over-racist-comments-180971266/)?
- Advocate for broad accessibility of online learning: from simple steps like including captions on remote class videos, to making class notes available to students. Closed captioning can be done easily in zoom or powerpoint.
- Make known the various opportunities for tutoring that exist on campus (provide links in your syllabus) and encourage students to use these resources. Asking for help is not a weakness!
Aim 3. Develop curriculum that highlights the research of URM scientists
- Promote visibility of URM scientists in lectures by citing relevant science and including pictures of these individuals
- Databases of researchers (mostly courtesy of the Concrete Steps document):
- Black Neuroscience PIs
- URMS in Computational Cognitive Science
- URMS in Computational Neuroscience and Psychiatry
- Women in Neuroscience
- SPARK Society Scholars of Color Database (Cognitive Science)
- #BlackInChem Twitter List
- Anne’s List (women in systems neuroscience)
- http://crosstalk.cell.com/blog/100-inspiring-black-scientists-in-america
- https://www.blackinneuro.com/profiles
- https://prideinstem.org/out-thinkers/
- #DisabledinSTEM, #PhDisabled, #AutisticsInAcademia, and #DocsWithDisabilities, #AcademicAbleism (Disability in Science)
- Database for minority cancer researchers (AACR)
- Minority Immunologists (AAI)
- Essay series entitled “Voices” in Molecular Biology of the Cell that features perspectives from historically excluded demographics https://www.molbiolcell.org/doi/10.1091/mbc.E20-08-0514
- Skype a scientist: invite URM colleagues to give guest lectures for courses to highlight diverse voices in STEM
- List of famous scientists (deceased) with disabilities:
- Databases of researchers (mostly courtesy of the Concrete Steps document):
Aim 4. Talk explicitly about injustices in our field, and ways to combat these issues
- Discuss how racism has influenced the interpretation and progression of the course subject area, for example:
- Phrenology (https://muse.jhu.edu/article/647919)
- The myth of race (https://news.cornell.edu/stories/2017/11/myth-race-still-embedded-scientific-research-scholar-says)
- Bias in AI (https://time.com/5520558/artificial-intelligence-racial-gender-bias/
- lack of BIPOC representation in clinical trials (https://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2016/06/why-are-health-studies-so-white/487046/)
- Discuss how racism has allowed science to exploit URM groups, for example:
- Discuss how sexism has underestimated the contribution of women scientists to important discoveries
- Rosalind Franklin and others (https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/5/130519-women-scientists-overlooked-dna-history-science/ ; https://www.biography.com/scientist/mary-winston-jackson)
- Picture a scientist film (soon to be available for streaming)
- https://www.pictureascientist.com/
- Discuss how ableism has shaped lines of scientific inquiry
- Eugenics movements (throughout history and contemporary)
- Whenever relevant, discuss how intersectionality enhances these issues, for example:
- High levels of port-partum mortality in for women BIPOC https://www.cdc.gov/media/releases/2019/p0905-racial-ethnic-disparities-pregnancy-deaths.html
- Ways to address these issues (make amends)
- Give acknowledgment to land ownership in presentations (guidelines here)
- Make space in the classroom environment for processing current events centered on racial violence or other actions against marginalized people, either by allowing for discussion or adjusting the schedule to accommodate the emotional states of students in the aftermath of an extrajudicial killing, an election result, or other such incidents. Think ahead to how you might accommodate this in the Zoom classroom, such as breakout rooms, asynchronous options, extra credit reflection assignments, etc.
- Continued discussion (fight complacency)
- Land acknowledgment resources:
- Including information about the province of this territory in presentations, lectures, and publications generated by academic activities at the University of Oregon is a straightforward way to acknowledge the original occupants of the land we live and work on. Statements can be as brief as noting the name or names of the displaced tribal community/ies, for example listing “Kalapuya Ilihi” in place of (or in addition to) ‘Eugene, OR’ as a location in a Bio, or adding “The University of Oregon is located on the traditional homeland of the Kalapuya people” to slides and documents. If desired, the acknowledgment can be expanded to include further details of the forcible removal of Indigenous peoples and their continued presence in the area . The UO and OSU libraries both have web resources discussing Indigineous peoples of Oregon whose territories we now occupy:
- Additionally the UO ethnic studies department has a page devoted to land acknowledgments: https://ethnicstudies.uoregon.edu/people/about-ethnic-studies/honoring-native-peoples-and-lands