Developing Culturally Responsive Facilitation for Intersectional Advocacy in the Geosciences

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Thursday 1:45 pm Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: CERECG SIG Round Table 4: Intersectionality in STEM Education (Table 7)

Abstract

Identity-motivated discrimination and exclusionary behaviors are recognized problems in STEM fields. [PROJECT] is an initiative informed by intersectionality and ethics of care that aims to confront these problems through an educational workshop series. We conducted a series of interviews and focus groups with facilitators (geoscience / STEM faculty and university-affiliated research professionals) who have participated in our Train the Trainers programming to explore motivations for joining and staying involved, and their learning about identity and structural inequities. We developed a facilitator readiness tool for self-reflection about key capacities and knowledge necessary to engage in interventions that disrupt whiteness and reframe the scope of ethical responsibility assumed by professors and other leaders in STEM labs and departments.

Authors

• Allison Mattheis, California State University - Los Angeles

• Crystal Ramirez, California State University - Los Angeles

• Maria Elena Orduña-Alegria, Oregon State University

• Erika Marin-Spiotta, University of Wisconsin - Madison

• Blair Schneider, University of Kansas