You mentioned that “efforts in creating inclusive environment have positive academic and health effects for students who have been traditionally marginalized in the educational setting.” I decided to find out more about health effects. Syracuse University’s Counseling Center provides information about the negative health effects that can impact marginalized students. According to its website, “Marginalization can have a negative impact on students’ psychological, emotional and physical health” (SU, n.d.). “Some possible psychological and emotional responses to marginalization include:
• Anger
• Anxiety
• Paranoia
• Fear
• Depression
• Self-blame
• Sadness
• Frustration
• Hopelessness
• Resentment
• Powerlessness
• Self-Doubt
• Isolation
• Stress
• Confusion
• Feeling invisible or not heard” (SU, n.d.).

Syracuse University (SU) Counseling Center. (n.d.) Impact of Marginalization. Retrieved from http://counselingcenter.syr.edu/social-justice/impact-of-marginalization.html

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Thanks for the post. It was kind of a wake up call because I do often talk about how glad I am that we can avoid some of those “uncomfortable conversations” in STEM. But you’re right, just because we aren’t talking about those issues in our classes doesn’t mean they don’t exist. I feel like my field has been changing and, for the most part, I think women are becoming bigger players in the field, and particularly in management. I’m a civil engineer and at my last office, I would say at least half, if not more, of the management positions of our office we’re held by women. It wasn’t that way for the overall staff, but management was fairly evenly split. I’m sorry your field hasn’t gotten there yet. It does stink to have people tell you to just wait out the change because that really isn’t a solution that does you any good. The best thing to do is put yourself in a position of as much influence as you can and do your best to be a positive influence and to recruit others to support you on the way. Is that very helpful advice, probably not, but the inertia of workplace demographic change is annoyingly huge. Having read your post, I think you just speaking out about the way things are is making a difference though. I think there are a lot of us who just don’t notice issues like you mention because we’re just lost in our own thoughts until someone gives us a wake up call. I think there are plenty of males and females alike in your field that would support your message if someone reaches out to make them more aware. I know I appreciated the reminder.

The brave space idea sounds great. Like Erin said, I think there is definitely a benefit to having “safe spaces” somewhere but I don’t think classrooms or even public spaces on campus are those places. We need classrooms to be places for open discussion and places to come together and learn, even from opinions we don’t like. We don’t learn from hearing only things that are comfortable. That doesn’t mean classrooms should become “rude” spaces or “hateful” spaces, but it does mean that we need to be brave enough to express our opinions and then to be quiet and listen when others express theirs. I still think it’s great that several professors have offered their offices as safe spaces and I think that you can do things to make the places you’re in be safe spaces. I just think that we should truly be pushing for inclusivity and diversity for all voices, not just for kicking out the voices we don’t like until we’re comfortable with the voices that are left. We’ll never progress that way.

Interesting post and comment. I think it’s good to recognize bias but if all we do is say, “wow, I sure am biased,” or even, “wow, those people are all biased,” we are only doing half the exercise. We need to accept that ALL people (including ourselves) have biases. Frankly, having them doesn’t necessarily mean we are evil. No matter how or where you were raised, you end up thinking certain ways about certain things. The trick is to recognize bias and overcome it anyway. Like Erin said, you respect people in spite of bias and then you do your best to keep an open mind and allow your opinions to change or at least allow yourself to accept there may be things you don’t know or may have misunderstood. And hopefully, as we all change together we can truly be more inclusive. Thanks for the post. Glad to know the Stormtroopers figured it out eventually.

You make so many important points here, Rom, starting with the realization that inclusive pedagogy is relevant to all subjects — even something as abstract as math! I really like your suggestion that as instructors we do what we can to mitigate the stigma of “not knowing the answer.” By not setting ourselves up as infallible oracles of truth (or at least the correct answer) and by recognizing that everyone learns from their mistakes I think we can do a lot to help different kinds of learners. Also, I’m really glad that the Whistling Vivaldi excerpts resonated with you.

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The piece of embedded racism that I recently came to understand better is how the history of the United States was taught to us. We were given this narrative of progress being made by the Europeans who settled here, and everything that stood in their way was a challenge. Or, the picture that has been painted of the South during the Antebellum as some glorious good o’l time. Want something more recent? I think of how civil rights moment is portrayed as having solved race issues with the passage of some legislation like the Civil Rights Act. It made me felt lied to, realizing what I grew up believing was a grossly distorted view. To apply this to my practice as an educator, it underlines the importance of hearing all the sides of a story/issue. Just because it was what you were told all your life doesn’t make it the most true.

Whoops, not trying to remain anonymous.

There is a lot to unpack in this post. I do believe the white male domination in science is slowly changing. The issue is we are waiting for them all to retire and end their boy’s club. I remember Dean DePauw mentioned that there is still a significant gap between pay men and women, but it continues to shrink as they phase out. It is easy for me to say, just speak your mind and bring that uncomfortable subject to bear. Easy to say as a white male, and in theory. Because it is easier said than done. I do believe though it is appropriate to speak up. We have to effect the change and say these things are not right. Although it sounds like the processes put in place to protect people aren’t having the desired effect, and it is hard to speak up when all you get is moral victory for doing so.

Realizing that we have to take that moment and put ourselves in someone else’s place requires work and thinking. It is so much easier to make it all about yourself. It’s a shortcut, like our biases. Okay, I can’t substantiate that claim, but it sounds right. I know I am guilty of it, because it is a hard thing to do. I like the theme of your post. We have to consider others. Unfortunately, it seems that we don’t nor want to take time to consider things in the eyes of others. What you suggest in empathizing with out students has been a struggle to try, because I easily fall into my biases of thinking underachieving students are being lazy. It is difficult to start flat out believing student’s and realizing their is more to their life than this class; but, like you say, it’s a good start.

Thanks for your post. I totally agree that diversity brings many benefits, such as inspiring creativity and improving the productivity, but as you mentioned, it has its own challenges, too. Sometimes prejudice or negative cultural stereotypes make it hard for some members to communicate with others and let their voices be heard. Hence, in order to get the most out of the existence of diversity in the society, we first need to learn how to face these challenges. This is something I am really looking forward to learn.