T158 Intention Is Not Enough: Real-life Power Imbalances in the History of Geosciences and Possible Futurities

Tuesday, 24 September 2024
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
208A

IN PURSUIT OF EQUITY: A TA’S AUTOETHNOGRAPHIC REFLECTION ON FAILED RECRUITMENT OF STUDENT PARTICIPANTS FROM A LARGE-LECTURE ACTIVE-LEARNING GEOSCIENCE COURSE

Paper number: T158-10
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 10:05 AM – 10:20 AM

Authors

Abstract

The climate crisis is upon us, and recruiting students to the geosciences is now more pressing than ever. With structural inequalities positioning communities of color to be disproportionately affected by the climate crisis (EPA, 2021; Smith et al., 2022), it is becoming more and more vital to involve individuals who identify as races / ethnicities who have historically been underrepresented in the geosciences in the science and decision-making process related to climate policy in order to help guide equitable solutions. Though there have been recent gains in regard to the Latinx population (Beane et al., 2021), there is well-documented underrepresentation in the geosciences of people from races / ethnicities that have traditionally been minoritized in STEM (e.g., Bernard & Cooperdock, 2018; Wilson, 2019). This overarching issue of slow progress toward recruiting people of color into the geosciences is a pivotal aspect of the TA’s research.

This study takes an introspective, autoethnographic (AE) dive into a Teaching Assistant’s (TA) interactions with a large-lecture active-learning geoscience course. After failing to recruit students from this course who belong to races / ethnicities who have traditionally been underrepresented in the geosciences for a research study, the TA reflects on the sociocultural influences and power dynamics that guide interactions in a Southeastern, U.S. college classroom. Crucially, the AE examines the TA’s self, positionalities, and their biases in a reflective assessment of their interactions with the course by leveraging the SocioTransformative Constructivism (sTc) framework (Rodriguez, 1998; Rodriguez & Morrison, 2019). The sTc is used to critically examine the sociocultural power dynamics and student agency as observed by the TA, and aligns well not only with the active-learning approach by the instructor, but also with the values and efforts of the TA. As such, the course atmosphere and interactions with students will be illustrated with narratives of engagement utilizing the reflexivity aspect of sTc and a growth-mindset approach. Critically, the TA explores the connections between their experiences, failed recruitment of this specific population to the research study, and the broader, documented phenomena of underrepresentation of people of color in the geosciences despite the community’s efforts towards inclusivity.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 56, No. 5

doi: 10.1130/abs/2024AM-405138

© Copyright 2024 The Geological Society of America (GSA), all rights reserved. Permission is hereby granted to the author(s) of this abstract to reproduce and distribute it freely, for noncommercial purposes. Permission is hereby granted to any individual scientist to download a single copy of this electronic file and reproduce up to 20 paper copies for noncommercial purposes advancing science and education, including classroom use, providing all reproductions include the complete content shown here, including the author information. All other forms of reproduction and/or transmittal are prohibited without written permission from GSA Copyright Permissions.