Nature in the Eye of the Beholder: A Case Study for Cultural Humility as a Strategy to Broaden Participation in STEM

Abstract

Science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) disciplines suffer from chronically low participation of women and underrepresented minorities. Diversity enhancement initiatives frequently attempt to mitigate skill deficits such as math skills in an attempt to improve preparedness of these students. However, such interventions do not address cultural or social barriers that contribute to the isolation and marginalization that discourage continued participation in STEM. Science exists and is developed within social constructs.; because of this, cultural conflicts can occur pertaining to contrasting cultural belief systems between educators and students, or to socially-biased perspectives that are embedded in disciplinary values. These conflicts are implicated in the low recruitment and retention of underrepresented students in STEM. To address the relationship between culture and STEM diversity, I present a case study that examines the role of culturally-biased views of nature on the lack of diverse participation in ecology and environmental biology. I conclude by advocating the use of inclusive, culturally-sensitive teaching practices that can improve the climate for underrepresented students and increase diverse recruitment and retention in STEM.

Promoting inclusion in ecological field experiences: Examining and overcoming barriers to a professional rite of passage

“…Cultural competence training for field instructors and students could be a promising way to create inclusive environments and create a sense of belonging to a team during the field experience (Halliwell et al 2020). Setting expectations in advance can foster inclusivity by helping everyone appreciate that individual and collective identities influence learning experiences and promote the recognition that there is a demographic skewness that exists in higher education and that favors white, middle‐, and upper‐class people (Miriti 2019).…”

Overcoming Blind Spots to Promote Environmental Justice Research

“…Although ecologists have recognized persistent lack of human diversity within the discipline, the relationship between racial inequalities and environmental injustices is a blind spot for many. To some extent, blind spots persist from the complex disciplinary history regarding human dynamics in the study of nature (Box 1), which itself informs disciplinary biases impacting training and research emphases [5]. Broadly speaking, priorities of the scientific academy are influenced by social processes that impact society via two important pathways.…”

“…Aerial habitats are becoming increasingly fragmented [e.g., by skyscrapers, communication towers, power lines, wind farms, aircraft, and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs)] and polluted (e.g., by contaminants, noise, and light) [1][2][3][4][5]. Under this scenario, the global lockdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic has represented a remarkable and unique experiment, recently named 'anthropause' (see Glossary).…”

Introduction to Special Issue on Increasing Participation in Higher Education STEM Programs

“…Finally, structures of exclusion can include conventions in how we define core concepts in our disciplines. Maria Miriti challenged the concept of nature in ecology and environmental education-arguably one of the most important disciplinary concepts-and makes a case that this racializes these disciplines in ways that cannot be welcoming and sustaining for students who are racially and economically underrepresented in these disciplines [8]. Miriti also responded to processes of racial and ethnic exclusion in ecology and environmental sciences, but by taking on the broadest epistemological issues in her field of ecology, the problematic definition of nature as "remote and pristine with little influence from human activity," devalues experiences of nature in urban areas and is scientifically unfounded.…”