Strategies for Increasing Diversity in the Ocean Science Workforce Through Mentoring

Johnson, Ashanti; Huggans, Melanie J.; Siegfried, David; Braxton, L.

doi:10.5670/oceanog.2016.11

Cited by 15 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 20 publications

(32 reference statements)

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“…Mentoring people from marginalised groups in ocean sciences has been shown to improve their retention (Johnson et al, 2016;Mouw et al, 2018), but more solutions are needed. The alarming reported state of mental health calls for improving access to free or affordable professional help and organising a network of support within the field with safe, anonymous ways to share stories and report abusers.…”

Section: Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Being ECR in marine science: Results of a survey among early-career marine scientists and conservationists

Osiecka

Wróbel

Hendricks³

et al. 2022

Front. Mar. Sci.

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Ocean research and conservation are still largely exclusive fields, with ongoing issues of racial, gender, class, and geographic underrepresentation. To improve accessibility and retention within these fields, we need to create equitable, just, and welcoming study and work environments. It is therefore crucial to listen to the voices of students and early career ocean professionals (ECOP). We conducted an online survey on the study- and workplace experiences of ECOP, focusing on social obstacles, such as economic strain, unpaid work, and workplace discrimination and abuse. Strong economic barriers to education access were evident in certain geographic areas. Almost half of the reported work time in the field was uncompensated, yet unpaid work rarely translated into career advancement and was often associated with workplace abuse. Dissatisfaction and burn-out rates at the earliest career stages were alarming, and experienced hardship and mental health issues were particularly dire for women and non-binary persons. While most respondents were white and from the global north, meaning the results may not reflect experiences of ECOP in other regions, this study highlights some of the barriers to equity as well as work ethics issues that should be urgently addressed within the field.

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Section: Recommendationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Being ECR in marine science: Results of a survey among early-career marine scientists and conservationists

Osiecka

Wróbel

Hendricks³

et al. 2022

Front. Mar. Sci.

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“…Each society's program has a unique flavor, but common to all are mentors who help students navigate scientific sessions, career mixers, and other networking events. These initiatives have succeeded in attracting and retaining scientists with diverse identities to careers in ocean and aquatic sciences and receive high marks from past mentees as being crucial to their professional development and persistence in STEM (Cuker et al 2016;Johnson et al 2016).…”

Section: A Mismatch Between Coastal Communities and Coastal Scientistsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite widespread recognition that increasing the participation of Black, Hispanic and Latino, and Indigenous peoples in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is essential to sustaining our capacity for innovation and discovery, STEM degree programs and occupations in the United States (National Research Council 2011;National Science Foundation 2019) and globally (e.g., Delaine et al 2016) continue to lack demographic diversity. This fact is also true in the coastal, estuarine, and ocean sciences, where a gap persists between the number of marine-discipline graduate degrees granted and degree attainment by racial and ethnic populations that remain underrepresented in these fields (Garza 2015;Johnson et al 2016). According to data from the Integrated Post-Secondary Education Data System (IPEDS), Black or African American degree completion (combined undergraduate and graduate) in marine science at United States (USA) institutions is low and flat-lined, generally at 1% (or less) of the total number of marine science degrees granted between 2010 and 2019 (U.S. Department of Education 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Socio-ecological Imperative for Broadening Participation in Coastal and Estuarine Research and Management

Harris

Grayson

Neckles

et al. 2021

Estuaries and Coasts

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For most of the scientific disciplines associated with coastal and estuarine research, workforce representation does not match the demographics of communities we serve, especially for Black, Hispanic or Latino, and Indigenous peoples. This essay provides an overview of this inequity and identifies how a scientific society can catalyze representational, structural, and interactional diversity to achieve greater inclusion. Needed changes go beyond representational diversity and require an intentional commitment to build capacity through inclusivity and community engagement by supporting anti-racist policies and actions. We want to realize a sense of belonging on the part of scientists in society at large and enable research pursuits through a lens of social justice in service of coastal communities. Minimally, this framework offers an avenue for increased recruitment of individuals from more diverse racial and ethnic identities. More broadly, the mechanisms described here aim to create a culture in scientific societies in which social justice, driven by anti-racist actions, produces systemic change in how members of scientific societies approach, discuss, and address issues of inequity. We have written this essay for members of the coastal and marine science community who are interested in change. We aim to call in new voices, allies, and champions to this work.

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“…Diversity promotes innovation, strengthens the community's ability to tackle complex geoscience research problems, and engenders widespread public literacy about the Earth system, science, and services (Russell et al 2007;NRC, 2011NRC, , 2012Thiry et al, 2012;Atchison and Gilley, 2015). Prior investments designed to broaden participation have mostly focused on recruitment of individuals from historically excluded groups into the geosciences (Gilligan and Ebanks, 2016;Johnson et al, 2016), but not on issues related to retention and success (Starks and Mattheaus, 2018). A lack of a sense of belonging, racism, sexism, cultural differences, and imposter syndrome are a few of the many barriers that prevent people from fully participating in geosciences and other STEM disciplines (Anderson and Kim, 2006;NASEM, 2016).…”

Section: Understanding the Be A Jedi Baselinementioning

confidence: 99%

Changing the Culture of Coastal, Ocean, and Marine Sciences: Strategies for Individual and Collective Actions

Behl¹,

Cooper²,

Garza³

et al. 2021

Oceanog

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Geoscience is plagued with structural and systemic barriers that prevent people of historically excluded groups from fully participating in, contributing to, and accruing the benefits of geosciences. A change in the culture of our learning and working environments is required to dismantle barriers and promote belonging, accessibility, justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in our field. Inspired by a session organized at the 2020 Ocean Sciences Meeting, the goal of this paper is to provide a consolidated summary of a few innovative and broadening participation initiatives that are being led by various stakeholders in academia (e.g., students, faculty, administrative leaders) at different institutional levels (e.g., universities, professional societies). The authors hope that the strategies outlined in this paper will inspire the coastal, ocean, and marine science community to take individual and collective actions that lead to a positive culture change.

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Strategies for Increasing Diversity in the Ocean Science Workforce Through Mentoring

Cited by 15 publications

References 20 publications

Being ECR in marine science: Results of a survey among early-career marine scientists and conservationists

Being ECR in marine science: Results of a survey among early-career marine scientists and conservationists

A Socio-ecological Imperative for Broadening Participation in Coastal and Estuarine Research and Management

Changing the Culture of Coastal, Ocean, and Marine Sciences: Strategies for Individual and Collective Actions

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