Seemingly fair practices which disadvantage women of color in science

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Seemingly fair practices which disadvantage women
of color in science

• American Association of Physics Teachers
• 14 February 2009

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• To download this presentation and some of the
  papers it is based on
• Faculty.smcm.edu/acjohnson/aapt

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1995-2004 average science grads
Data from www.nsf.gov/statistics, retrieved 12
February 2009 Raw data is at faculty.smcm.edu/acjo
hnson/aapt
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1995-2004 average physics grads
Data from www.nsf.gov/statistics, retrieved 12
February 2009 Raw data is at faculty.smcm.edu/acjo
hnson/aapt
5
1995-2004 average science grads
Data from www.nsf.gov/statistics, retrieved 12
February 2009 Raw data is at faculty.smcm.edu/acjo
hnson/aapt
9
6
1995-2004 average physics grads
Data from www.nsf.gov/statistics, retrieved 12
February 2009 Raw data is at faculty.smcm.edu/acjo
hnson/aapt
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Seemingly neutral conditions

• Seymour Hewitt (1997), Talking About Leaving
• 350 well-prepared students, 7 institutions
  across the country
• Some stayed in science, some left
• All reported similar conditions

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Seemingly neutral conditions

• Hard classes
• Bad teaching
• Competition
• Fast pace
• Heavy work loads
• Unsupportive culture

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Seemingly neutral conditions

• Masculine skill rising to a challenge, without
  nurture
• Most women we encountered had entered college at
  a peak of self-confidence, based on good high
  school performances, good or adequate SAT scores
  and a great deal of encouragement and praise from
  high school teachers, family and friends
  (255-256).

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Seemingly neutral conditions

• in treating male and female students alike,
  faculty are, in effect, treating women in ways
  that are understood by the men, but not by the
  women (260).

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My study

• Setting Large Research I university, 85 white
• Participants 6 Black women, 7 Latinas, 3
  American Indians, 4 Asian/Pacific Islanders
• Academic preparation comparable to other science
  majors

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Data

• 12 formal interviews
• Participant observation in classes and labs (gen
  chem, honors chem, physics, environmental bio,
  molecular bio, o chem, plant anatomy, human
  anatomy)

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Data analysis

• Searched for patterns of behavior and experiences
• Generated assertions
• Checked assertions against new data
• Presented findings to participants

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Findings

• 3 discouraging practices in science classes
• Large lecture classes
• Asking and answering questions in class
• Engaging in research

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Findings

• Two discouraging cultural values
• Focus on decontextualized science
• Presentation of science as meritocratic, raceless
  and genderless

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Large lecture classes

• The women
• Wanted to get to know professors
• (Many) came from urban or rural schools where
  they were cherished
• Found lectures alienating felt conspicuous but
  also invisible

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• It was a shock, literally a shock walking into
  my first class and seeing the teacher down there
  with the microphone, and seeing him like put up
  the screen on this hugeI mean, its bigger than
  our little theater in our town, Im just like oh
  my god, you know, I mean it was huge, and I just
  couldnt adjust to that.

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• And I couldnt adjust to the fact that I
  couldnt talk to this teacher, you know,
  face-to-face. One, I didnt have the time, and
  then they didnt have the time. Because they
  were always doing other things, and they had like
  five hundred students in the first class, so its
  just like, they cant take that much time just
  for you, you know.
• --American Indian woman, molecular biology major,
  now a pharmacist

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• Alexis was in cell biology with us that year.
  And towards the last exam, Alexis and I went to
  go talk to the professor who was teachinghes a
  really good teacher. He said strange, I dont
  recognize you guys from my class. Do you sit in
  the back? And in retrospect, I was like Dang!
  How could he miss us?? Me, Alexis and Derartu
  were the only Black people in the whole class!
  I was like do you not look up? I dont know.
  Next time well sit on your little podium.

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• Even though, you know, maybe he didnt
  recognize us legitimately, OK? Theres like
  three hundred people to stare at every day for
  six months or whatever. But still, I still just
  felt like not involved in the class, you know?
  Just kind of like a spectator of the class, like
  Im not really a part of the learning process,
  Im just kind of watching and hopefully getting a
  good grade.
• --Black woman, molecular biology major, now MPH,
  working for international womens health
  organization

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Asking and answering questions

• Common tactic of professors
• Seems laudable
• Good way to be recognized by professors
• Some students take advantage of it more than
  others
• White men answered, white women asked, women of
  color were silent

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Asking and answering questions

• Socialized as women not to draw attention
• Felt conspicuous
• Feared they alone, out of 250 students, were
  confused
• All students seemed to have this opportunity but
  only some took it

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• Like the classes were, you know, theres a
  select few over-achievers who laugh at all the
  jokes, who ask questions, who ask the challenge
  the professor questions, who probably clone
  genes at home, I dont knowits like those
  select few and the professor, and everybody else
  is just either asleep or just scribing every word
  they can get. And thats just what I felt
  likethe class is just following along, and Im
  just sort of like along for the ride.
• --Black molecular biology major

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Doing research

• Some women in this study had outstanding
  experiences
• Some had spectacularly bad experiences

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• It was just all this work on trying to find out
  using DNA sequencing if some species were
  related, and how closely they were related. It
  was just learninglearning about things that you
  cant see by using things that you can see.
  After I graduate, I want to come back and do a
  doctorate, probably in genetics, some kind of
  genetics. And then I want to do research. I
  just find it fascinating! Youre always
  learning! Thats what I likeI like learning.
  Finding things out.
• --Latina molecular biology major, now a
  PhD-holding research scientist

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• I did research my freshmen year in an
  environmental biology lab and it was sooooo
  boring to me. I was looking into a microscope
  3-4 hours a day looking at fungi. How fun is
  that? I would go to the professor in charge of
  the lab with intent of getting course advice or
  help as far as what else my biology degree would
  get me. I was expecting a mentor, but that didn't
  happen. Also one of his grad students accused me
  of stealing his favorite pen, which ended up
  being in his lab pocket the whole time and he
  eventually apologized. That is why I switched my
  major.
• -Latina kinesiology major, MPH, pursuing PhD in
  environmental toxicology

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Research Mixed results

• Intimate spaces, close contacts with professors
• Some labs let women express their interest in
  science
• Other labs amplified womens feelings of
  alienation and difference

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Decontextualized science

• Lectures and labs focused on minutiae of science
• Seldom gave a big picture
• Seldom talked about why information was
  interesting
• just pouring information at you in a sort of
  condescending way

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Decontextualized science

• Reasons women in the study liked science
• Its interesting
• Means to a health career
• Interested in the human body
• Felt slighted or alienated when these motivations
  were not acknowledged

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Decontextualized science

• Professors centered interactions around science,
  not around students

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• Some science professors only look to the science
  aspects, theyre only into the intellectual
  thing. I guess they have to be if theyre
  teaching that, butI cannot expect them to be
  open-minded about different things, like your
  life, when you do get advice from them. Many
  people are just like OK, this is the career,
  this very intellectual, Ph.D., Masters, that
  kind of thing. I think they should ask the
  question like what do you want to do? What
  makes you happy?
• --Asian American molecular biology major,
  completed PhD in biomedical sciences, now in
  medical school

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• Merima Whenever I go talk to molecular biology
  professors, they make me feel, I dont knowhes
  a nice teacher, but they make me feel stupid.
  Chris Monica Uh-huh. I couldnt even
  divide ten thousand by tenI was so nervous. One
  time he said did you understand what I just
  said? I said uh-huh, so he said repeat in
  your own words, and I couldnt.

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• Angela What are they doing that makes you feel
  stupid?
• Monica They put you on the spot.
• Merima And theyre not too friendly. If you
  dont know the answer, they just wait.
• Chris Its like they expect you to know the
  answer. And then, if you dont, they just wait.
  They dont tell you the answer.
• Merima And I can tell you a lot of molecular
  biology students feel like this. Its not just
  me or Chris.

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Meritocracy

• Belief that success in science comes only from
  talent
• Well-intentioned belief, but
• Made some of the women feel like special cases,
  even more different

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• I was doing my report on Graves Disease a
  couple weeks ago. Theres different genes
  related to Graves Disease, for different
  ethnicities, and for a long time, they were like
  OK, its just this one gene, but it was only
  found with white people. And I thought that was
  really interesting. But then in my presentation,
  I was like should I mention the part about
  African Americans having a different gene? And
  women get affected a lot more. And I thought
  damn, thats kind of messed up, that I should
  re-think presentingits as normal to the disease
  as its symptoms, know what Im saying? But
  still, I sort of felt damn, should I not mention
  that?
• --Black molecular biology major

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• In a class where theres me and then like one or
  two other people of color, we all seem to stick
  together, and somehow we all end up being lab
  partners, or something like that. Some people
  may feel like theyre being left out, or they
  cant interact with the white people in the
  class, or something like that, because it seems
  like whenever Im sitting there and its time to
  pick your lab partner, whoever else is the
  minority in the classroom will come and find me.
  Most of my lab partners have been minorities.
• --Latina molecular biology major, now pursuing
  PhD in the biomedical sciences

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Meritocracy

• Made race and gender patterns seem like personal
  choices
• Obscured common reasons women of color studied
  science

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Conclusions

• Women in this study faced the same difficulties
  all science students faced
• Weed-out courses
• Multiple choice exams
• Inaccessible professors

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Conclusions

• They also faced unique difficulties
• Felt conspicuous
• Didnt like to draw attention
• Felt conflicted between their altruism their
  professors decontextualized science
• Interpreted decontextualization as hostility or
  lack of caring
• Were skeptical of claims about meritocracy

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Difficulties came from

• Pragmatism (big classes)
• Good intentions (asking and answering questions
  in class, taking on research assistants)

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Success in these settings required

• Comfort with attention
• Knowledge of how to succeed in an unsupportive
  environment
• Comfort with personal interactions centered on
  information, not relationship
• Race- and gender-blindness

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But the setting seemed fair

• Because rhetoric of meritocracy obscured racial
  and gendered patterns
• Both the women in the study professors
  explained womens non-participation in individual
  terms--lack of interest, lack of preparation,
  lack of ability

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Some solutions

• Recognize that science has a culture which
  certain types of students may not be familiar
  with
• Occasionally put science in context
• Establish rapport with students during office
  hours or research
• Mention race gender where they make sense

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For more info

• You can find the NSF raw data and other
  information at
• Faculty.smcm.edu/acjohnson/aapt
• Contact me at
• acjohnson_at_smcm.edu