一个深思熟虑的、数据驱动的对STEM世界最白色角落的观察
几年前，罗文·洛克伍德（Rowan Lockwood）在她的地质学入门课上把一名学生拉到一边。
Lockwood and other members of William & 玛丽’s Department of Geology have made a practice to single out promising students, make a personal connection and try to cultivate an interest in studying the earth sciences.
“他非常、非常聪明，是个二年级学生。I wasn’t his advisor,” Lockwood said. “但我把他拉到一边，对他说，‘你在这门课上表现得很好——你打算主修什么？’”
他们见了好几次面在这学期。学生的兴趣和田野考察环境科学发展到一定阶段,他报名参加了一个暑期实习。四周后他向洛克伍德报告。
“我不能这么做,”他说。
“为什么不?”洛克伍德问道。“我认为这是你想要什么?”
这名学生解释说，夏天的经历——炎热、出汗、虫子滋生的体力劳动——让他想起了他被奴役的祖先们所忍受的炎热、出汗的体力劳动。
”的原因,他的家人把他送到大学,所以他不会做这样的工作,”洛克伍德解释说。
现任系主任洛克伍德和校长地质学教授希瑟·麦克唐纳共同撰写了《美国地球科学本科生种族多样性的不平衡增长》一书。发表在《自然通讯：地球与环境》杂志上的这篇论文深入研究了20年来的统计数据，记录了在STEM世界中顽固地保持最白人角落实现种族和民族多样性的努力。
“事实证明，地球科学是所有科学中种族和民族多样性最低的，”麦克唐纳说。她补充说，他们的论文的灵感来自于《自然地球科学》之前的一篇文章，该文章揭示了40年来地球科学博士学位在种族和民族多样性方面没有取得任何进展。
“That paper had an incredible effect on the geosciences, and it was perhaps not the positive impetus that the authors intended it to be,” Lockwood said. “很多在JEDI工作过的人——正义、公平、多样性和包容性——都觉得这是一个沉重的打击。直到那时，地球科学界的许多成员才充分意识到，我们已经落后于工程、计算机科学和物理学等其他STEM领域。”
与博士项目相比，洛克伍德、麦克唐纳和他们的合著者发现，美国的本科地学院系做得稍微好一点，但他们都说还有改进的空间。他们的论文指出，从1998年到2018年，有色人种和西班牙裔/拉丁裔学生获得学士学位的比例增加了两倍。
But the paper points out that the lion’s share of that tripling is represented by one racial/ethnic group. The percentage of geoscience graduates identifying as Hispanic/Latinx went from 3 percent in 1998 to 10 percent in 2018. 这一增长超过了整个物理科学领域的西班牙裔/拉丁裔学位（5%至12%），甚至超过了所有学士学位20年来的增长总和。一个亮点是通常由社区大学提供的副学士学位，这标志着更高的多样性，西班牙裔/拉丁裔和有色人种学生的多样性在同一时期增加了3倍。
Lockwood, Macdonald and their co-authors — Rachel J. Beane, of Bowdoin College; 高线学院的埃里克·m·d·贝尔；John R. McDaris, of Carleton College; 亚利桑那州立大学的弗农·r·莫里斯；I. Joshua Villalobos, of El Paso Community College; 和加州大学伯克利分校的Lisa D. White一起，对他们从综合高等教育数据系统中提取的数据的各个方面进行了分析。
例如，他们解释说，西班牙裔/拉丁裔学位集中在服务于这些群体人口较多的地区的机构。Also, native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders were included among Asians before 2008, the same year in which a “two or more races” category was introduced. 这种分类上的变化在某种程度上模糊了情况，但在过去20年里，这些群体的代表性几乎没有增加。
他们的数据还显示，获得地球科学学士学位的黑人人数略有增加。论文所涵盖的20年期间显示，黑人地球科学学士学位上升了一个百分点，从2%上升到3%。而且，正如在拉丁裔毕业生的数据中发现的那样，许多学位都集中在少数几个机构中。
Two-fifths of geoscience programs fail to graduate more than one student from a marginalized group per year. 麦克唐纳说，参加这些项目的学生可能会发现，他们是班里唯一的种族或族裔成员。她补充说，了解在每个机构获得学位的来自边缘种族和民族的地球科学学生的数量是有帮助的，因为这种背景有助于培养学生的归属感和他们对科学项目的坚持。
威廉玛丽学院的地质系只招收本科生，不提供研究生学位。Along with community college departments, such programs function as feeders to various graduate programs as well as the burgeoning job market for geosciences graduates at all levels.
他们的论文讨论了地球科学教育工作者需要提高他们的水平，努力使这个领域更具包容性和欢迎性。
该论文在结论中指出：“我们必须承认学生在地球科学课程学习中采取的各种途径和切入点，并鼓励在所有职业阶段灵活和适应性强的指导。”“我们需要吸引一个包容性的学生群体，使教师多样化，创造无障碍和包容性的学习环境，并确保所有学生都有归属感，并为地球科学领域的学术和职业成功做好准备。”
This paper doesn’t focus on specific recommendations for making progress toward more diverse geoscience departments. 但洛克伍德和麦克唐纳表示，他们正在采取一些具体举措来增加威廉玛丽的多样性，首先是对论文中提到的“各种途径和切入点”采取战略方针。
“Geology is a ‘discovery’ major at college,” Macdonald explained. “A few students come to William & 玛丽 being interested in geology, but most of our majors learn about it by taking one of our introductory courses.”
教师可以通过意识到潜在的不平坦之处，使地球科学对本科生更具吸引力。洛克伍德指出，地球科学涵盖了大量的学科和分支学科。因此，“实地工作”不一定要像“实地工作”，她说。
“Some geologists spend a fair amount of time digging, but most geologists don’t,” Lockwood said.
Lockwood said that her student who found that fieldwork brought on painful associations didn’t completely abandon the environmental sciences: he’s now in one of the country’s top environmental law programs. But she adds that the student’s reaction illustrates the opportunity for geosciences faculty to identify an easily avoided cultural obstacle by putting fieldwork in its proper perspective.
她说：“我认为实地考察是地质部门历来没有意识到的一个障碍。”The opportunity to go out in the field and do geology is a key selling point for many earth science programs, she added, featured in brochures, web pages and discussed in intro classes.
“我们在威廉与玛丽公司所做的是，在佳博体育工作和揭开露营和徒步旅行技能的神秘面纱之间留出同等的时间。因为在现实中，我们每年都有几周的时间去实地考察。”洛克伍德解释道。
她补充说,学生们仍然有兴趣尝试传统的实地成本有时担心齿轮-特殊裤,靴子等。“但是,老实说,你可以做地质的网球鞋和牛仔裤,“洛克伍德说。“一些学生有这样的想法，他们必须把所有这些钱花在设备上，而他们并没有这些钱。”
While they’re de-mystifying fieldwork, William & 玛丽 geologists are emphasizing awareness of microaggressions. 例如，洛克伍德解释说，“你来自哪里？”会让有色人种的学生反感。她还说，地质学教师花了相当多的时间来排练学生名字的代词和发音。
“A lot of our students change their names in their time in college; 他们在探索和发现自己，”洛克伍德说。“And so, we want to be paying attention to that and making sure that we're not mispronouncing names or misgendering them. It’s a big way of signaling to students that you value their culture, and you value them as individuals.”
Both Macdonald and Lockwood point out that while their department is still working at increasing racial and ethnic diversity, the William & 玛丽 geologists have made progress in other areas of inclusion, notably diversity of genders and sexuality. The department has been ranked, for several decades, one of the top undergraduate programs for recruiting and retaining students who identify as women in the geosciences.
Macdonald said the department has made a point to incorporate “scientist spotlights” in some introductory courses and to make sure they’re incorporating the work of scientists who are not only from outside William & 玛丽, and who also represent diverse peoples and backgrounds. The department also works hard to invite speakers from minoritized populations for department seminar series and career panels.
“种族多元化。而且种族多样化，”她说。
