Ideological Roadblocks to Diversifying STEM: Resistance and Allyship in STEM Diversity and Inclusion Efforts

STEM多元化的意识形态障碍：STEM多元化和包容性努力中的阻力和盟友这个项目的目的是通过更好地了解STEM中强大和特权群体如何回应他们工作场所和职业中的多元化，公平和包容（DEI）努力，在STEM不平等研究方面取得重要突破。尽管每年在与dei相关的培训、招聘和留住工作上投入了数百万美元，但STEM领域一直在努力实现人口和文化的多元化。在过去的几十年里，很多研究都试图理解在STEM领域对女性、有色人种和LGBTQ群体不利的相互作用和制度层面的偏见。然而，这些偏见并不是导致不平等和代表性不足的唯一原因。STEM多样化停滞不前的核心原因是阻碍寻求促进公平的组织和制度变革的根源。这种阻力既会阻碍现有DEI努力的有效实施，也会阻碍能够带来更深层次结构和文化变革的新倡议的发展。本项目旨在调查STEM中具有最大结构和文化力量的人群对DEI努力的抵制。虽然强大的社会团体中的许多人个人致力于公平和包容，但其他人可能不同意甚至积极抵制DEI在其组织和职业中的努力。这个项目的目标是绘制更广泛的文化图式，强大的社会群体中的个人使用这些文化图式来理解DEI的努力，并表达他们对这些努力的抵制或支持。通过对现有调查数据的分析、对强大社会群体STEM专业人员的代表性样本的访谈以及调查实验的创新组合，本项目的实证目标是：(1)调查相对于同龄人对DEI努力的抵制和支持，(2)记录强大社会群体中的个人可能用来构建这种抵制DEI努力的障碍图式（或共享文化模型）。(3)测试那些试图破坏对这些障碍图式的坚持，进而抵制DEI努力的干预措施。在这样做的过程中，该项目将提供关键的见解，以帮助学术机构、工作场所和专业协会设计战略，克服这些障碍，促进更有效的DEI努力。这样的调查也可能有助于STEM不平等、文化社会学和职业社会学文献，说明职业诚信的文化规范如何从表面上看与包容或不平等问题无关，可以作为抵抗职业多样化的有力工具。从广义上讲，理解强大的社会群体用来捍卫其特权和抵制变革的文化框架，对于克服STEM领域停滞不前的多样化，并在其中推进种族、性别和LGBTQ平等至关重要。该项目由EHR核心研究（ECR）计划资助，该计划支持推进STEM学习和学习环境基础研究、扩大STEM参与和STEM劳动力发展的工作。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Ideological Roadblocks to Diversifying STEM: Resistance and Allyship in STEM Diversity and Inclusion EffortsThe aim of this project is to break important ground in STEM inequality research by better understanding how powerful and privileged groups in STEM respond to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts in their workplaces and professions. Despite the millions of dollars invested each year in DEI-related training, recruitment, and retention efforts, STEM fields have struggled to diversify demographically and culturally. Much research over the last few decades has sought to understand the interactional and institutional-level biases that disadvantage women, people of color, and LGBTQ individuals in STEM. Yet, these biases are not the only ways in which inequality and under-representation are perpetuated. Central to STEM’s stalled diversification are sources of resistance to organizational and institutional changes that seek to advance equity. Such resistance can block both the effective implementation of existing DEI efforts and the development of new initiatives that would bring deeper structural and cultural transformations. This project seeks to investigate resistance to DEI efforts among the population with the greatest structural and cultural power in STEM. While many individuals in powerful social groups are personally committed to equity and inclusion, others may disagree with, and even actively resist, DEI efforts in their organizations and professions. The goal of this project is to map the wider landscape of cultural schemas that individuals in powerful social groups use to make sense of DEI efforts and to express their resistance to or support for those efforts. Using an innovative combination of analysis of existing survey data, interviews with a representative sample of individuals in powerful social groups STEM professionals, and a survey experiment, the empirical goals of this project are to (1) investigate resistance to and support for DEI efforts relative to their peers, (2) document the roadblock schemas (or shared cultural models) that individuals in powerful social groups may use to frame such resistance to DEI efforts, and (3) test interventions that attempt to destabilize adherence to these roadblock schemas and, by extension, resistance to DEI efforts. In doing so, this project would offer critical insights to assist academic institutions, workplaces, and professional societies in designing strategies to overcome those roadblocks and promote more effective DEI efforts. Such an investigation may also contribute to STEM inequality, cultural sociology, and sociology of professions literatures by illustrating how cultural norms of professional integrity, which seem on their face to be a degree removed from issues of inclusion or inequality, can serve as powerful tools of resistance to diversification within professions. Broadly, understanding the cultural frameworks that powerful social groups use to defend their privilege and resist change is vital for overcoming the stalled diversification of STEM and advancing race, gender, and LGBTQ equality therein.This project is funded by the EHR Core Research (ECR) program, which supports work that advances fundamental research on STEM learning and learning environments, broadening participation in STEM, and STEM workforce development.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.