The Inquiry Oasis: A UArizona College of Education Podcast

Ep 4 Dr. Heather Haeger - Fostering Inclusivity in STEM: Exploring Pathways to Accessible Education

• UArizona College of Education • Season 1 • Episode 4

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Join us in this enlightening episode of The Inquiry Oasis: A Uarizona College of Education Podcast as we delve into the expansive world of STEM education with Dr. Heather Haeger, research director for the STEM Learning Center. Dr. Haeger shares her insights into equity, diversity, and the importance of inclusive environments in STEM fields. From bridging the boundaries between STEM and the humanities to exploring the intricate connections between disciplines, this episode reveals the transformative potential of collaborative research. An essential listen for those passionate about education, diversity, and innovative thinking.

Topics Discussed:

  • Equity, diversity, and inclusivity in field research experiences
  • The importance of safety and support in research environments
  • The significance of diversity and equity in STEM for global community
  • Interconnectedness of STEM with arts and humanities
  • The concept of haunting in institutional racism and white supremacy
  • Students' experiences in field research: both positive and negative
  • The economic impact of inclusion and exclusion in STEM fields

 

Book Discussed”

"Weaving an Otherwise: In-relations Methodological Practice" by Dr. Amanda Tashjian and Z Nicolazzo

Learn more:

https://coe.arizona.edu/ 

Jeffrey Anthony:

Welcome to the Inquiry Oasis, a University of Arizona College of Education and Podcast. Here in the heart of the Sonoran Desert, we bring you conversations with our esteemed faculty and staff whose research impacts lives from Southern Arizona to the far reaches of the globe. Recording From the College of Education's Digital Innovation and Learning Lab, we explore the transformative power of education in this border town where diverse cultures and ideas converge, weaving a tapestry of innovation with compassion and a sense of wonder. Join us as we journey through the sands of curiosity, unearthing insights that enrich and inspire. So sit back and relax as we invite you to dive into the inquiry Oasis. Thank you for tuning into the Inquiry Oasis. I'm your host, Jeffrey Anthony, and today we're thrilled to be joined by Dr. Heather Hager. Dr. Hager is the research director for the Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics STEM Learning Center, and an assistant professor in education, policy studies and practice. Her research is focused on equity and educational practices and barriers to full participation in undergraduate STEM education. Her research is used to inform programmatic interventions aimed at engaging students that have been traditionally marginalized in higher education and creating more inclusive and culturally responsive STEM learning environments. And this brings us to our topic of our discussion today. We'll dive into Dr. Haeger's work on editing a new book for Routledge on increasing access to research and creating more inclusive environments for undergraduates, and a justice, equity, diversity and inclusion field research experiences project. Without further ado, let's dive into this journey of exploration and discovery with Dr. Hager here in the in Inquiry Oasis. It's an honor to be speaking with you today, Heather.

Heather Haeger:

Thank you. Thanks for having me here.

Jeffrey Anthony:

You bet. So before we get into your summer research project, I was hoping you could share with our audience a bit about your background and a bit of the motivations that has created the path you are on today.

Heather Haeger:

Hmm. My path, I think I've always been interested in equity issues in our society, and I've come at that in different ways. So I worked in the community, in local public mental health. Programs before getting into education and was really interested in education'cause working with youth in the community and seeing the barriers in accessing college. Is what brought me physically to the U of A. I came into this education building and sat with a professor here, Dr. Gary Rhodes, and was like, why can't any of my high school students feel welcome here? Why can't they afford to come here? Why are the, why is the process so complicated for him? And he really sat me down and talk through the issues. But the end of the conversation was like, these are all questions we're trying to answer and questions that you could study in the graduate program here. And that's how I enrolled in master's program in higher education to start with, and started exploring and getting interested in these questions about not only access to education, but the experiences students have while in college. And then went on to, to get my PhD into a career in education research.

Jeffrey Anthony:

I love that story, how you came here and you said, why is this not working? And then it's like, well, you can fix it.

Heather Haeger:

Uhhuh. Yeah. Yeah.

Jeffrey Anthony:

And that's, that is amazing. So the book that you're editing for release on Routledge is called"Designing and Implementing a Successful Undergraduate Research Scholarship and Creative Activity Program." Is centered on increasing access to research and creating more inclusive research environments for undergraduates. How does this project at an HSI designated institution, like the University of Arizona inform the project?

Heather Haeger:

Yeah, I'm really interested in the University of Arizona as an HSI, and as a research focused HSI and how we authentically engage undergraduates in research as part of that mission of servingness. So how our students really are central to the creation of new knowledge and bringing their own funds of knowledge and their community and history and their perspectives into that research can really make the research we're producing outta the university so much richer, so much more grounded in the context of community and the people we're working with. So the book is part of a series they're doing on undergraduate research that is focused on. Different aspects. There are books on, undergraduate research and the arts and humanities and all these different disciplines. And this particular book is looking across disciplines. We're really thinking about how do you engage students in research from a campus perspective and how you create systems that create more opportunities for students and more inclusive research environments. So that we're not just plugging students into research spaces that are hostile or unsupportive to them, but that we're thinking about how do you change those spaces to really fully include students to bring their full self and their full breadth of knowledge to contribute to that research.

Jeffrey Anthony:

That's fantastic. And it's really interesting because when you think about it, if a space is not conducive to not only learning but producing new knowledge, we're really hurting ourselves in the long run because we're constricting the total possible potential, discoveries that, a student, not even just a student, a researcher can bring to society at large.

Heather Haeger:

Yeah, sometimes we think of undergraduate researchers like a little cog to put in the machine and you do your job and learn something from it and then move on. But we don't always think about how are students bringing in knowledge to that experience, not just the faculty. Or the PI as The owner of that knowledge, but how are all the people involved in the Research project able to contribute to it and think about it and build on it?

Jeffrey Anthony:

Well, that's beautiful. So now research experiences are becoming increasingly necessary for access to graduate school or careers in STEM, however, low-income students, first generation students and students of color do not have the same level of access to these experiences, and when in these experiences, often experience bias, discrimination, or hostile environments just as we were discussing. So the research you worked on over the summer centered the experiences of students of color as well as female trans, and gender non-conforming students in field research experiences to understand the barriers they face, as well as identify strategies to create safer, more culturally affirming environments in research. We'd love to learn a little more about this research and why it's so important.

Heather Haeger:

Thank you. And I would like to mention that Dr. Corey Knox is leading this project, and then Sara Chavarria and I are working and supporting it. And I think all really came to it with this interest about field research because it is such an integral part in certain disciplines in gaining that experience you need. To move on in your career and also an opportunity to really feel like a part of your discipline. And participate in it fully. But it is also such a unique situation, the power dynamics. Cause you're asking people to go away from their community, away from their safety net, away from the spaces where they feel safe and secure and have resources if something bad happens. And you're out often, literally in the wilderness. With faculty in this power structure. Whereas as an undergraduate, particularly as an undergraduate from a marginalized community, you're really vulnerable in that situation. Physically, you might be out camping with people, you might be sharing rooms with people. And then the culture of field research can be really rooted in traditional gender norms, like all the male students are rooming together, and then if you're the only female student or the only gender non-conforming student, who are you with? Mm-hmm. Do you have support? And even having those kind of living conditions where you're broken into gender segregated groups can be problematic. All sorts of issues with social class that like, can you afford all the equipment to go out into the field and be comfortable and safe in the way other students can, whose, family's bought them the fancy hiking backpack and shoes and all the things. So, I think the moving away from your kind of safety net community and then in this more vulnerable situation that's been built around the needs of. Privileged people in terms of class and gender and race really makes it a potentially hazardous situation for students. And so thinking about how we can create those experiences in ways that take some of that risk out.

Jeffrey Anthony:

This is really fascinating because what you're allowing people to do is they, people are able to do their best work when they're not only just comfortable, but they feel safe. because they feel safe to ask questions, they feel safe, they can even challenge the status quo because they're in a, in a place where they're supportive and that's really where the bleeding edge of research happens, isn't it?

Heather Haeger:

Yeah, and I think you mentioned both challenge and support and I think that's really key, that like chickering concept that you need enough support to be able to take on new challenges. And so if you are basic safety as a human being and to be your full authentic self in this experience is there, then you can take on the challenges of doing field research and really thinking out in the field and being creative and focused and able to really take on that experience and not be worried about your physical safety or whether, your emotional health, if it doesn't feel like a supportive environment. You're not gonna be able to do your best research.

Jeffrey Anthony:

Right. so one thing about education research is that it helps us better understand situations around learning. Can you share any discoveries or outcomes in your work that took you by surprise?

Heather Haeger:

Well, I think thinking about this particular research project, we're still in the early stages, so stay tuned for the for the final results. But we started with doing interviews with students and really hearing about some of the difficult situations or even talking about to people about this project. A lot of people have shared with us traumatic and difficult things that happen to them in a field research experience, and so it seems like there are some. Terrible experiences people have had. But then the survey we did on average students of color female students gender non-conforming students didn't respond on the survey that their experiences were any more difficult in general, or even in terms of feeling like they belonged or feeling supported there. So it seems like an early thing we're seeing, I won't call it a finding yet, is that maybe there are some specific bad things that happen, but in general, many students are having wonderful experiences and field experiences and feel like they're learning and growing, and so thinking about how we can shape field experiences to protect that minority of experiences that are terrible. And allow all students to have that kind of beneficial, supportive experience.

Jeffrey Anthony:

Wow. So now educational equity and diversity in STEM education is a passion of yours. Why is diversity and equity in STEM important not only to our local community, but to the broader global community as a whole?

Heather Haeger:

Well, I think, in STEM we're solving big problem. Like so much of our culture and infrastructure and everything is. Rooted in STEM fields. And I think there's actually much more overlap between other disciplines and STEM than we often acknowledge. And yet, if we are excluding people from stem, we're not bringing the full breadth of potential knowledge to that. So if you're solving problems only by the people solving those, or one section of the population, they're always gonna solve problems that affect them. Or like in medicine. There's not as much research on women's health issues because there weren't as many, historically, there hadn't been as many women doing research on health issues. So I think in all things, if we're thinking about technology and engineering and math and science, all of it needs the perspectives of people who have real lived experiences that are different from each other. And so the more we can include those perspectives, I think the better off we'll be as a society. And I particularly became interested in STEM because it's such a, equity point, like we've increased college access quite a bit, but now we stratify people into who gets into STEM fields and who's able to persist in them. And then that has real economic impact for students' lives. If you transfer out of engineering because it wasn't a supportive environment, you're often transferring into a much lower paying career , and if you loved engineering and wanted to do that, you personally would have the economic impact and then the field of engineering is losing your perspective. So that's why I, was particularly interested in STEM.

Jeffrey Anthony:

Now when you said STEM and some other fields, like you're thinking of the humanities, do you ever conceptualize how the humanities can inform STEM fields and STEM fields can inform the humanities? You can say,

Heather Haeger:

Yeah, and I was just talking with Dr. Guadalupe Lazano yesterday. And she does a lot of work around culturally responsive math education and thinking about, she was talking about how when she goes to people, she's like, I don't wanna talk about math. I wanna talk about what makes your heartbeat, what do you care about? And my job is to find the math in that. And that's what I think all of STEM could do. You could be in the arts arts and find the science in it. Or the engineering in or the math. And so I think that there, I guess I'm a little, I. I don't particularly believe in disciplines as um, you know, as a, an actual construct. I think it's a convenient way for us to talk about and group things, but really math has so much to do with art and humanities and the social sciences, and so you can find math in all of it, and I think that we, helping connect those disciplines would help. STEM disciplines and the other disciplines learn from each other and help students see the interconnectedness of it all.

Jeffrey Anthony:

So as we get near the end of our conversation, we'd like to ask our guests to recommend the book or a paper that has been meaningful to them. Can You share one with our audience and explain how it has impacted you?

Heather Haeger:

So many books and papers, but maybe I'll share one that I'm reading at the moment. I'm reading "Weaving and Otherwise" by Dr. Amanda Tashjian and Z Nicolazzo, and it's an edited book, so there are many authors within that too. But it's really been beautiful thinking about how we can reconceptualize some of the things we take for granted as truth in academia and how we might reimagine them differently. Mm-hmm. Like I'm reading a chapter on the concept of 'haunting' right now and how you could think of institutional racism as ghosts in the work of our policy and our programs and things that we don't see around us. But that white supremacy is haunting the systems. Yes, we're in even as we try and change them.

Jeffrey Anthony:

Yes. I'm gonna pick that book up after this discussion, and Thank you for recommending that to our audience. Heather, it's been an absolute honor to explore your groundbreaking work today, your unwavering dedication to fostering justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion within the STEM field, and your efforts in lowering barriers for marginalized groups are inspiring. We deeply appreciate you sharing these invaluable insights from your research and your passion for creating inclusive learning environments. We eagerly anticipate your upcoming book and the continued impact of your transformative work in STEM education. And thank you listeners for joining us today in the Inquiry Oasis. We hope our conversation with Dr. Heather Hager has inspired you as much as it has us. Remember, we're back on the first and third Wednesday every month with fresh insights and conversations, so be sure to tune in. Until next time, keep your curiosity alive and remember, knowledge is our oasis.