Origins & Overview Introducing Bias Literacy Workshop August 19, 2008 AAAS, Washington DC.
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Transcript of Origins & Overview Introducing Bias Literacy Workshop August 19, 2008 AAAS, Washington DC.
Origins & Overview
Introducing Bias Literacy Workshop
August 19, 2008
AAAS, Washington DC
In the Beginning:The Idea for the Workshop . . .
• Began at the Working WISE Conference at UMass-Lowell in 2007
• Ruta & Daryl in same small group on “workforce discrimination”
• Term “bias literacy” uttered by Ruta, which Daryl wrote down & we returned to it
The Idea (cont.) . . .
• After fleshing, we drafted a book prospectus, which Jossey-Bass promptly declined for being too “popular” in orientation
• We decided to produce a first, conceptual chapter of the book
• Then we decided to adapt the chapter for presentation, first at WEPAN, then ICWES, now as a AAAS workshop
Bona Fides of Workshop Leaders
• Who we are
• AAAS Capacity Center
• The team approach
AAAS Capacity Center at a Glance• Origin: Established as a science & engineering human resource
development consulting service August 2004 with 3-year, $400K grant from Sloan Foundation to AAAS (www.aaascapacity.org)
• Mission: Through nationally-calibrated research & technical assistance in examining programs & outcomes, foster institutional capacity to . . .
recruit, enroll, & support STEM students diversify the faculty change programs, structures, & attitudes
• Clients/Sponsors: • Higher education institutions (Harvard-PRISE, LSU-LA STEM, UWash-
CAEE)• Corporations (HP-Teaching with Technology) • federal agencies (NSF-Broadening Participation in Computing) • non-profits (Sloan, NACME, CT Academy for Education, WEPAN)
. . . focus on research, education, and institutional climate
Baseline:Discovering the Audience
• Sector
• Pre-knowledge
• Motivation
• Expectation
Formats for Today
• Lecture: solo & team
• Interactive online
• Q&A/Discussion
• Small Group
Level: Superficial(or Introductory, if you prefer)
• This is an “environmental scan”
• Some of it will under-estimate your knowledge base
• Consider today a “starter kit”
• We seek breadth and will offer tools to help you drill for depth (on your own)
Assumptions
• Our own experiences are valuable, so we will be introspective & autobiographical
• Who’s not here? We are preaching to the choir, but . . . solidarity helps
• We do not dwell on what we can’t control, but . . . must be aware of constraints in the environment
• We raise issues—and you will raise others we didn’t anticipate—but won’t discuss or resolve some of them to our mutual satisfaction . . .
• We will “park” issues for return treatment at day’s end
Vital Distinctions
Research . . .
Advocacy . . .
Policy
Research
• Empirical findings evolve—they are not fixed for all time
• There are limits to generalizations, as well as attributions of cause & effect
• New knowledge requires adaptation to different contexts & populations, as well as adjustments in behavior
Advocacy for Social Justice versus Research
• Research = systematic, controlled, empirical investigation and process of inquiry, i.e., a search for “truth”
• Advocacy = active support, promotion of an idea or cause for the sake of changing public opinion, acceptance, and behavior, i.e., a search for choosing a certain path
• Driven by advocacy and informed by research . . .
• What is the best course of action for achieving this goal—a choice among alternatives?
POLICY = a commitment to achieve a valued objective
Advocacy can be INFORMED by research:
“This truth is wrong, and we must correct this wrong”
Research can be MOTIVATED by advocacy:
“We need to know more about this situation, so we can learn what works to change it.”
Policy acts on values: It can be based on research, advocacy, self- interest, altruism, and expediency
More on this throughout the day . . .
Thanks for being here!