Ep 2 Dr. Regina Deil-Amen: Cultivating Inclusion in STEM — A Dialogue on Diversity, Connection, and Innovation at the University of Arizona

In this episode of Inquiry Oasis, host Jeffrey Anthony converses with Dr. Regina Deil-Amen, the newly appointed Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs for the College of Education at the University of Arizona, and a distinguished scholar championing inclusive education within the STEM field. The dialogue illuminates the multifaceted landscape of empowering diverse and underrepresented students, with Dr. Deil-Amen shedding light on the unique challenges faced by low-income students and the intricacies of racial and ethnic diversity. Exploring concepts such as a transfer receptive culture and the intersection of racial dynamics in STEM, the conversation articulates a vision for a future marked by compassion and innovation. Listen as they uncover inspiring viewpoints, laying the groundwork for a more equitable and inclusive STEM community.

Topics Discussed

• STEM Identity: Understanding the Culture and Challenges
• Inclusive Education: A New Paradigm in STEM
• The Interplay of Race and Ethnicity in STEM Communities
• Transcending Conventional Barriers in STEM Education
• The Nexus of Innovation, Compassion, and Inclusivity in STEM
• Pioneering Approaches: The NSF S-STEM Grant and Beyond

Books/Papers Discussed

• "Power to Transfer: Critical Race Theory and a Transfer Receptive Culture," by Dr. Jain, Dr. Melendez, and Dr. Herrera
• "Black, Brown, Bruised: How Racialized STEM Education Stifles Innovation," by Dr. Ebony McGee 

Transcript

Jeffrey Anthony: 0:02

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. Regina Deil-Amen. Dr. Deil-Amen was formerly the University of Arizona College of Education, director of the Center for the Study of Higher Education, which includes the higher education program, awarding masters and doctoral graduate degrees in higher education. She is now newly appointed associate Dean of Faculty Affairs for the College of Education. Dr. Deil-Amen received her PhD in sociology from Northwestern University, and she has engaged in major studies of college planning strategies and trajectories of socioeconomically and racial ethnically diverse university students. With particular attention to low income student challenges, social networks, and major postgraduate career decision making, the use of social media technology to connect and engage community college students in ways that improve successful outcomes to name just a few. And today we're going to discuss the work Dr. Deil-Amen engages in as a PI for the NSF S-STEM grant. So without further ado, let's dive into this journey of exploration and discovery with the Dr. Deil-Amen here in the inquiry. Oasis. It's an honor to be speaking with you Regina.

Dr. Regina Deil-Amen: 1:53

Thank you. It's a pleasure to join you.

Jeffrey Anthony: 1:55

So before we get into your research with the NSF S-STEM grant, I was hoping you could share with our audience a bit about your background and the motivations that has created the path you're on today.

Dr. Regina Deil-Amen: 2:04

Sure. I'd be glad to. I was a first generation college student myself, which means that. Neither of my parents attended college. And I'd have to say to go from where I started, to where I am now as a full faculty member, associate Dean, a PI for a major NSF grant, there were a lot of people along the way who helped me. There were structured programs that were in place to help me, faculty, staff, and others. And so doing this work now is, motivated by wanting to pay it forward, right? For the people that have done it for me, that I'm in a position now to do it for others. As part of my research along the way as a faculty member, I've been studying community college students, transfer students and know about some of the obstacles that are, in place, and wanting to create more pathways of opportunity for those students.

, Jeffrey Anthony: 2:55

that's fantastic. So the University of Arizona College of Education and the STEM Learning Center in partnership with Pima Community College launched a National Science Foundation funded S -STEM project bridging faculty and student cultures, culturally responsive support for STEM students transferring between two and four year Hispanic Serving Institutions. Can you tell us more about this project and why it is so important to support community college transfer students?

Dr. Regina Deil-Amen: 3:21

Yes, definitely. so oftentimes, transfer students and community college students transferring into university settings, get forgotten in many ways. And in particular, students moving or who are desiring or to pursue a STEM major often leave that pathway. They leave it before they transfer, but then they also leave it after they transfer. So that's something that my research has shown. Most of these students who are coming from community colleges are attending community colleges because it's cost effective. they may not have had, they may be first generation themselves, they may be full-time working adults, they have family, some are former military. They're very diverse and they're highly motivated to succeed. The fact that they have gotten to the point where they are ready to transfer into a STEM major. Means that they're highly accomplished already. They've already overcome many obstacles and they've made decisions for themselves. Uh, but somehow after transfer, there's still a huge drop off, especially for lower income students and our grant services students who are Pell eligible or otherwise low income. And so it's especially necessary to help them out in the process. Some of the prior work that I've done has been with the Gates Foundation. There was a grant, several years ago where my colleague and I, Cecilia Ria Aguilar, we did, a nationwide study of community colleges and we found that procedural obstacles were actually much more important than any of the research literature has shown. And that means obstacles with, applying for and receiving financial aid, enrollment registration, understanding the organization and the organizational pathways forward. Part of the motivation for this grant was to bridge cultures around STEM, in particular, which is science, technology, engineering, and math majors. To create connections with faculty and to create a mentoring community, but also to assist them, in the actual process of transferring, which oftentimes involves many of those procedural obstacles as well.

Jeffrey Anthony: 5:24

The project has recruited four STEM faculty each from the Pima Community College and from the University of Arizona. For the past three years to mentor a maximum caseload of eight to nine each year of STEM students. And you were saying that's roughly up to 90 now?

Dr. Regina Deil-Amen: 5:40

Yes. We've had, three cohorts so far of 30 students each, approximately. And so each year we recruit, four from Pima Community College STEM faculty, and four STEM faculty from University of Arizona to mentor that cohort of 30.

Jeffrey Anthony: 5:55

Wow.

Dr. Regina Deil-Amen: 5:55

Right. So they divide up, the cohort into, smaller groups of mentor pairs.

Jeffrey Anthony: 6:00

Right, and they meet monthly with fellow mentors in the community of practice to learn from each other's experiences and receive ongoing feedback to reinforce key learnings from the professional development sessions. Now, can you explain why communities of practice are so important to the goals of this NSF S-STEM grant?

Dr. Regina Deil-Amen: 6:17

Yes, definitely. So there are two components to the community of practice. One is, the relationship of the faculty mentor with the students, and that relationship is extremely important, and that's part of what we're finding with the research findings. That to create that connection of trust, to know that there's a person that they can actually go to for assistance, whether it's personal, academic, the faculty mentors have been so wonderful in creating those relationships with students so they know they can confide in it, and they create connections along multiple dimensions, not just their major. It could be hobbies that they have in common. It could be some sort of, family background or an interest, of any kind. So, the faculty have been getting really creative and creating those connections with students. That's one component of the community of practice, the relationship with the student. But then the STEM faculty meet with each other regularly as well, and that we find that's been a real benefit to them. And part of the benefit we didn't anticipate, which is that they are really motivated to be with a community of their peers who are interested in helping these students. And oftentimes, learning about culturally responsive mentoring practices, learning how to be more inclusive, reaching out to community college students is something they really value. But it's oftentimes something that's not highly rewarded, in the promotion and tenure process or in the review of faculty. So to be with others who are equally motivated, who, find it just as rewarding as they do that, they say after the point of being compensated, they say, I'll continue to do this for free, because being with similar others in my field is really exciting to me. And so that's a benefit. So they enjoy that in terms of their job satisfaction, but then they also learn from each other. They share strategies, 'oh, I'm having some trouble with this student and they're asking me for this information. Do you have that?' Or 'what are different strategies you've used to connect with students who maybe are not as likely to show up?' Right? Or 'how do you get them excited about this or that?' So they're really learning from each other just as much as, as anything else really, as far as learning from our training that we provide. So all of these faculty mentors go through a training. That is provided by my co-PIs, which are Kimberly Sierra-Cajas, and Dr. Casey Kilba. So they take them through, several weeks of training about how to be culturally responsive, how to center students. What things to think about when it comes to culture and identity. And so they get to talk to each other, work through it. It's sort of a workshop, setting. And we began during the pandemic actually.

Jeffrey Anthony: 8:49

Wow.

Dr. Regina Deil-Amen: 8:50

So they transferred everything online and we found that the faculty actually preferred to have most of it online because it gives them a time from week to week to process, come back, ask questions, rather than doing all at once in a couple of days. And so it's been really exciting as we sort of develop, how do we help STEM faculty think about being culturally responsive?

Jeffrey Anthony: 9:10

That's fascinating 'cause there's a paradox there where there's an element that is not quantifiable, but that is making a huge strides that you then can measure. But It's it's those bonds, those connections that are happening in community with other people that you just can't really quantify. And I find that fascinating.

Dr. Regina Deil-Amen: 9:25

Yeah, definitely. And it was interesting because we wrote the grant to, to basically compensate, provide a little bit of extra money for faculty at the University of Arizona to. Be part of this each year, but we had many more applications than we could accept. Because we hadn't written very many into the grant. But there's a huge demand among STEM faculty to help. And so moving forward without the grant, we're thinking about how do we institutionalize this? How do we get more STEM faculty involved because they are eager to get involved. But we need the infrastructure in place to provide scholarships for the students, but to also compensate, some of these STEM faculty to do the training to spend the time and to be there for the students.. Jeffrey Anthony: So what compared to other grants that support transfer students into STEM fields? Yeah, that's a great question. One aspect of the grant that makes it unique is the fact that we begin, while students are still in their final year, At the community college. So we pair them with a mentor, not just at the community college, but also a mentor, at the university during that last year so that they can get ready to prepare for that transfer process rather than finding out, once they transfer about the challenges that they'll face, the information they need, the research experience they need. So that relationship with that University of Arizona mentor is really key and we're finding that that's one of the central components that is making a difference for these transfer students.

Jeffrey Anthony: 10:50

So then to dive in a little bit deeper, how do you prepare these STEM faculty to provide culturally responsive mentoring?

Dr. Regina Deil-Amen: 10:56

Yes, that's a great question. Two of my co-PIs, Kimberly Sierra-Cajas, and Dr. Casey Kilba, take them through several weeks of what we call culturally responsive mentor training. And we use a standard mentoring, program, but then we add in things that have to do with cultural identity, racial equity, differences in terms of how students might define the relationship with a mentor. All kinds of material. And so they have an opportunity to workshop through that, ask questions, learn more about things they've never been exposed to before. Like bias, et cetera, that may be unintentional, yet part of the relationship. And they really benefit from that training. What they really learned is that everyone has a culture, right? Many of these students come from diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds, but actually nearly half of them are white, Um, white students who come from low income backgrounds or formerly part of the military or our parents raising children, right? So we have a nice diverse mix of students. So the faculty mentors won't really connect with them all the time in terms of a similar background, but they learn these techniques about how to connect with students and create real, relationships of trust and really long-term relationships that, that last throughout the time that students are enrolled.

Jeffrey Anthony: 12:10

When we think of identity and culture, these are very big and impactful concepts, which you were just talking about. So, why is developing STEM identity so important and why are you focused on this aspect of STEM education and the enveloping culture?

Dr. Regina Deil-Amen: 12:23

Yeah, that's a really important concept. So, the thing to start with is that everyone has a culture. Everyone participates in an ongoing culture every day. So the key to a STEM identity is making sure that the students have a strong identity in STEM, because there are so many obstacles that will come into play that may discourage them off of a STEM pathway, and into another pathway. So for instance, many of the students that we talk to on a regular basis, we do focus groups and interviews with them. They talk about their peers and how they're in different majors and they have to spend so much more time preparing, studying. It just happens to be that STEM majors often you have to have a lot more dedication to make it through. And if you have family obligations, if you have jobs, if there's pressure for you to be earning money, right? It's, it takes a lot of patience and effort to make it through all the way to the end of a STEM major. And you reap the rewards at the end, right? Because there's a demand in the job market, but it often takes a lot more. So, having a strong STEM identity is really important because it sort of cements or reinforces the student's original goals. And one thing I want to emphasize is that, Every year with a new cohort of students, I'm astounded by how strong their goals are. It's really not a matter of aspirations. These students have very high aspirations. It's a matter of can they practically complete this degree? Can they adjust to the difference in instruction when they get to the University? Because in, let's say Pima Community College, they often get. Small class sizes, they get, faculty who are willing to answer questions and respond immediately in class until everyone understands it. Unfortunately, once they transfer, they're often in larger classes, they might not be as familiar with the material as students who started here as first or second year students. And so there's a lot of adjustments that need to happen. So the more that their identity can be solidified as a STEM major the more likely they are to continue. And in fact, this program has been having tremendous success rates. We are graduating our first cohorts of students already, and the rates of success and staying in STEM majors is much, much higher than it is at the university or nationally especially when it comes to first generation students, low income students and students who are underrepresented in STEM. So the supports are very much important. The part about culture is that, I don't know if it's necessarily intentional, but oftentimes science, math, engineering, these kinds of fields tend to be a little bit more exclusive. It's more difficult to get in. If you don't pass some of these classes, you no longer can maintain entry or enrollment in the major. So, oftentimes a lot of the emphasis is on exclusion rather than inclusion. Again, it may not be intentional, but the mentors are there to keep encouraging students along the way. Yes, you do belong here. Yes, it is important. Yes, you have the capacity and yes, I have failed too. So this, the mentors learn to talk about, it's not been easy for me either, and I have failed in certain things or I've not been as successful, but that doesn't mean you don't belong in STEM. Mm-hmm. That doesn't mean you can't move forward and have a career. Right. And those are the things that really matter for the students, Because they look at these successful faculty and think, oh, they must have been this way all the time. Right? But they really humanize the experience and that makes it more inclusive for the students. The students feel included. They feel as if they don't have to be perfect. They can be challenged, they can struggle, but still succeed, and eventually graduate with a STEM major.

Jeffrey Anthony: 15:55

And we're all much richer for that if they get to that point, which is really beautiful. You've already mentioned some of the successes that you've had. So if you were to peer 20 years into the future and survey the existing landscape of STEM education and more broadly the culture of STEM that is embedded in this hypothetical future civilization, what would you hope to see?

Dr. Regina Deil-Amen: 16:13

Well, the first thing I'd like to see is, A lot more inclusion rather than exclusion. In terms of the culture that exists, in terms of the people that are represented in STEM. So that's one thing I'd like to see. The second, I would honestly like to see, fewer procedural and organizational obstacles, because it can get frustrating. I mean, the job of the student is to learn the material, to be competent in the material, and if a lot of their time is taken up by having to navigate, a highly bureaucratic institution that is not set up for them necessarily, but mainly set up for incoming first year students that it's a shame, If that's the case. So I'd like to see that streamlined a bit more. I think because I've seen it, it's really not just University of Arizona. It exists nationally, oftentimes. That this is a sort of a problem, right? So, that's, I think that's part of what I'd like to see. I guess I'd also like to see the culture of, STEM, to be more inclusive in terms of the content. That different cultures throughout the world have a lot to contribute to what we know about the environment, about engineering, about all sorts of things, biology, et cetera. And so to have a, a more of a curriculum that's also inclusive.

Jeffrey Anthony: 17:21

That's fascinating to me in a way to think about how you could weave in, ways of knowing that specific cultures may have that have a long history. If you wanna conceptualize modern STEM maybe as a box of these are the things that count. Mm-hmm. And then there's a bunch of stuff that doesn't count on the outside. And what you're trying to say is, we want to, not make this a box anymore, we're gonna put some doors here and we're gonna say, bring in this cultural knowledge that can, broaden the scope of STEM and our understanding of the world and each other,

Dr. Regina Deil-Amen: 17:47

Yeah, I totally agree with that. And part of it is a remnant of the fact that we tend to categorize everything in our school systems, right? And in our universities, right? So we have these separate disciplines, but in fact, in real life, everything about STEM is incorporated into our everyday experience, right? So many of the students come from backgrounds where their families are involved in the construction trades. So the mentors talk about how that counts, right? What you know about this is relevant to mechanical engineering, It's relevant to electrical engineering, all kinds of things our everyday lives the way we cook, the way we think about our everyday lifestyles, domestic type things. All of that has to do with chemistry, with biology, right? So we, we tend to silo things when in fact, in the real world, it is basically all around us. STEM is all around us. It's part of our culture. It's part of multiple cultures, right? So the more inclusive we can be, the better when it comes to that. So it's not just STEM that has a problem. I think it's a broader issue.

Jeffrey Anthony: 18:44

Thank you for that. we're nearing the end of our conversation, and at the end of every conversation, we like to ask our guests to recommend a book or a paper that has been meaningful to them. Could you share one or more with our audience and explain how it has impacted you?

Dr. Regina Deil-Amen: 18:56

Yes. There, there are two books that we've relied on heavily to help us understand the experiences of students in particular, in STEM and, the experiences of students transferring. So the first is a book called 'Power to Transfer: Critical Race Theory and a Transfer Receptive Culture,'(Perspectives on Access, equity and Diversifying Pathways in P-20 Education). So this is by Dr. Jain and, co-author, Dr. Melendez and Herrera. This is a great book that talks about, culture, identity, race, and transfer of community college students. And so that's been really helpful to really think about what is the culture that students are transferring into. Often the emphasis is on the students. How prepared are they? How high achieving are they? How ready are they? But this book, ask the question of. How ready is the university to receive these students, right? And that's the idea of a transfer receptive culture. So that's been a wonderful, insightful book. The other is called'Black, Brown, Bruised: How Racialized STEM Education Stifles Innovation.' And the lead author of that is, a Dr. Ebony McGee That talks a little bit more about the racial aspects of STEM. And, this exclusion that I've been talking about It try to helps people understand what it means to become part of a STEM community if you're from one of these underrepresented, groups. These two books, really give a different perspective than what some of the majority of the articles and books talk about in stem. So I find them, I like to see books that. turn a corner for you and thinking conceptually differently about the topic.

Jeffrey Anthony: 20:31

Well, thank you for those recommendations. We are sincerely grateful for today's insightful exploration with Dr. Regina Deil-Amen whose unwavering commitment to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion in the STEM field has truly inspired us. Your transformative work, especially as the PI for the NSF S-STEM grant, is pioneering the way for a more inclusive future in STEM education. And thank you listeners for joining us today in the inquiry Oasis. We hope you enjoyed our conversation today with Dr. Regina Deil-Amen and has inspired you as much as it inspired 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.