Due to instructors’ views and unconscious biases, Black students in the sciences experience racialized events in the classroom that go unnoticed and/or unaddressed by instructors. Instructor behaviors in the face of racialized events can lead to racial noticing or racial evasiveness in the classroom. Racial noticing is defined as the ability to recognize, interpret, and respond to racialized events, while racial evasiveness is the refusal to accurately describe and acknowledge the way race functions in society. Racial evasiveness emotionally harms and alienates Black students, while racial noticing leads to a more inclusive and supportive environment. This study aims to answer: how do professors, teaching assistants, and learning assistants in lower division science courses at the collegiate level notice and interpret racialized classroom events, and what gaps in racial linguistic knowledge are present in the teaching team? To address this, we utilize Gretchen P. King, Tatiane Russo-Tait, and Tessa C. Andrews’ (2023) classroom-oriented racialized event cases, which documented racial evasiveness in professors. Through these cases, we plan to illuminate trends of racial noticing and racial evasiveness among a broader teaching team and explore any trends based on instructor identities. This research will highlight the extent of racial noticing and evasiveness, allowing for nuanced conversations around anti-racism and more effective interventions that benefit Black students pursuing STEM at the collegiate level.

Taking Advanced Placement (AP) courses is integral to attending selective colleges and receiving prestigious scholarships, but not all students participate equally. Past research has found that Black, Hispanic, and low-income students participate in AP courses at much lower rates than their White and non-low-income peers. Further, inequitable rates by race/ethnicity and income level are especially notable in schools where White and non-low-income students are a minority group. Thus, this study seeks a quantitative understanding of inequitable participation rates by race/ethnicity and income level in a sample of public high schools that are predominately Black, Hispanic, and low-income. Additionally, this study seeks a qualitative understanding of how AP functions at the campus level through interviews with school personnel within the sampled schools. Last, the data from both aspects of this study are combined in an explanatory sequential mixed methods design to suggest campus-level policies that encourage AP accessibility.

Culture has the ability to influence organizational behavior (Gelfand et al., 2017) and performance outcomes (Berson et al., 2008; Gregory et al., 2009; McDermott and O’Dell, 2001). Most studies have identified this phenomenon through the actions and vantage point of organizational leaders. However, recent shifts in societal values and increased interest in people-centered research within organizational behavior and management studies have begun to focus on the perspectives and experiences of organizational stakeholders at multiple levels of the organization (Belay et al., 2023; Fischer et al., 2022), including those who carry underrepresented social identities (Men et al., 2023; Sisco and Collins, 2018). For the purposes of this research, attention is given to employee resource groups (ERGs) as a way to examine how organizational culture and executive leadership can promote the learning, development, and advancement of minorities in the workplace. To fulfill this objective, we begin by explaining why the implementation of ERGs is the most effective strategy to support an organizational culture that values diversity, equity, and inclusion. Next, we offer a literature review of indigenous and cultural knowledge approaches that have been utilized in the workplace by underrepresented and marginalized employees. We especially expounded on research that identifies coping strategies and participatory learning practices that help minority employees navigate workplace incivility (i.e., modern discrimination) and advance their careers. Lastly, we conclude our study with recommendations for future research and practices that focuses on building stronger connections between executive leaders and minority employees.

Discrimination against obese individuals in the United States is ubiquitous, particularly within the medical field. One way to mitigate implicit bias of future healthcare workers is to introduce undergraduate pre-health students to social determinants of health regarding obesity through Social Justice in Science (SJS) case studies. We developed a case study that had students explore the physiological mechanisms and social factors that contribute to obesity (poverty, redlining, food deserts, and hormonal imbalance. To pilot this case study, we administered a survey to collect the perspectives from 204 pre-health students enrolled in an advanced physiology course at UC Davis in Spring 2022. We also gathered the perspectives of communities with lived obesity experience. These collaborators provided feedback on the case study in terms of the cultural sensitivity, appropriateness, and whether the language and content were accurately representing these communities. After modifying the case, we implemented them to two offerings of an advanced physiology course in Fall 2022 and Spring 2023, one course completed the case without and the other with the social justice component. We administered the Implicit Association Test at the end of the course which measured students’ implicit bias regarding obese communities. Results revealed a significant reduction in bias against people struggling with obesity (p=.007, R2=.103, F(9, 176)= 3.374). These findings are promising for decreasing implicit bias in future healthcare workers toward more just medicine.