NSF Awards: 1828659
This work explores the lived experiences of Black graduate students navigating engineering environments, particularly at the intersection of two pandemics, COVID-19 (global health pandemic) and RACISM-20 (endured injustice of systemic racism). This video will showcase the work associated with the NSF funded project, Learning from the PROSE: Exploring professional organizations' role in supporting Black engineering student success. Although Black people represent approximately 13% of the U.S. population and are one of the fastest growing demographics in the nation, they made up less than 4% of engineering degree recipients at the undergraduate, Master's and doctoral levels during the 2020-21 academic year. Following the murder of George Floyd, many people returned to work environments and business as usual, while for Black students, this return was premature and associated with the start of a period of trauma. Black students were grieving, angry, and experiencing a pain that made it challenging to return to the mindset of work. Nonetheless, that was the expectation, which is ultimately reflective of the hypervisibility and invisibility characteristic of systemic racism, which leaves students feeling simultaneously visible in their suffering and invisible in the provision of support typically afforded in the aftermath of tragedy. Using the Model of Co-Curricular Support and Community Cultural Wealth as theoretical underpinnings, this qualitative research project has investigated how engagement in identity-related organizations as undergraduate students contributed to the successful navigation of their engineering programs. More specifically, this project investigates the mechanisms by which professional organizations provide the critical professional and psychosocial support that contribute to the development and success of Black engineering students. The Extremophiles shares the findings of the PROSE Study highlighting our taxonomy of counterspaces and actual experiences of a PROSE cohort member and a Black graduate student researcher from the SPACE Lab. This works demonstrates the importance of counterspaces in the success of Black engineering students, while revealing a more immediate need to change the culture of engineering in a sustainable way, potentially through the fostering of anti-racist environments that promote access, inclusion and equity for all.
Brooke Coley
Assistant Professor
Hello and welcome to The Extremophiles, a video showcasing the National Science Foundation Project entitled, Learning from the PROSE: Exploring professional organizations' role in supporting Black engineering student success. In this video we share a major finding of our work in a taxonomy of counterspaces identified and informed directly by Black engineering graduate students from across the nation. Our work identifies the entities that offer support to offset the racialized and marginalizing experiences encountered in navigating engineering as informed by the students themselves. This realm considers identity-related, familial, professional and well-being counterspaces as being critical to the success of Black engineering students. Additionally, we posit that Black students are extremophiles navigating academic environments wherein most others would not survive (here, meaning able to navigate successfully). As opposed to establishing more access and resources for more counterspaces, we place a call to action that our true intentions be focused to dismantle systems of oppression that perpetuate anti-Black environments. We invite your comments, reactions, questions, and feedback regarding the video. The questions below are to stimulate engagement as we look forward to connecting with you!
Marilu Lopez Fretts
Kaci Fankhauser
James Afful
Stephen Alkins Ph.D.
Diversity, Equity, Access, Inclusion, and Belonging Officer
Thank you for the research. Centering voices of Black people (and other marginalized groups), especially in these spaces, needs to be amplified. This is very much in line with the work of Mia Ong, Terrell Morton, and others. The million dollar question is always how do you leverage work like this to cultivate systemic change and disrupt institutional barriers and patterns of inequity.
One particular nuance that I think comes out of this research and others who also research marginalized experiences in higher education is that the plethora of responsibilities/and weight that students still carry having already demonstrated a level of success. Contributing to the notion of being extremophiles, this description should be investigated for Black STEM faculty. Black faculty must be DEAIB champions, individual and collective mentors, institutional ambassadors (often tokenized), A+ researchers, etc. In this sense your work could create support for Black faculty, but more so encourage broader, more culturally inclusive/responsive evaluation criteria to support growth of Black faculty and others.
Further I think this work should normalize graduate programs intentionally creating, attempting to create, or empowering the creation of counterspaces by their students. Often times, students are brought in to just do the work of research, without an understanding of the taxonomy you have laid out, or that health and multiple forms of support are critical to professional success.
James Afful
Christina Baze
Brooke Coley
Assistant Professor
Thank you so much for your comments, Stephen! You mention the notion of Black faculty also being recognized as extremophiles, which is an important association. I agree with you that with each level of advancement (e.g., from undergrad > grad > work force), execution of the role becomes more complex and with higher stakes. At all levels, individuals are expected to fulfill the role, i.e., being a faculty member, while the added role that identity plays, and here, specifically, being Black in academic environments is negated. I would love to identify collaborators and thought partners wanting to elucidate outcomes and products of the research that could catalyze systemic change through the disruption of institutional barriers, patterns and cultures.
Stephen Alkins Ph.D.
Christina Baze
Such an important topic, and a great video! I am wondering how mentorship fits into this taxonomy of counter spaces. Who is mentoring Black graduate engineering students, and who are the students, in turn, able to mentor? How do mentoring relationships influence a sense of identity, belonging, well-being, etc.?
Brooke Coley
Assistant Professor
Christina,
Thank you for your comment. That's a great point. We noticed that mentorship made a difference to the students in terms of their sense of belonging in engineering-however, most students did not find the same race and gender mentors, finding a mentor has been a serious challenge for Black students (especially Black women) in engineering. Also, in most cases, students had to take initiative for themselves to find their mentors. They mentioned the absence of Black faculty in their school. Often they found mentors outside of their discipline. The ones found same race and (same gender) mentors in engineering are thriving. Also, the ones who found empathetic mentors from other races and gender are doing pretty well. In general Black students lack mentorship and are often invisible in the department, they have to prove their competence and knowledge more to the professor/PIs than their White (or other race) peers. Now, the counter spaces like NSBE, BGLO (identity-based spaces)-provide them a platform to bond, socialize, share resources, get directions, and peer-mentor opportunities. However, they still lack mentorship when it comes to engineering scholarships in most cases because they do not get to see professors/ cohorts who look like them.
Christina Baze
Christina Baze
Thanks for your reply! No surprises there. Maybe in a decade or so things will look differently. Thank you for doing this pivotal work!
Brooke Coley
Assistant Professor
Christina,
This has been the situation over the decades. Hope it changes to a point where we do not need the counter spaces anymore.
Christina Baze
Meagan Pollock
Dr. Coley, I like the taxonomy of counter spaces as a tool for understanding and crafting more equitable, inclusive and culturally responsive environments. Thank you for the meaningful work you are doing! Clearly, you are a pivotal role model for so many of your students.
Brooke Coley
Assistant Professor
Meagan,
Thank you!
Kenne Dibner
Senior Program Officer
This was a very compelling video, and I'm thrilled to see the work. I wonder if you might speak to how you landed on the creation of counterspaces as the primary leverage point for making change? Can you speak in more depth about what "counts" as a counterspace, how to identify them, how to build them, etc? Thank you so much for sharing your work with us -
Brooke Coley
Assistant Professor
I would say counterspaces are the spaces of resistance where students are nourished, supported, encouraged, and develop critical thinking to fight White Supremacy. The first counter spaces are the HBCUs and then nine historically Black Greek letter organizations (BGLOs) that make up the National Pan-Hellenic Council; 5 fraternities and 4 sororities also referred to as The Divine Nine. Then the other organizations like NSBE was formed. Definitely, the end goal is one day we won't need counterspaces anymore, till then counterspaces are the only source of a blanket in the chilly environment for the Black studentst. Our data revealed that the only spaces students felt supported were the counter space where their racial identity was affirmed, they received different kinds of support and those spaces fostered multiple values- that was the idea of creating spaces or researching on counter spaces. Institutions can certainly build those spaces. For example, in many institutions, some of those spaces already exist, however, students did not mention counterspaces being recommended to them by faculty members or through institutional recruitment activities. This should be rectified and Black students should be made aware of all the spaces that are designed for Black students. Then Black students lack mentoring in their Ph.D. experiences, especially from a Black faculty- so hiring more Black faculty and creating a mentorship pathway for Black students could be a way of creating counter space. Faculty and other institutional gatekeepers should be knowledgeable about the spaces and opportunities that strengthen these students’ agency within engineering, and of great importance, during the time of transitioning into graduate school as particularly critical. One recommendation here based on the research is to encourage such individuals to dedicate a portion of their service commitments towards supporting events led by counterspaces, especially those that are student-led.
Marilu Lopez Fretts
Kaci Fankhauser
Marilu Lopez Fretts
H Brooke,
I love this work and presentation. Thank you for sharing about the counterspaces. I agree about the importance of counterspaces while taking steps to change to a culture where they are not needed, as you mention in the video. Thank you again!
Gregory Goins
Professor and Chair
Great video! I found it quite interesting to see your interest in the correlation between student engagement to student success. Showcasing real data and numbers really helped me personally see the big picture and just how important this is. Before this video, I did not even know what an "extremophile" was, so thank you so much for the insight. Keep up the astounding work!
Christina Baze
Brooke Coley
Assistant Professor
Dr. Goins,
Thank you so much for your comment. Please let me know if you have any other comments on methods-photo voice, interview, etc.
Claire Duggan
Great work. So critical to share student's personal experiences and how each of the counterpaces contribute to student success. You reference elevating awareness of these counterpaces but moving beyond the need for them. What strategies/practices might be introduced to move toward this goal?
Brooke Coley
Assistant Professor
Hi Claire,
Definitely, the end goal is one day we won't need the counterspaces anymore, until then, counterspaces are the only source of a blanket in the chilly environment for the Black students. Our data revealed that the only spaces students felt supported were the counterspaces where: their racial identity was affirmed; they received different kinds of support; and their values were centered. For example, in many institutions, some of those spaces already exist. However, students did not mention counterspaces being recommended to them by faculty members or through institutional recruitment activities. This should be rectified and Black students should be made aware of all the spaces that are designed for Black students. Then Black students lack mentoring in their Ph.D. experiences, especially from a Black faculty, so hiring more Black faculty and creating a mentorship pathway for Black students could be a way of creating counterspaces. Faculty and other institutional gatekeepers should be knowledgeable about the spaces and opportunities that strengthen these students’ agency within engineering, and of great importance, during the time of transitioning into graduate school as particularly critical. One recommendation here based on the research is to encourage such individuals to dedicate a portion of their service commitments towards supporting events led by counterspaces, especially those that are student-led.
Brooke Coley
Assistant Professor
Thank you everyone for your insightful comments. Our project PROSE is ongoing for almost three years now. we have explored all different areas, for example-transition from undergrad-phs, counterspaces, emotions, post COVID need of the Black doctoral students, mental health of the students in the intersection of two pandemics-racism 2.0 and COVID -19. Please let us know if you would like to know more about them. Also, this grant served the base for another grant-where we are exploring the need of Black doctoral students from advising and mentoring perspective and what faculty are practicing currently-the goal is to fill in the gap.
https://stemforall2022.videohall.com/presentati...
This is the video from our preliminary data.
Kaci Fankhauser
Barbara Rogoff
Thank you for this important work!
Brooke Coley
Assistant Professor
Thank you for reviewing our video!
Cheryl Craig
Liked the discussion of counter-spaces....Important to move past counter-spaces into spaces where no one group/individual is dominant...
Brooke Coley
Assistant Professor
Yes!! That's exactly it, Cheryl. Rather than focus on further developing these spaces and making them more accessible, our goal should be to create a different culture where all students can thrive.
Jennifer Kidd
Wow, powerful metaphor! Thank you for sharing this perspective that so many of us need to hear!
Brooke Coley
Assistant Professor
Thank you, Jennifer. Our goal is to foster awareness of students' experiences. This is our way of enabling each of us to see our role in creating an inclusive STEM culture.
Megan Elwood Madden
As a planetary geologist, I'm really struck by the metaphor of extremophiles. I'm going to refer to this video when talking with colleagues about the need to improve systems and climate for students. Thank you!
Brooke Coley
Assistant Professor
Thank you, Megan! In my research group, we value the application of metaphors to convey actual experiences. We believe this enables people to visualize the context in a way that is often inhibited by dealing with constructs, i.e. racism. It appears much easier for people to situate an organism trying to survive in an environment in the face of extremes. We appreciate and apply the metaphor of extremophiles to support more people being able to conceptualize the experience of Black students in engineering across all levels. Thank you for your willingness to share this work!