How to support inclusive practice among students and researchers

Author: Saskia Hoving

In this three-part blog series, we explore how to make the practice and publication of science more accessible to everyone. Each post offers a unique perspective on the necessary changes. A summary of the changes needed to follow OSTP guidelines explores new legal aspects of open access. Best practice on accessibility looks at how technical tools and protocols can drive access to published science. But we begin with the ethical perspective of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI); exploring how institutions can help students and researchers to create more inclusive environments for the study and practice of science.

In both lectures and labs scientists have arguably made significant steps forward in understanding the broad issues that drive systemic discrimination and inequality, from entrenched attitudes that lead to unconscious bias against researchers from underrepresented backgrounds, to working practices that fail to make adjustments for researchers with a disability, the issues are widely acknowledged. Working to counteract them is, of course, more difficult than recognising them.

A recent Springer Nature survey of nearly 5000 researchers identified inertia around inclusivity practice as one barrier to a more inclusive work and study environment. The researchers surveyed felt that their institutions understood the issues but weren’t managing to address them. So to add to the infographic 5 ways institutions can support DEI we suggest 4 practical steps institutions can take to help students and researchers to be more inclusive.

1. Are you listening?

It’s essential for successful DEI strategies that the voices of different communities within an organisation are heard. At many institutions, student-run societies will represent the very groups who experience barriers to successful scientific careers. These include groups organised for people with disabilities, who are LGBTQIA+, or are members of particular religions. Peer groups can often have more honest and open conversations than those between student and lecturers, or management and staff. Building a sense of community between these groups, and staff and management at a university can do much to help inclusivity.

In the DEI survey underrepresented groups thought that many DEI initiatives were failing to meet their needs. A simple way to address this is to ask people what their needs are and create safe channels (including anonymous ones) for people to feed back. In practice, having open communication channels, regular meetings and staff available to respond to issues can go a long way to making the changes students and researchers from underrepresented groups need to know that their problems are being addressed.

2. Set the tone

Educational institutions welcome hundreds of new students every year, and even small research teams will welcome new members. Encouraging existing staff to begin introductions with pronouns helps to set an atmosphere in which it’s clear that people of all genders are included and accepted.

It’s important to acknowledge a paradox when placing inclusivity projects within an induction. While new students and researchers need to be introduced to the tone and culture of an organisation, it’s also vital that this isn’t a single tick-box exercise. New members are taking on so much information about the organisation they have joined, that inclusivity training during induction can contribute to cognitive overload and be dismissed.

Acknowledging this paradox can be really helpful in understanding why repeated inclusivity projects and events are needed.

3. Celebrate success

High profile inclusivity events throughout the year both celebrate the work students and researchers are doing to make an institution more inclusive and help to combat the feeling of inertia that researchers identified as a barrier to inclusive practice. Events can include awards for staff and departments who have changed practical elements of their work to make it more inclusive, individual grants to help members of the community design inclusive, ways of working and communicating the work of DEI teams.

For inspiration on DEI projects to create more inclusive workplaces, read:

• Recognising librarians as mental health ambassadors
• Empowering women scientists

High profile events create the possibility for communicating the importance of inclusivity throughout the year, expanding the focus away from induction and training. They also contribute to a positive feeling around inclusive practice that recognises achievements. This in turn can make it easier to acknowledge problems, since they become something the institution can act upon and solve.

4. Be open to gaps and missteps

In large organisations mistakes will happen, gaps in culture will appear and best practice will sometimes fall by the wayside. Diversity mentoring for staff who want to fill the gaps in their knowledge of inclusive practice will help them to set the tone for researchers and students around them.

Mentoring allows staff a space to ask questions they may be too embarrassed to ask, challenges potential misconceptions about the experience of others, and helps reduce defensiveness about subjects researchers and staff are trying to understand.

How to build a positive cycle for inclusive research

Together, these four practical approaches can create a virtuous circle. Listening and setting the tone help to create clear expectations of inclusive practice. Celebrating success makes these efforts ongoing and high profile. Creating space for people to learn and admit their missteps helps them to be better listeners.

Supporting researchers and students to be aware of, and implement, inclusive practice is an ongoing challenge. By creating data from individual experience, projects like the survey behind Insights into Diversity, Equity and Inclusion in the global research community can help guide the research community towards practical action that can have a positive impact on those individual experiences of science and research.

The next blog in this series takes a look at some of the technical aspects of making published science more accessible to readers, so stay tuned.

Related content:

• Supporting DEI in research: What researchers need from institutions
• 5 ways institutions can support DEI
• Insights into Diversity, Equity & Inclusion in the global research community
• What role do librarians play in supporting student mental health and DEI? 
• Empowering women in science: How can organizations bridge the gender gap
• Women’s inclusion in today’s science

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