In our morning address at the 2023 AISL Awardee Meeting, Stephen Alkins, Director for Vision and Accountability, presented the Center’s opening remarks. These remarks highlighted the work that the REVISE team conducted in preparation for the meeting and included principles to guide thoughtful and productive conversation. Read Stephen’s speech below!
REVISE Center 2023 AISL Awardee Meeting Opening Remarks
Hello, Hola, Salaam, Ni Hao, Ko’Nichiwa, Xin Chao, Colleagues, Friends, Family, Community!
We want to acknowledge that this time of year is a time of sacred observation and celebration for many people; we are grateful for your attendance!
Welcome to the 2023 National Science Foundation Advancing Informal STEM Learning Program Biennial Awardee Meeting. This conference is a momentous occasion that acknowledges, shares, and uplifts the phenomenal accomplishments of, and the great work yet to be accomplished through the numerous projects co-facilitated by those inside and outside of this room. This is a momentous occasion to engage in critical dialogue around scientific practice across a vast ocean of informal STEM learning fields. And, an even greater opportunity to co-create spaces for conversations that generate action and movement toward greater equity in Informal STEM Learning (ISL) and beyond. Is there anyone present today for whom it is their first time? Ours, too!
We are so proud to be here representing the REVISE Center. I am Stephen Alkins, representing one-fourth of the principal investigator (PI) team for the REVISE Center, and I serve as the Director of Vision and Accountability.
Together, we are a Center devoted to supporting and walking alongside you and others in the ISL ecosystem to center and advance the goals of your AISL projects, the AISL program, the ISL community, and to transform the field and outcomes for all STEM learners. REVISE stands for (each one of us on stage says a word) Reimaging Equity and Values in Informal STEM Education.
As a Center staff we dwelled and continue to dwell on this, considering the strong presence and need for criticality in our field, and how we navigate the tensions that exist as we explore the valleys and mountains on the journey toward equity. But, make no mistake, equity IS the process and we embrace this as a Center. We are pleased to meet each of you on this path as we REVISE the Conversation on Equity in ISE.
To prepare for this meeting, we have thought about principles that guide our work and wish to share some with you for all of us to build upon together here and beyond.
As a Center we celebrate the multidimensional, diverse lenses, perspectives, identities, and intersections thereof that make this meeting possible and the greater ISE community an invaluable trove of epistemologies and ideologies. As a Center, we live and breathe inclusion and openness in all interactions, recognizing everyone comes from different places and are on different paths. This ensures we are advancing toward co-learning and co-construction as outcomes for our engagement.
Much of this meeting and our work is grounded in addressing a variety of individual and community needs (this includes advocating self-care). To that end, much of our dialogue here and work acknowledges the existence of historic and current individual and systemic power differentials in societal structures, including our ISE institutions and practices. We are committed to leveraging research to address such inequities. Trust, this space and field is ripe for critical interrogation.
Last, our work, whether at conferences or in daily/weekly meetings, affords us wonderful and truly privileged places to fluidly exchange knowledge and ideas. For this we are grateful and humbled. We strongly believe these interactions should not be extractive, but grounded in reciprocity, integrity, and honesty. To accomplish this, we must strike a collaborative balance of personal accountability among each other, and interact with professionalism regardless of role (e.g., participant, moderator, evaluator, support staff, etc.).
Together, these principles and the practices outline not all, but some distinct aspects of respect, where all people are offered these things (extending to non-humans and our physical/virtual environment) regardless of where they are in their journeys.
To support these principles as we have conversations/dialogue, here are some guiding frameworks we offer to help supplement your knowledge of practice. These have been synthesized through our discussions and adapted from other STEM practitioners:
One Mic
Try to ensure one person speaks at a time with limited interruption. Also, monitor your airtime. If you have been speaking for a long time, transition into a listening role. If you are a natural listener, challenge yourself to be more communicative, however that manifests. While all things spoken are communication, not all communication is spoken. Your participation is vital!
Your Story, Your Choice
You decide how and which stories to share and which to keep. No one is expected to educate anyone else by sharing their experiences, traumas, or stories.
Don’t Yuck My Yum (Yes, And)
If what someone offers to the group (their joy, ideas, experiences, gender expressions) is not hurting anyone, do not disparage it. Instead, affirm and add (yes, and!). One person’s yummy bit is not superior to anyone else’s.
Respect the Intention/Impact Balance
There is a difference between intent and affect, and often harm can occur when there is not the intent for harm. We know people will make mistakes. All we ask is that people are accountable for those mistakes.
We Have Wounds
Be respectful to your environment. While being cavalier or flippant about genocide, slavery, racism, sexism, ableism, rape, etc. can be an individual coping mechanism, it is not an ideal fit in collectives where there are survivors. Discuss these things in a way that respects the gravity of the concerns/issues and your peers, including asking for consent first.
“Ouch” and “Educate”
When potentially harmful statements are made, they can disrupt the energy and attention of a workshop/conversation, making it difficult for folks to learn and engage. “Ouch” is a technique/word to use in real time for people to acknowledge something harmful that was stated, and “educate” is a term that encourages folks to say more/elaborate on what their statement means. It allows for addressing discomfort and achieving greater clarity in real time.
What Happens in Vegas, Stays in Vegas
What it said here, stays here. What is learned here, leaves here. Share the knowledge generated from the conversation, but not conversation, itself. People share personal things/stories/positions, etc. in conversations both formally and informally that they may not want shared more broadly. If you want to take something out of conversations that are not yours – someone else’s actions, stories, ideas, or images–get consent.
Conversations End in Comma, Not a Period
The journey toward equity is an evolving dialogue and set of actions that produces mutual understanding, empathy, and respect. Thus, our conversations do not end after sessions or the awardee meeting. We encourage the continuation and momentum of critical conversations you experience in the spirit of advancing equity.
Finally, we want to say, thank you for your energy, time, presence, and most importantly your commitment to equity and the expansion of ISL. REVISE sits as one very new addition to the ISL ecosystem, but I am eternally grateful to my team for bringing this meeting intro fruition, and to the collaborative inquiry we engage in daily. This is truly a yeoman’s work that they make seem effortless. Moments where I feel like I spend more time with them than others, I recognize I am blessed and consider them family. We are grateful to our National Science Foundation (NSF) program officers, the several AISL program officers that are in attendance, and those who could not make it. While they are our mere humble civil servants, they, themselves, have been greatly embedded in equity work and have been integral in AISL’s progression over the years. We are honored to walk alongside them in this work. Lastly, to the ISL community here in body and spirit, this work is not done, idealized, or realized without you. Our gratitude knows no bounds. The best part is that much like this hotel, equity is the process of construction, reconstruction, co-construction, formation, reformation, vision, and REVISION. We wish all of you a productive and enriching experience.
***Some norms have been adapted from our internal discussions and practice as a team, and also via guidelines from Guidelines for Collective Conversations at CLEAR by the Civic Laboratory for Environmental Action Research led by Max Liboiron, PhD, Director and Founder.***