Towards More Fluid Inclusion: Making Geoscience Undergraduate Degrees a Place of Belonging for All
Geosciences are central to addressing many of the challenges facing our society and environment today, and geoscience undergraduate degrees can lead to influential and lucrative careers in a range of fields. However, geosciences are one of the least diverse of all STEM subject areas. We present resu...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Frontiers Media S.A.
2024-12-01
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| Series: | Earth Science, Systems and Society |
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| Online Access: | https://www.lyellcollection.org/doi/10.3389/esss.2024.10115 |
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| author | Bethany R. S. Fox Rukhsana R. Din A. C. Davidson Vicki Trowler Victoria Ayodeji Francisca Rockey Manju Patel-Nair |
| author_facet | Bethany R. S. Fox Rukhsana R. Din A. C. Davidson Vicki Trowler Victoria Ayodeji Francisca Rockey Manju Patel-Nair |
| author_sort | Bethany R. S. Fox |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Geosciences are central to addressing many of the challenges facing our society and environment today, and geoscience undergraduate degrees can lead to influential and lucrative careers in a range of fields. However, geosciences are one of the least diverse of all STEM subject areas. We present results from a series of workshops held in 2022 focused on understanding the experiences of current or recent undergraduates from under-represented groups on UK geoscience degrees. The workshops focused particularly on the participants’ sense of belonging in their degree programmes. Factors that reduced participants’ sense of belonging can be broadly grouped into unfamiliarity of geosciences amongst family and friends, lack of representation in the discipline, lack of representation among/exclusion by peers, and structural barriers. We present and discuss the recommendations made by participants for strategies to tackle each of these barriers to belonging. These strategies are intended to be practical actions that individual educators can take to enhance belonging in the geosciences. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-18b8db53175e4cfbb2a864db21169c0c |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 2634-730X |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2024-12-01 |
| publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Earth Science, Systems and Society |
| spelling | doaj-art-18b8db53175e4cfbb2a864db21169c0c2025-01-10T14:04:55ZengFrontiers Media S.A.Earth Science, Systems and Society2634-730X2024-12-014110.3389/esss.2024.10115Towards More Fluid Inclusion: Making Geoscience Undergraduate Degrees a Place of Belonging for AllBethany R. S. Fox0Rukhsana R. Din1A. C. Davidson2Vicki Trowler3Victoria Ayodeji4Francisca Rockey5Manju Patel-Nair61School of Applied Sciences, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, United Kingdom1School of Applied Sciences, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, United Kingdom1School of Applied Sciences, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, United Kingdom1School of Applied Sciences, University of Huddersfield, Huddersfield, United Kingdom2Independent Researcher, London, United Kingdom2Independent Researcher, London, United Kingdom3Changemakers Unltd Limited, London, United KingdomGeosciences are central to addressing many of the challenges facing our society and environment today, and geoscience undergraduate degrees can lead to influential and lucrative careers in a range of fields. However, geosciences are one of the least diverse of all STEM subject areas. We present results from a series of workshops held in 2022 focused on understanding the experiences of current or recent undergraduates from under-represented groups on UK geoscience degrees. The workshops focused particularly on the participants’ sense of belonging in their degree programmes. Factors that reduced participants’ sense of belonging can be broadly grouped into unfamiliarity of geosciences amongst family and friends, lack of representation in the discipline, lack of representation among/exclusion by peers, and structural barriers. We present and discuss the recommendations made by participants for strategies to tackle each of these barriers to belonging. These strategies are intended to be practical actions that individual educators can take to enhance belonging in the geosciences.https://www.lyellcollection.org/doi/10.3389/esss.2024.10115diversitygeoscienceinclusionbelonginggeographyundergraduate |
| spellingShingle | Bethany R. S. Fox Rukhsana R. Din A. C. Davidson Vicki Trowler Victoria Ayodeji Francisca Rockey Manju Patel-Nair Towards More Fluid Inclusion: Making Geoscience Undergraduate Degrees a Place of Belonging for All Earth Science, Systems and Society diversity geoscience inclusion belonging geography undergraduate |
| title | Towards More Fluid Inclusion: Making Geoscience Undergraduate Degrees a Place of Belonging for All |
| title_full | Towards More Fluid Inclusion: Making Geoscience Undergraduate Degrees a Place of Belonging for All |
| title_fullStr | Towards More Fluid Inclusion: Making Geoscience Undergraduate Degrees a Place of Belonging for All |
| title_full_unstemmed | Towards More Fluid Inclusion: Making Geoscience Undergraduate Degrees a Place of Belonging for All |
| title_short | Towards More Fluid Inclusion: Making Geoscience Undergraduate Degrees a Place of Belonging for All |
| title_sort | towards more fluid inclusion making geoscience undergraduate degrees a place of belonging for all |
| topic | diversity geoscience inclusion belonging geography undergraduate |
| url | https://www.lyellcollection.org/doi/10.3389/esss.2024.10115 |
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