Addressing EDI issues in the Classroom

Physics educators are hesitant to engage with their classrooms when EDI issues arise. For many this is due to a lack of facilitation skills, fear of burdening minoritized students, fear of retribution, and/or a perception that these issues simply have no place in the physics classroom. Funded by an APS Innovation grant, the APS Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) Fellows Program has trained a cohort of physicists to present interactive workshops that address the lack of a physicist’s expertise and comfort level in holding the critical conversations needed to address EDI issues that arise in the classroom. The fellows are paired with social scientists whose expertise is in holding critical conversations. The pairing of an expert in the physics classroom with an expert in holding difficult conversations, presents participants a unique opportunity to gain some of the skills needed to cope with incidents in real time. This talk will discuss the major components of the workshop, discuss the major issues that we have faced in putting together the workshops, and discuss some preliminary results of the pilot workshops we have offered.