The APS Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity Alliance (APS-IDEA)

The APS Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity Alliance (APS-IDEA) seeks to empower teams of physicists to transform the culture of physics within their respective organizations to improve Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI).  In Summer 2020, a network of 99 teams involving nearly 1500 individuals was launched, involving departments at a wide range of colleges and universities (including over 10% of U.S. physics departments), government laboratories, and research collaborations.  The most frequently cited reason for joining was to learn what others were doing to improve EDI.  Most teams had goals to increase diversity among students, faculty and/or staff; and the most frequently anticipated barrier to change was cultural, i.e. getting support for change.  The APS-IDEA Guiding Principles are designed to facilitate cultural change by challenging existing values and advocating adoption of a new philosophy; they include: (1) centering people whose identities are marginalized, (2) utilizing sensemaking[1] to foster individual and organizational learning, (3) implementing research-based methods for enacting change, and (4) sharing leadership[2] across differences in social power.  To support learning and reflection, and facilitate exchange of information and experiences, teams engaged in virtual workshops, monthly Online Learning Community (OLC) meetings involving 4-5 teams each, individual team meetings, and asynchronous communication spaces.  Participation in these events was high, with nearly all teams represented.  Evaluation surveys confirmed that teams were engaged with the APS-IDEA Guiding Principles, and teams realized a number of outcomes after one year; feedback also highlighted the need for more scaffolding to support many teams with respect to emergent efforts.  Going forward, the project will provide support teams to attain greater empowerment to drive change in their respective organizations, ultimately with a vision of driving change across physics as a discipline.

 

[1] Sensemaking refers to the stories we tell ourselves and each other to make sense of and interpret our experiences. In APS-IDEA, sensemaking means that we work to understand the current culture of physics, ways in which it can be problematic, and each of our roles in reinforcing or changing this culture.

[2] Shared leadership is a type of participatory democracy in which members of an organization or institution share power, obtain multiple perspectives, and provide internal accountability for outcomes affecting them.  In APS-IDEA, that means that postdocs, students, faculty, and staff all hold leadership roles within the teams and participate fully in identifying and prioritizing issues to be addressed, designing and implementing solutions, and assessing outcomes.