Session L38: TEAM-UP: The Time is Now for Systemic Changes to Increase the Number of African American Bachelor’s in Physics and Astronomy

The Time is Now to Double the Number of Physics Degrees Earned by African Americans

The under representation of African Americans in physics is arguably the greatest social challenge faced by the physics community. For example, in an era when the overall number of bachelors degrees in physics has more than doubled in the past two decades, the percentage of African Americans receiving bachelor's degrees in physics has stagnated or declined, depending on the year. Further, this under representation persists, despite deliberate successful efforts in the community to increase bachelor's degrees, largely due to a focus on the undergraduate experience; and despite impressive increases in African Americans receiving bachelor's degrees across other STEM fields. The American Institute of Physics recently published a comprehensive research study of this problem. The researchers set out to understand this persistent under representation from African American students' perspective, so they could tell us what are the factors that lead to or detract from their degree success. The result of this study is a new report, "The Time is Now," which lays out a comprehensive set of findings and recommendations for the physics community. The bottom line goal of the report is to double the annual number of African Americans receiving bachelor's in physics by 2030.   

The TEAM-UP Report: Major Findings and Recommendations

The TEAM-UP task force collected quantitative and qualitative data from over 250 undergraduate physics students and 40 physics departments to examine and assess the reasons for the persistent under-representation of African American (AA) students in physics and astronomy at the bachelor’s level. The task forces embraced social science research methods and perspectives to investigate four key questions:
1. How does physics culture enhance or diminish AA students’ success?
2. What are the key experiences that lead to AA student persistence or failure to persist in undergraduate physics and astronomy programs?
3. What programmatic factors lead to the persistence of AA students in obtaining B.S./B.A. degrees in Physics/Astronomy?
4. What impedes or promotes culture change in the physics and astronomy community necessary to increase the persistence of AA students in Physics and Astronomy?

In this talk we describe the major findings and evidence-based recommendations for AIP Member Societies, physics and astronomy departments, and other stakeholders to increase the number and percentage of African American students obtaining bachelor’s degrees in physics and astronomy.   

TEAM-UP’s Recommendations on Systemic Change

The TEAM-UP report identifies the structural and systemic causes explaining why African Americans have not experienced the growth in bachelor’s degrees in physics the way they have in other fields or as other minority groups have experienced in physics over the past two decades. Solving these problems requires changing not only the way physicists train students, but how they think about training students. Research on change in higher education suggests the need for physicists and astronomers to recognize and question the norms, values, and culture of their fields. The TEAM-UP report’s highest priority recommendations provide a guide to cultural transformation in the profession. The evidence and theories presented in this report call for a new way of thinking by physicists, much as the Davisson-Germer experiment did nearly a century ago.   

Observations From A Physics Career Apropos The TEAM-UP Report

Reflections on experiences from a forty-three long career are recalled in light of the TEAM-UP report.