SIS 201

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SIS 201 Diversity

• Nigel Eady
• Science in Society Officer, the BA

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Agenda
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Why increase diversity?

• Meta plan

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(No Transcript)
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Social climate (i)

• Survey of BME communities in Midlands incl.
  African Caribbean, African, Pakistani, Indian,
  Bangladeshi, Vietnamese, Somali, Chinese, dual
  heritage groups
• 73 never undertaken scicomm activities
• 95 no links with scicomm orgs
• 9 never received info on e.g. NSEW
• 93 interested in undertaking science activities
• 84 indicated word of mouth very important
• 4 scicomm orgs had worked with all groups

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Social climate (ii)

• Science, Engineering and Technology (SET) and the
  UKs Ethnic Minority Population
• report for the Royal Society
• Paul Jones and Peter Elias April 2005
• to present a picture of ethnic group
  participation in SET in terms of occupations held
  and participation in post-compulsory education

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of sample achieving at least one A level at age
18/19 years, by subject area and ethnic group
Source pooled Youth Cohort Study of England and
Wales, spring 2000 and spring 2002
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Over/under-representation at doctorate level
Source Higher Education Statistics Agency
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of employed population in SET occupations by
ethnic group
Source Labour Force Survey
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Social climate (iii)

• High achievers in SET
• Indians
• Chinese
• Black Africans
• Low achievers in SET
• Black Caribbeans (esp males)
• Bangladeshis (esp females)

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The goal

• Science communication activities should
• reflect wider British society both in terms of
  practitioners and audience
• cater for all ages, cultures, backgrounds
• Legal requirement
• Race Relations Act
• Disability Discrimination Act

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What are your aims?

• Is rebranding or better marketing enough?
• Do we need to start again?
• Who is your audience?

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Learning Points 1

• Do you have monitoring data?
• Be smart! Does your questionnaire work?
• Do some research e.g. York
• Know your audience go to them and talk to them
• Do they want to be reached? Why not?

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Who is missing?

• Race ethnicity BMEs esp African Caribbean,
  Bangladeshi, Pakistani non-English speakers
• Age youth elderly
• Gender women
• Sexual orientation
• Physical ability disabled carers
• Socio-economic status benefits
• Religion
• Other groups ex-offenders

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But how, when, where what?

• You know what youre aims are
• You know who your audience is
• Then what?
• The Science in Society teams experience.

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DISC the facts

• Delivering Inclusion In Science Communication
• African Caribbean Network for Science and
  Technology (ACNST) Dr Liz Rasekoala
  www.ishangohouse.com
• national project, located in Northwest, Midlands
  and London
• April 2004-March 2006
• funded by COPUS, NESTA OSI

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DISC year plan

• Year 1 separate consultation events for BMEs
  and science communicators to assess needs,
  interests and barriers that each face when
  involving BMEs in scicomm activities
• Year 2 groups from Year 1 brought together to
  network, share ideas challenges and build
  partnerships to organise innovative initiatives
  resources and database

BMEs scicomm
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Year 1 barriers (i)

• workshops in Exeter, Manchester, Birmingham and
  Sunderland (SeptNov 2004)
• for BMEs
• organisational structure and limited strategic
  approaches
• representation of science
• restrictive forms of engagement
• lack of resources
• lack of confidence and low aspirations

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Year 1 barriers (ii)

• for science communicators
• organisational culture and lack of strategic
  approach
• representation of science
• restrictive forms of engagement
• lack of resources
• lack of market intelligence
• lack of willing scientists
• lack of awareness of science in developing nations

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Year 2 market research

• what is out there and how we can help
• www.the-ba.net/disc
• Reports e.g. Royal Society Science, Engineering
  and Technology and the UKs Ethnic Minority
  Population
• DISC Representations of science directory of
  resources for children and adults including
  books, videos, websites and schemes detailing
  activities and contributions of BME communities
  and individuals, past present
• DISC Gathering market intelligence guide to
  working with BME communities in science
  communication

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Since DISC officially ended

• Newham African Caribbean Carers Forum and the BA
• 2 events November 2005 February 2007
• presentation and discussion with
  clinician/geneticist, lunch and Science Museum
  tour
• drugsfutures consultation workshop, lunch and
  Natural History Museum tour

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Newham African Caribbean Carers Forum

• support group for African Caribbean carers and
  ex-carers
• meet 2nd Tuesday each month
• promote opportunities and highlight carers needs
• providing social, leisure educational
  opportunities
• raise awareness of issues affecting carers

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Learning Points 2

• Issues to consider
• beware assumptions!
• prepare consult why them?
• find common ground what interests them?
• communicate how best?
• personnel speaker BME role model
• will there be a legacy?

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Learning Points 3

• Issues to consider
• logistics
• what? topics
• when? timing
• how? travel, food
• where? venue
• other issues, e.g. carers

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community x-change - facts

• PEALS Tom Wakeford, Jasber Singh
• funded by Sciencewise, Defra Climate Challenge
  Fund and Wellcome Trust
• three year project, two-way engagement
• over-representing the under-represented
• www.the-ba.net/communityxchange
• www.communityxchange.org.uk

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Year 1 - East Anglia (i)

• under-represented outreach electoral roll
• scientists research centres university
• diverse community group of about 35 people
  including BMEs, non-English speakers, youth,
  disabled, ex-offenders
• workshops over 4 days in June/July 2006

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Year 1 - East Anglia (ii)

• discussed issues of local and national importance
• local environment climate change, including
  flooding, transport facilities
• videos online

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Learning Points 4

• Issues to consider
• issues do not fit into neat categories
• social, moral, justice, ethical, political,
  health, environmental? which to choose?
• tight framing may exclude rather than yield
  detailed responses
• is science the only way of looking at an issue?

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Learning Points 5

• Issues to consider
• logistics
• how recruit? letter?
• other issues, e.g. childcare, translation,
  disabled access, hearing loops
• incentives/financial renumeration/travel expenses

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Strengths of DISC

• awareness, monitoring
• time and money devoted to projects
• contacts made developed
• opportunities for BMEs
• BME role models discovered
• data and resources available

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Strengths of community x-change

• diversity
• little drop out
• framing of science issues
• institutional learning
• developing new process

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Weaknesses of DISC

• lack of time and money to follow up (usual
  suspects involved subsequently)
• danger of merely ticking box and thinking were
  there
• few organisations followed up on promises not
  significantly influenced wider community
• organisational change is slow do we really want
  to change?
• fear of sharing problems, being honest and
  sharing data

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Weaknesses of community x-change

• legacy
• policy links
• data collection
• developing new process

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Conclusions

• Top tips
• decide you want to increase diversity
• expect it to take TIME
• do research
• build relationships
• get the logistics right
• learn from your mistakes

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Group work

• You are part of the project team for SciComm Inc.
  a small science communication consultancy. You
  have been asked to submit a tender to the
  Liverpool Culture Company to run science
  engagement activities in Liverpool in 2008. There
  is up to 60k available which must include staff
  costs. The two key requirements of the project
  are that
• the diversity of Liverpool is represented in all
  aspects of the project and
• at least one controversial science issue must be
  addressed
• Please devise a rough budget and timeline for
  your bid. How will you ensure diversity?

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DIALOGUE
MONOLOGUE
Information provision
Dialogue Collaboration
Consultation
Engagement Involvement Participation
Information gathering