A Classroom Intervention to Promote Equity and Inclusion

We will describe a 70 minute classroom intervention offered in 100-level physics classes to promote a more inclusive department through having all physics students consider how to counter microaggressions and bias. This intervention has been offered to incoming physics majors for the past 5 years at our institution. In spring of 2019, 16 past workshop participants were interviewed by two senior physics majors, and their responses to the intervention fell into three categories: appreciation (it was a good discussion to have to “raise awareness” about the issue)—5 male students; approval (women and non-binary students expressed themes of feeling “good,” “recognized,” and “supported” by the content of the workshop; male students expressed appreciation that the workshop highlighted a problem that they may inadvertently be contributing to, and provided tools for how to support women and intervene)—9 students including all women and nonbinary students in the sample; dislike (feeling “browbeaten into apologizing for their being less women in the field;” the workshop leader “made many enemies in the class)—2 male students. We will present the contents of the workshop, the range of reactions, and our advice for others who would like to present similar workshops.