Opportunities and Challenges of Building Physics Educators’ Capacity for Engaging in Critical ConversationsMartha-Elizabeth Baylor

The APS EDI Fellows Program developed a small cohort of fellows for the purpose of 1) increasing their awareness, 2) developing a workshop for physics educators, and 3) training the fellows to co-facilitate the workshop. During the first year of the program the curriculum development team (CDT), consisting of two physics educators and two social scientists - one with expertise in critical conversations and one with expertise in cultural competency, selected and trained the fellows to develop their self-awareness, cultural competency and capacity to engage in critical conversations in a physics classroom context. The Fellows also co-developed the workshop with the support of the CDT. During the second-year of the grant, each fellow co-facilitated the workshop with one of the social scientists to selected audiences in order to receive feedback and iteratively improve the workshop itself. We will present on the opportunities and challenges of physicists partnering with social scientists, of training the fellows (including their growth and areas of continued work around EDI), and of delivering the workshop to a variety of audiences within the physics community. Finally we will provide a summary of how these observations impact how we think about continuing this work beyond the Innovation Fund Grant.