Women & underrepresented minorities in grad education
How should we address the opportunities and challenges for women and underrepresented minorities pursuing graduate degrees? In an era when some argue in court that Affirmative Action policies are not fair or no longer needed, should a research ethics course continue to address this topic?
posted by Gary Comstock @ 4:06 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
In response to our class discuss about underrepresented and minority groups in higher education. I think that it is difficult for individuals to discuss these topics because we live in a society that for many years has been unable to address or even converse about these subjects. I think that it is a difficult topic for me because I know how it feels to be a double minority or visual minority (a women and black) in higher education. The hardest fact for me to grasp is that there are still individuals that feel that I am not qualified to be in higher education. There is a huge difference from being a HBCU then to come to a majority university. My goal in the future is to let other women, African Americans, individuals with different learning styles and skills and other individuals that believe that higher education is not obtainable to know that education is for all and that all can achieve. I said all this to say that yes you should still talk about mentoring minorities and underrepresented groups because it allows for a forum for individuals of different backgrounds to discuss a topic that so many times is not discussed in other sectors of life.
Just one voice
The legality of affimative action is separate from the ethical issues of women and minorities in graduate research. This would mean that regardless of where that issue stands in an ethics class the topic should be discussed. The prof from Harvard statements show that there are people out there that are prejudice. Though I am personally against affirmative action b/c I believe that it sets up an unfair system; I don't think that the world is yet equal. These inequalities and policies surrounding them would be a good discussion point for an ethics class.
I would want to know what in this topic deals with research ethics. One large area would be: What are the opportunities for women and underrepresented minorities in research, and have they been marginalized? I believe the answer is clearly yes, especially in the physical and natural sciences. Then I would want to know why that is the case. I would also want to know what topics have not been addressed by the explicit exclusion or tacit bracketing of these groups. If we were to conceive of scientific inquiry as encompassing the work of all people, how might it change? Now, of course, there could be counterexamples. George Washington Carver, Marie Curie, and so forth did science. Is science at all gendered or "raced"?
But more to the point, what are the challenges and opportunities for women and minorities in graduate education? Would inquiry change in any way by more inclusion? It seems clear in obvious examples such as the Tuskegee experiments that it would change. How else might it change?
I think this topic is excellent as it takes us to consideration of wider social issues that impinge upon the university.
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