UW–Madison’s Jackson co-authors paper published in Journal of Diversity in Higher Education

May 22, 2020

From UW-Madison School of Education

UW-Madison’s Jerlando Jackson co-authored a recent article published in the Journal of Diversity in Higher Education that’s titled, “Mixed-reality simulations to build capacity for advocating for diversity, equity, and inclusion in the geosciences.”

Jackson is the School of Education’s Vilas Distinguished Professor of Higher Education and chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Analysis. He also is director and chief research scientist with Wisconsin’s Equity and Inclusion Laboratory.

Co-authors on this paper include Jason Chen of the William & Mary School of Education and M. Shane Tutwiler of the University of Rhode Island.

The paper’s abstract explains how the researchers “report on data collected at three time points during a one-year intervention designed to teach a purposive sample of geoscience faculty members (n = 29) from 27 universities throughout the United States how to identify and address issues related to diversity, equity, and inclusion in their departments. For the intervention we used mixed-reality simulations to help participants practice specific skills to address common situations in geoscience departments. The intervention also included an intensive three-day workshop and three journal clubs.”

The authors add: “Using a Bayesian analytical approach we explored: (a) general trends in participants’ self- and collective efficacy for identifying and addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion over a one-year period; (b) relationships between self-efficacy and collective efficacy; and (c) demographic factors that explain variation in self- and collective efficacy.”

The researchers explain that the results indicate that “self- and collective efficacy rose sharply from preintervention to five months after beginning. Although both self- and collective efficacy retreated toward baseline at the one-year mark, only one-year self-efficacy was still credibly higher than preintervention. Also, preintervention self-efficacy predicted five-month collective efficacy. Efficacy beliefs varied as a function of race/ethnicity. Only collective efficacy varied as a function of academic rank. We discuss these findings in relation to social–cognitive theory and the literature regarding the use of digital learning environments to address diversity, equity, and inclusion.”

The Journal of Diversity in Higher Education is a publication of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education.