4421 Views (as of 05/2023)
  1. Suzanna Rose
  2. Associate Provost
  3. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  4. Florida International University
  1. Sanaz Farhangi
  2. Postdoctoral Fellow
  3. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  4. Florida International University
  1. Ashley Garcia
  2. Account Manager
  3. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  4. Florida International University
  1. Kirsten Wood
  2. Associate Professor
  3. Presenter’s NSFRESOURCECENTERS
  4. Florida International University

Bystander Leadership Program: From Insight to Action

NSF Awards: 1629889

2019 (see original presentation & discussion)

Graduate, Informal / multi-age

The intersectionality of gender, race, class, and cultural identity suggest unique barriers to recruiting minority and underrepresented women as STEM faculty and students. Florida International University (FIU) is a multicultural institution, but that means faculty members from around the world bring with them culturally-based gender stereotypes about women from their own culture and different gender-by-cultural stereotypes about women from other cultures.

The Bystander Leadership Program is a behavioral skills training program that educates faculty on implicit bias by raising awareness about the interplay between power, privilege, and bias often experienced by women and minorities. It then provides them with practice using a range of responses and actions that can be used to address instances of bias and to increase inclusion.

The workshop uses research-based interactive material to present skits concerning instances of gender and race bias derived from interviews and focus groups that are tailored to the academic setting. The workshop format allows attendees to interact with each other and the curriculum. Subsequently, attendees take an active role in intervention scenarios, performing the skills they learned during the workshop and developing the experience necessary to engage in real-world situations.

The program was launched in 2018-2019 as part of FIU's National Science Foundation ADVANCE Institutional Transformation grant. Over 150 STEM and Social and Behavioral Science tenure-track faculty members at FIU have attended to date. The overwhelming majority of participants reported that the workshop increased their confidence about using prosocial intervention skills and strategies, and said they were more likely to intervene in similar situations after the workshop. According to one, ““I think ALL faculty would really benefit from this kind of training program to help them understand various biases and to increase inclusion of women and minorities in academia.”

This video has had approximately 759 visits by 687 visitors from 118 unique locations. It has been played 172 times as of 05/2023.
Click to See Activity Worldwide
Map reflects activity with this presentation from the 2019 STEM for All Video Showcase: Innovations in STEM Education website, as well as the STEM For All Multiplex website.
Based on periodically updated Google Analytics data. This is intended to show usage trends but may not capture all activity from every visitor.
show more
Discussion from the 2019 STEM for All Video Showcase (19 posts)
  • Icon for: Ashley Garcia

    Ashley Garcia

    Co-Presenter
    Account Manager
    May 13, 2019 | 08:21 a.m.

    Thank you for taking the time to watch our video! Our research team is interested in your feedback. Does this program seem like something that would be of value at your institution? Do you have similar programs at your institution, and if so, how do you encourage participation?

    AWED Theater, the interactive, educational theater program incorporated into the workshop, is geared towards addressing the multicultural intersectional identities that are characteristic of FIU, Hispanic-serving institutions, and the region as a whole. For more information, leave us a message or visit go.fiu.edu/awedtheater.

  • Icon for: Molly Phillips

    Molly Phillips

    iDigBio Education, Outreach and Diversity Coordinator
    May 13, 2019 | 02:56 p.m.

    I just got the chance to do a bystander training at my institution and it was definitely an eye opening experience for me, and I found myself nodding in agreement with the people you interviewed for your wonderful video. I think this kind of training is really valuable and I would love to see it implemented more broadly. Do you have any plans to offer it outside of your institution? What do you think of the train the trainers model for expanding a program like this?

  • Icon for: Suzanna Rose

    Suzanna Rose

    Lead Presenter
    Associate Provost
    May 13, 2019 | 03:08 p.m.

    Hi Molly: Thanks for your kind feedback. Our preliminary research analysis indicates that the Bystander Leadership Workshop is having a positive effect on both attitudes and behavior. People really enjoy learning new skills/responses and appreciate the interaction with faculty outside of their departments. It has been a great way to build community. Yes, we plan to offer train-the-trainer possibly next summer. In the meantime, however, we have had some visitors participate in the workshops here as guests. Appreciate your encouragement. Suzanna

     
    1
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Sarah Haavind
  • Icon for: Molly Phillips

    Molly Phillips

    iDigBio Education, Outreach and Diversity Coordinator
    May 13, 2019 | 03:34 p.m.

    How would you recommend learning about future train the trainer events? We have an emerging community that is interested here at UF.

  • Icon for: Kirsten Wood

    Kirsten Wood

    Co-Presenter
    Associate Professor
    May 13, 2019 | 03:51 p.m.

    Hi Molly.  Feel free to email me (woodk@fiu.edu) after this event to get put on a 'stay tuned' list for train-the-trainer opportunities in the future.  And perhaps some folks from UF might consider coming as observers to a bystander training here in the fall.

  • Icon for: Karen Mutch-Jones

    Karen Mutch-Jones

    Facilitator
    Senior Researcher
    May 13, 2019 | 03:44 p.m.

    The testimonials in the video suggest that the Bystander Leadership Program has been quite engaging and educative, and comments suggest that it has the power not only to raise awareness but also to change faculty behavior!  It was also encouraging to read that over 150 faculty have been trained--impressive.  

    I am wondering whether/how you are studying the impact of this Program.  Have you collected data on initial changes that faculty make following participation?  What, if any, expectations do you have for longer term change at FIU?

  • Icon for: Kirsten Wood

    Kirsten Wood

    Co-Presenter
    Associate Professor
    May 13, 2019 | 03:49 p.m.

    Thanks for your question, Karen.  We are indeed gathering data about faculty behavior over the short and long term after the intervention, and we will begin analyzing our results over the summer.

    In addition, for the sake of broadening our impact, we anticipate developing "refresher" or "booster" sessions that will help faculty reflect on what they have tried and get re-energized to continue to the work.  We also want to track how information about bystander and other initiatives diffuses through the faculty, so we are exploring ways to track (and ultimately tap) faculty-to-faculty networks of communication and support around diversity and equity issues.

    If I didn't answer your question fully, Karen, I hope you'll ask a follow-up!

  • Icon for: Karen Mutch-Jones

    Karen Mutch-Jones

    Facilitator
    Senior Researcher
    May 14, 2019 | 01:39 p.m.

    Thank you Kirsten for your response -- you did answer my questions!  I'm glad to know that you are studying impact, but also that you are assuming that follow-up is necessary. It would be interesting to measure the value-added by your booster sessions (e.g., what extent or what types of gains occur when faculty have more time and more opportunity to reflect on their work and continue the work?  How, if at all, are other areas of impact influenced by whether faculty do or do not participate in booster sessions?).  

    I hadn't thought about faculty-to faculty networks.  This seems like a fabulous way to sustain the Program impact too!

    Best wishes for building and studying the Program further.

  • Icon for: Kirsten Wood

    Kirsten Wood

    Co-Presenter
    Associate Professor
    May 15, 2019 | 02:05 p.m.

    The question you ask about booster sessions and impact is something we will need to figure out how to track and analyze.  Assuming we get the funding, I imagine we will continue to research the efficacy of our interventions for a long time to come!

  • Icon for: Sehoya Cotner

    Sehoya Cotner

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 14, 2019 | 10:52 a.m.

    I loved your video and am encouraged by this program. Do you have advice or resources for folks who'd want to try something similar at their own institutions?

  • Icon for: Sanaz Farhangi

    Sanaz Farhangi

    Co-Presenter
    Postdoctoral Fellow
    May 15, 2019 | 09:49 a.m.

    Hi Sehoya,

    Thanks for your interest. We are outlining a paper about how we shaped the program and how we think it might work in other places. We hope to finish it this summer. So stay tuned!

  • Icon for: Andrea Greenhoot

    Andrea Greenhoot

    Higher Ed Administrator
    May 14, 2019 | 12:09 p.m.

    This sounds like a great program! I will be really interested in your data on faculty behavior, and especially the diffusion of impact through faculty networks. In this regard, are you doing anything to help faculty participants develop leadership skills and capacity around diversity and equity issues (e.g., is this a part of the bystander leadership program?)?

  • Icon for: Sanaz Farhangi

    Sanaz Farhangi

    Co-Presenter
    Postdoctoral Fellow
    May 15, 2019 | 09:53 a.m.

    Hi Andrea,

    Yes! The whole program is based on assuming responsibility and leadership to act in daily incidents (racial/ethnic/gender based comments or behaviors)that hurt the climate of the departments. We are providing the participants with tools and practice (in forms of performances) to make them feel more efficient to intervene. Our preliminary results and testimonials show that we were successful in change of behavior. But the diffusion of impact part is our next step and in the making. Be in touch with us. We will be happy to share our results.

  • Icon for: Sarah Haavind

    Sarah Haavind

    Facilitator
    Senior Research Project Manager
    May 15, 2019 | 01:42 p.m.

    Hello Bystander Leadership team and visitors, Thank you for taking the time to put together such a great video about the project you are working on. Your description is also helpful, giving more of a sense of what prosocial intervention skills and strategies might be. I'm sure the universities I have been a part of are not alone in their need for something like this approach! So glad you are thinking beyond dry lecture-based harassment trainings that few relate to or recognize themselves in, toward skits mirroring everyday interactions that people are more likely to recognize while at the same time being disarmed by the softer, entertaining delivery. Why couldn't such a project move to taping skits and providing curriculum guides for wider dissemination? I'm even thinking of that old cable program "Supernanny" where family scenarios would be analyzed wisely...is extending your work anything you have considered?

  • Icon for: Sanaz Farhangi

    Sanaz Farhangi

    Co-Presenter
    Postdoctoral Fellow
    May 15, 2019 | 01:53 p.m.

    Hi Sarah,

    Thanks for your encouragement and interest. We think a powerful part of our program is the fact that skits are based on local experiences and stories of the faculty themselves. We spent a considerable time finding and crafting these stories to reflect the intersectionalities important to FIU. I think to take this to other places we have to think about how to get to "family scenarios" fast and analyze them in time. We are thinking of it and hope to offer more in future.

     
    1
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Sarah Haavind
  • Icon for: Kirsten Wood

    Kirsten Wood

    Co-Presenter
    Associate Professor
    May 15, 2019 | 02:03 p.m.

    Hi Sarah!  

    Thanks for your comments.  I think that in addition to Sanaz's observations above, I would add that the "embodied practice" aspect of our training is as important as the contextual examples. 

    Yes, we could develop online modules for broad dissemination, and they could work very well for highly motivated and well-informed participants, but in some ways that would represent a regression back to the slides-and-lecture sexual harassment trainings that did so little good for so many of us. 

    Or, to put frame it more positively, I think the approach you mention could work very well for the "notice and interpret" steps of our model, but we don't yet know how to incorporate the critical steps of "assuming responsibility" and "taking action" into an asynchronous format.

    With all that in mind, I think we are probably going to go the train-the-trainer route rather than taking a more mass-market/open-access approach to disseminating our work.  But as we continue to refine our work and interpret our results, we remain open to considering all the options, so thanks again for the suggestion!  

  • Icon for: Suzanna Rose

    Suzanna Rose

    Lead Presenter
    Associate Provost
    May 15, 2019 | 02:17 p.m.

    Dear Sarah: Thanks for your encouraging note! Our team met for 1.5 years to develop our content and strategy -- as the Bystander leader/developer, I was committed to having the day be almost entirely interactive (only a very few short powerpoints). Additionally, each component of the day builds on the previous. Participants first are oriented to take the perspective of others (Bystander STEPS 1-2: Notice and Interpret) and then move on to take increasing levels of responsibility in the interaction with multiple opportunities to practice intervening. First, they observe and discuss the skits with professional actors, then themselves act in defined skits, and finally create their own skits (Bystander STEPS 3-4-5: Lead by taking responsibility to intervene, decide how to intervene, then act). Part of what makes workshop effective is the opportunity for Ps to see what colleagues do --there is quite a range of creative responses. However, even more than that, what works is seeing how powerful it can be to act in concert with others. We think this community-building aspect is important to changing the norms of departmental climate, which is one of the ultimate goals of our NSF Institutional Transformation grant. We hope to have train-the-trainer materials available by the end of this summer and possibly offer sessions in 2020.  Your idea of taped skits is under consideration as a way to extend our work, but unfortunately, that won't provide the networking and community-building aspect that is so essential to changing climate. Thanks again for your thoughtful comments and suggestions.

     
    1
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Sarah Haavind
  • Icon for: Sherri Turner

    Sherri Turner

    Higher Ed Faculty
    May 19, 2019 | 05:00 p.m.

    Excellent video. Very interesting work. Thank you so much for sharing this.

     
    1
    Discussion is closed. Upvoting is no longer available

    Sherri Turner
  • Icon for: Kirsten Wood

    Kirsten Wood

    Co-Presenter
    Associate Professor
    May 20, 2019 | 01:06 p.m.

    Thanks for that comment!  We are pleased with our results so far, and with the positive feedback from the community here.

  • Further posting is closed as the event has ended.