We are excited to have you here to learn more about this third report in a series on the future of work, titled “Perspectives from the Field on Equity and the Future of Work: Developing the Next Generation of Talent.” This report introduces a compelling tool that can support change makers and system stakeholders through the complexities of thinking about both systems and their impacts on the real people involved, while also centering those same people purposefully in reconstructing systems of equity and opportunity in STEM fields.  As you watch our video, please comment on how you might envision using the tool in your work or share any questions that come to mind around the purpose and use of this tool and how it can be applied to STEM fields and career pathways.  The report itself will be published early next month. 

We look forward to an engaging conversation with you!

Hi - Great work! Where can we get a more detailed description of the compass?

 What equity question is driving your current work?  For example, a question driving one of our current projects is:  How do we develop an equitable computer science pathway for all the students in our school system?   What is your equity question?

Hello and thank you for sharing your work. What a rich and creative resource. I particularly like that it moves beyond theory to action. I also appreciate the foundational recognition that diversity naturally leads to greater creativity and innovation. Using a compass as a model is very accessible and the model cleverly incorporates human-centered design and improvement science. Is there a particular improvement science model that you use in your method? How do you recommend how someone who uses this tool engages the people they are trying to attract in the process if they are not already part of the organization? For example, an organization that wants to increase diversity and decides to use this tool but does not have diversity within the organization that would inform them as they go through the compass process.

I cannot praise your video highly enough. This is a perfect example of how incorporating concepts of intersectionality into STEM fields—especially those that seek to improve our quality of life—is not only wildly beneficial, but necessary. If we don’t have input from the people affected by our decisions when we make them, we can’t make good choices. I am absolutely blown away; this is perfect!

 Hi Abigal.  Thanks so much for your comments.  As I wrote on your video site: "It's clear to me that when young people, like yourself, combine hope, purpose and creative actions, the world can change for the better.  And you are right.  It will take "all" of us to look squarely at root causes of injustice and inequity, understand the real needs of people, and co-construct options that change the status quo and move toward a better and more sustainable world.  When our Equity Systems Change Compass tool is published, (stelar.edc.org)  we would like your group to take a closer look at it and think about ways that your teams or others may be able to use it to enhance your work.  My best to you.  

I found the comments from the youth focus group participant to be so impactful, this really demonstrates that centering the community voice from the conception of a project is what brings about the most impact. Great project!

Thank you for sharing this project - I resonate with the powerful vision and the recognition of there being key questions to unearth as part of the conversation (getting at the deeper 'why' this is happening) and then those can help suggest new courses of action.

I look forward to seeing the tool fully described, since it's hard to dig into design questions without having it in hand. I resonate with Channa's question about what to do if the people participating don't represent stakeholders that matter to you, and particularly the marginalized groups you're hoping to connect with. It seems to me that the discussion would get you to a certain point, but surely there's no substitute for directly engaging with the range of groups involved, to hear their perspectives on these questions. And of course that's not simple. Are there processes or representations that would be more familiar to some of the other stakeholders in your conversations? Or could project outsiders feel at a disadvantage if they participate because the compass is new to them?

I forgot to ask - I'd also love to know more about your evaluation process (both formative and summative) - did you run the compass through an iterative cycle of testing in real settings with real stakeholders? What kinds of things did that reveal? (would be fascinating!) And what kinds of final outcomes did you assess for the efficacy of the compass? Thanks!

This is a relatively new effort and we are interested in working with communities wanting to help us further test out this model. Still a work in progress.  Thank you for asking.  If you are interested in working with us to test test the Equity Systems Change Compass in your community, please don't hesitate to contact the STELAR team.

Hello Stelar team! After reviewing the Stelar website, I am curious about how you are including diverse voices in the development of your report and facilitator's toolkit. While there are women on your team, I did not see any representation of the other underrepresented groups that your report seeks to impact. 

Thanks for your question. To develop the project and to gain a more nuanced view of the current state of work and workforce education, we  worked with leaders and representatives of the communities most affected by changes taking place due to the COVID-19 pandemic. From July through October 2020, we reached out to a wide range of organizations for referrals for “champions of equity” to participate in one-on-one interviews. (Details of the names and affiliations of interviewees can be found in our upcoming report ).  We ultimately interviewed 9 highly recommended individuals (seven men and three women, of whom five are white and five are people of color) recognized as equity experts/thought leaders and a panel of six youth (all of color, of different cultural backgrounds, and from historically underrepresented groups. We also researched the voices of diverse groups in business, education, justice, labor and community. We look forward to joining with diverse groups in testing the efficacy of the Compass Tool and Guide. 

Thank you for the work that you're doing. In our research addressing racial equity in engineering through a focus on the lived experience, I am most perplexed by a failure to move beyond awareness. While your model moves from the conversation to action, I am wondering how accountability and the identification for whose responsible for implementation of established actions is addressed?

I'd be extremely interested in learning more about this work and potentially leveraging our research findings  from a community of Black engineering graduates students to explore the Equity Systems Change Compass.

Channa, Thank you for your thoughts and concerns. Based on your questions re the Compass, I’d like to share the history of how the Compass was developed to clarify any misconceptions about the foundation and origins of this tool. When we first set out to explore equity and the future of work, we had no idea that the conversations would result in the Equity Systems Change Compass. Our goal was to develop a report that shared perspectives on Equity and the Future of Work from champions working at the front lines of equity. Three members of the STELAR team were part of the 6 member group that authored the report. Each author was selected because of their prior history of equity work. As Vivian commented, for interviews we actively sought individuals from under-resourced communities, business, and academia who were recognized by their peers as champions of equity. Youth leaders from 9th grade through college from the Young People’s Project also contributed their voices and experience working in this space

It was through conversations with people working on the front lines of equity and analysis of these interviews that we found a number of patterns emerge.  As we organized and grouped the individual comments/ideas from interviewees onto a visual space we began to see themes that represented the patterns. Some themes were oppositional (e.g. characteristics of the existing system which prevent change vs human needs driving change). We recognized that the comments of interviewees reflected theories and models found in literature that shape thinking.  Again, our goal was to understand equity and the future of work from the perspective of our interviewees. As we moved these patterned themes around the visual space to understand the relationship of themes to each other and relevant literature (theories/models) we assigned them topic titles and the points on the Equity Systems Change Compass emerged.  Once this occurred it was gratifying to see that the organization of topics represented a thought progression as one moved from the North to Northeast, to East… and around the compass back to a new North. And that moving along this progression might guide a group through discussions of equity issues while keeping the conversation productively moving in positive, action oriented directions.  With appropriate guiding questions and an experienced facilitator, we realized that this might be helpful to communities seeking to address difficult equity issues - without falling into the trap of using these discussions only to vent.

The Equity Systems Change Compass is the product of those interviews and reflects the thoughts, ideas and views of our interviewees connected to relevant models/theories and organized into what we hope will be a tool useful to groups seeking productive ways to discuss equity issues.

Regarding your questions around the composition of the STELAR team and focus on equity. Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion is a primary focus of both the STELAR Center and Education Development Center (EDC). Building on perspectives from those most affected by inequities is central to STELAR’s work and an approach we use frequently in our project activities. We are focused on equity and diversity in our team make-up as well, and work intentionally to involve diverse perspectives in our work. Three members of the STELAR team were part of the 6 member group that authored the report. Each author was selected because of their prior history of equity work.  Compass report author Sarita Pillai is the PI of STELAR and also serves as EDC’s Chief Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Officer. As the resource center for the NSF ITEST Program, STELAR is charged with broadening participation in the ITEST portfolio to researchers with a diversity of experiences and perspectives. We are also tasked with supporting and disseminating the research conducted by ITEST grantees, each of which are charged with designing programs that are specifically focused on recruiting, supporting, and encouraging PK-12 learners from underserved communities and/or are underrepresented in STEM fields.