2DkcTXceO

232 Reflections on diversityall of us do, and this can have strong and negative effects. Gladwell discussesextensively the impact, positive and negative, of the social environment onacademic performance and general success in life. He also describes some veryinteresting experiments designed to measure very subtle aspects of negativeracial stereotyping. Recognizing our own tendency to stereotype others is infact an important first step towards making progress towards a more equitablesociety. Working closely with the students over so many years providedan opportunity for me to observe and, to at least some extent, empathizewith the challenges of being a minority student, even in today’s relativelyenlightened educational system. Internal and external expectations of underperformancevery easily turn into reality. Self-doubt can erode confidence,leading students to isolate themselves, thus cutting themselves off from thebeneficial effects of being in student study groups. On the flip side, however,we saw the positive and reinforcing effects of growing numbers and studentsuccess stories. I will never forget the shock we all experienced one year whena particularly bright young African American man failed the department’sdoctoral qualifying exam. To his credit, he dusted himself off and developed asteely determination to succeed the following year. He did so with flying colors,winning the departmental award for the top score in the exam (an awardthat is assigned purely on the basis of exam performance and blind to studentidentity). That same year, another African American, a young woman, alsofailed the exam. Although devastated, she was also determined to not onlytry again, but to repeat the outstanding performance of her classmate andwin the prize. And she did. I still get cold shivers thinking about it! Thesewere the kinds of things, along with growing critical mass, that got thingschanging. It is quite awe-inspiring to think about what some of our programgraduates are doing today and how through their success they are inspiringand encouraging the next generation to thrive as well.I don’t feel like I have the language or skill to describe many of the profoundthings that I learned and experienced through directing the minority programat Harvard for so many years. However I recently read an excellent book,“Whistling Vivaldi,” (Steele, 2011) by someone who does — Claude Steele,a renowned social scientist and Dean of the Graduate School of Educationat Stanford. Much of Steele’s work has been on the concept of stereotypethreat. The idea is that when a person is being evaluated (e.g., through atest), their performance can be significantly undermined if they believe thatthe evaluators will be looking at them through the lens of a stereotype. Whilestereotyping happens anytime where there are broad-based characterizationsof a person’s ability or character, based on their social standing, ethnicity orrace, the ones that most readily come to mind in the educational context aregender and math/science ability as well as race and general academic performance.Steele describes some fascinating experiments where test scores canbe significantly impacted according to whether or not subjects are consciousof stereotype threat. Not only a great read, “Whistling Vivaldi” is a definiteeye-opener.