I was listening to an episode of the podcast Teaching in Higher Ed. This episode had Archana McEligot. McEligot spoke about epidemiology and courses they teach. I had never considered it, but they described how epidemiology is one of the first data science and analytics disciplines. McEligot described how big data requires interdisciplinary approaches and some of the challenges of people of color. I appreciate how McEligot said we often can’t overcome systemic racism barriers, but we can help students work around them and empower them to continue. McEligot fosters self-efficacy by teaching students data analysis and coding skills and then showing them that they have learned, mastered, and produced. Using inquiry-driven coursework and clearly stating that students are capable shifts the question to: why wouldn’t you … be a scientist/engineer/researcher? That is really powerful. I struggle with how to be supportive without my words sounding baseless. McEligot brought up a great point: use data! Show students what they did to overcome the imposter syndrome that plagues many. How can we encourage students to take on challenging class work and projects to show them their data and success. I love the question “why wouldn’t you” and hope to find ways to use it more often to highlight the self-efficacy developed by students upon tackling seemingly impossible projects!
