Knowledge From the Afrikan World, For the World

PMC Articles

Virtual BUILD Research Collaboratory: A biomedical data science training using innovative pedagogy to address structures of racism and inequitable stress for undergraduates of color

PMCID: PMC10898773

PMID: 38412191

Abstract

Objective The unprecedented events of 2020 required a pivot in scientific training to better prepare the biomedical research workforce to address global pandemics, structural racism, and social inequities that devastate human health individually and erode it collectively. Furthermore, this pivot had to be accomplished in the virtual environment given the nation-wide lockdown. Methods These needs and context led to leveraging of the San Francisco Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (SF BUILD) theories of change to innovate a Virtual BUILD Research Collaboratory (VBRC). The purpose of VBRC was to train Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) students to apply their unique perspectives to biomedical research. These training activities were evaluated using a pre-post survey design that included both validated and new psychosocial scales. A new scale was piloted to measure culturally relevant pedagogy. Results VBRC scholars increased science identity on two items: thinking of myself as a scientist (+1point, p = 0.006) and belonging to a community of scientists (+1point, p = 0.069). Overall, scholars perceived stress also decreased over VBRC (-2.35 points, p = 0.02). Post VBRC, scholars had high agency scores (μ = 11.02, M d = 12, range = 6–12, σ = 1.62) and cultural humility scores (μ = 22.11, M d = 23, range = 12–24, σ = 2.71). No notable race/ethnic differences were found in any measures. Conclusions Taken together, our innovative approach to data science training for BIPOC in unprecedented times shows promise for better preparing the workforce critically needed to address the fundamental gaps in knowledge at the intersection of public health, structural racism, and biomedical sciences.

Full Text

Efforts to upend deep roots of systemic racism have been far-reaching in terms of discipline, number, and strength; however, many argue that this is only a small barrier to the landslide of inequities that continue to burden Black and Brown people in the United States. In this country, structural inequities permeate its history of unequal access to social mobility because of racist ideals and science education is no different. In recognition of these assertions in 2020, scientists across the country participated in the June 10th #ShutDownAcademia, #ShutDownSTEM, and #Strike4BlackLife protests, which called for white academics and BIPOC to take action towards eradicating anti-Black racism in academia and STEM [1]. Social media, editorials, and some peer-reviewed journals were vessels for an outpouring of stories by Black academics and other BIPOC, detailing the blatantly racist experiences that they have endured within academia [2–6]. Their stories have highlighted how systemic racism has manifested in higher education and has been perpetuated by a non-inclusive culture in science. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic brought to the forefront realities of health disparities in BIPOC communities. The disproportionately higher mortality rates of Black people have sparked conversations and calls to action within the science community [7–11].
BIPOC scholars show comparable interest in STEM fields, but such disciplines have not effectively retained these scholars [12–15]. Specifically, Black people earn fewer than 8% of master’s degrees and fewer than 5% of PhDs in STEM fields [16, 17]. Science education has looked the same for much of the last century with learning models centered around lectures (as opposed to discussions/dialogues) [18]. Programs focus on the student deficit model, centering their efforts on building skills with a presumption that scholars are deficient [15], thus shifting accountability to scholars without assessing how educational structures may need to change [15, 19–21]. Most STEM education ignores the community cultural wealth that scholars bring to the institution, minimizing their lived experiences and signaling to BIPOC scholars that only specific skills are pertinent to academic success [22, 23].
There have been some efforts to increase racial and ethnic representation in undergraduate science education through an institutional change (versus a student deficit) lens [24–27]. These include the National Institutes of Health Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (NIH-BUILD) which brings together ten universities from across the United States with the overarching goal of increasing entry of undergraduate scholars historically underrepresented in biomedical fields into relevant programs [28]. SF BUILD is one of the ten national NIH-BUILD sites [15, 29–31]. The Virtual BUILD Research Collaboratory (VBRC) was developed out of the SF BUILD program in response to the cancellation of many summer programs in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic [32]. Summer programs are crucial to the success of many scholars, and the cancellation of these programs would have had disproportionate effects on BIPOC scholars. SF BUILD shifted its summer programming to a virtual format and created an online summer research program. Given the disruptions caused by the pandemic, our team had to transform the regular in-person offering into an eight-week online summer coding program, which took place from June 22 –August 13, 2020. The program was then offered to nine sister NIH-BUILD sites. We include a detailed description of the pedagogical components of the VBRC program for leaders in undergraduate education in the US, particularly for those who are attempting to set up summer or short experiences. The objective of the virtual eight-week summer coding program was to teach scholars to use the statistical programming language and software R/RStudio to perform research related to health disparities due to COVID-19 using culturally responsive pedagogy.
VBRC utilized a culturally responsive pedagogical structure that leveraged student’s community cultural wealth [30], and their values to “give back" in science [31–33]. Such linking of social identities to successful performance has been shown in K-12 education and non-STEM disciplines [30]. Preliminarily, in college-level STEM disciplines, the removal of stigma associated with a marginalized social identity increased persistence by signaling ambient belonging in science [30].
VBRC was developed in collaboration with NIH program officials, SF BUILD staff, near-peer mentors (NPMs), and scholars (Fig 1). The structure of VBRC used a relatively flat hierarchical leadership style, where all participants were encouraged to share ideas, particularly those that would benefit scholars navigating structural or intellectual challenges. Forward-thinking NIH program officials approved the use of SF BUILD unobligated funds to support VBRC for all BUILD scholars because of the shelter-in-place ordinance that meant many would be derailed from their planned summer research experience. This pivot allowed scholars opportunities to meaningfully continue research and professional growth over the summer.
VBRC faculty either came from racial or ethnic groups historically underrepresented in biomedical research or demonstrated a realized commitment towards diversity. The program was held on Zoom from June 22-August 13, 2020 (eight weeks). The program was led Monday-Thursday from 9 am to 1 pm (PST) by one faculty member, three staff members, one NPM coordinator, and eight NPMs. One external faculty member delivered statistics and R coding lectures. The full Student Training Core of the SF BUILD program (three faculty members, two staff members, and two student assistants) met weekly to develop specific inputs for VBRC and to troubleshoot issues. S1 Table describes the engagement speakers and topics included in VBRC.
Despite the use of multiple tools and practices for regular communication, online learning can be disengaging and not convey that instructors genuinely cared about scholars. To better engage scholars and communicate genuine concern for their professional development and well-being, several activities were implemented. These were varied throughout the program as part of Zoom meetings that addressed emerging issues, which were structured to be stimulating and energetic to simulate an active learning classroom and build camaraderie. Table 1 summarizes these activities.
Educational psychologists have systemically studied the effects of grading on students and found that grades tend to (1) diminish student’s interest in whatever they are doing, (2) create a preference for the easiest possible task, (3) and reduce the quality of student’s thinking [34–36]. Therefore, VBRC eliminated the traditional grading structure to affirm that scholars’ interests are held above traditional learning criteria and biased methods of evaluation. This enables scholars to develop and refine their skills through repeated trial and error without consequence.
VBRC utilized a pre-post survey design delivered via Qualtrics. The survey measured several domains related to the VBRC educational model, including science identity, intention to utilize/pursue bioinformatics/coding in the future, perceived stress immediately after COVID-19 shelter-in-place restrictions and within the past month contextualized by current events; and impact of the different pedagogical structure. S2 Table describes the measures used for VBRC.
We developed a novel scale to measure two critical constructs of culturally relevant pedagogy. Gloria Ladson-Billings defines culturally relevant pedagogy as one that "empowers students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically using cultural referents to impart knowledge, skills, and attitudes” [39]. Ladson-Billings identifies three theoretical constructs of culturally relevant pedagogy: student learning, cultural competence, and critical consciousness. In this way, Black students socially construct their reality through communication and interaction instead of focusing on the margins and borders of the past [37]. Infusing technological advancement into the forward momentum of advancement is consistent with the general empowerment objectives of African American Studies [and its] use of digitized resources in instruction encourage[s] them to think of themselves as potential knowledge producers rather than information consumers [38]. Building on these ideas, a 6-item scale, assessing agency and cultural humility was used. It utilized a 5-point Likert scale; the sub-items are summarized in Table 2 and described further below.
Cultural humility. In her theoretical model of culturally relevant pedagogy, Ladson-Billings identifies cultural competence as a core tenet defined as "the ability to help students appreciate and celebrate their cultures of origin while gaining knowledge of and fluency in at least one other culture" [39]. However, we maintain that cultural competency is merely not enough to meet the demands of our diverse communities. Much of the dialogue around cultural competency is beginning to shift to the adoption of other cultural frameworks, such as cultural humility. The major limitation posed by the concept of cultural competency is that there is a discrete endpoint to one’s cultural education, which suggests that it can be mastered. However, cultural humility is different in that it is a commitment and active engagement in a lifelong process that individuals enter into on an ongoing basis with patients, communities, colleagues, and with themselves… a process that requires humility in how physicians bring into check the power imbalances that exist in the dynamics of physician-patient communication by using patient-focused interviewing and care" [40]. Thus, we posit that cultural humility is a more appropriate and effective conceptual framework for developing interventions for BIPOC scholars. In our evaluation, cultural humility was measured by four statements on our scale with a maximum total score of 24.
Developed by Cohen, et al. [41], the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) is a widely used and validated tool to measure self-reported psychological stress. We adopted the PSS to assess the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on perceived stress at two time periods: immediately after shelter-in-place restrictions were implemented (March 2020) and in the past month (August 2020). For our evaluation, PSS was measured on a 7-point Likert scale with a maximum total score of 50.
Because whites were underrepresented in VBRC, we used Latinx/Mexican American/Chican@ as the reference group for our regression analyses. This approach was also utilized to challenge the standardized practice of defining whites (often incorrectly referred to as Caucasians) as the reference group in research [42]. This represents one step towards deconstructing systems of racism built into data analysis.
A total of 67 scholars participated in VBRC. Demographic characteristics for scholars (58 scholars and 9 NPMs) are described in Table 3. Many respondents identified as Latinx/Mexican American/Chican@ (46%) or Black/African American (34%); thus, they are overrepresented compared to the general population. S3 Table describes the institutional level participation in VBRC.
Scholars’ sense of science identity increased in nearly all items assessed post VBRC despite relatively high self-reports before participation (Table 3). Based on pre-survey medians for each item, most respondents entered VBRC with a relatively strong sense of science identity (Md = 4.00 or 5.00). Scholars’ sense of belonging to a community of scientists increased post VBRC (Md = 5.00, z = -3.22, p = 0.001, two-tailed) and science identity (Md = 5.00, z = -2.77, p = 0.006). Marginally significant findings also indicate an increase in scholars’ sense of belonging in the field of science (Md = 5.00, z = -1.82, p = 0.069). There was no change for the item "derive great personal satisfaction from working on a science team that is doing important work" because pre-survey median scores were at the maximum.
Based on the median for each item (4 or 5), most scholars started VBRC with relatively strong intentions to pursue bioinformatics/coding (Table 4). Post-survey medians remained relatively unchanged, with a one-point increase for the item "how likely are you to take more data science classes in the future?" (Md = 5.00, z = -3.09, p = 0.002, two-tailed). This may be attributed to the fact that participants entered VBRC with an already existing desire to pursue bioinformatics/coding.
A paired t-test was conducted to determine whether there was a statistically significant mean difference between PSS score at the end of VBRC compared to PSS score at the start of VBRC. Scholars had a slightly lower score at the end of VBRC (30.35 ± 5.88) as opposed to their score at the start of VBRC (32.71 ± 7.15); a statistically significant decrease of -2.35 (95% CI, -4.36 to -0.35), t(47) = -2.37, p = 0.02. Linear regression analyses revealed no significant differences in change in PSS score between race/ethnic groups (African American / Black: Δ = -2.0, p = 0.58; Asian American / Asian: Δ = -5.0, p = 0.72; Multiracial: Δ = 0.5, p = 0.22; Southeast Asian: Δ = -3.6, p = 0.91; Caucasian: Δ = -7.0, p = 0.32; Overall: Δ = -2.7, p = 0.02) (Fig 2).
Scholars face a myriad of contributors to stress. For example, they also face racial microaggressions that may contribute to reduced retention of scholars in BIPOC communities [24, 25]. For example, Watson examined the biological effects of racial microaggressions on telomere length among Black male undergraduates at the University of California, Los Angeles. Longer telomeres are predictors of better health outcomes, and shorter telomeres are predictors of shorter lifespans and higher risk for chronic disease. The Watson study found that many of the participants anticipated that they would encounter some form of racial discrimination daily. It also revealed that a high proportion (85–100%) of scholars who attributed everyday discrimination in academia to racism had longer telomere lengths compared to participants who internalized racism (< 46%) [26]. This research suggests that efforts on the part of academic institutions to frame scholars as deficient rather than the institutional environments that limit their success not only push them out of science-related fields, but also worsen health. It also points to the need to create interventions that protect BIPOC student health and increase retention [27, 33].
Similarly, the intent to pursue bioinformatics/coding was high at the beginning and end of VBRC. Based on pre-survey medians for each item, most respondents entered VBRC with a strong intent to pursue bioinformatics/coding in the future (Md = 4.00), which is not unexpected given that participants opted into the research experience, choosing it over other available training activities. The fact that interest was maintained shows that VBRC was effective in stimulating, sustaining, and catalyzing interest in the field of data science. This result is significant given that traditional STEM education, in the absence of training interventions, has been shown to lead to an overall decrease in intent to pursue advanced study by BIPOC [43].
As a novel and non-validated scale, it was challenging to ascertain the impact of culturally relevant pedagogy on scholars, especially given the small sample size. We piloted measures of cultural humility and agency that we hypothesized were expected outcomes of exposure to culturally relevant pedagogy. Using these measures we found high endorsement of both scales, but somewhat unexpected associations between agency and perceived stress as elaborated below. To better understand the relationship between agency and stress, it is important to consider the possibility that while agency is needed to remain in a domain (i.e., field of study) it may also prove detrimental if scholars experience stereotype threat (S.T.) due to the more significant role they have in a domain in which they are stereotyped as incompetent. In other words, given that S.T. is triggered by high-stakes situations where individuals are of high ability and have increased interest in the outcome, it may be that greater agency triggers S.T. for people from stigmatized groups [44]. Consequently, for future evaluation efforts, we intend to expand our scale to include the two-item 7-point Likert measures for S.T. developed by Steele and Aronson: (1) People make judgments about my abilities based on my race, and (2) People make judgments about my racial group based on my performance [45].
Our correlation analyses revealed a slight negative association between culturally relevant pedagogy and change in perceived stress score, albeit insignificant. This is consistent with our hypothesis that an increase in agency and cultural humility is correlated with a decrease in change in perceived stress. Similar results between S.T. and racial profiling were found, in that S.T. is reduced when discussing racial profiling in the context of shared learning [46]. In this context, cultural humility appears to operationalize VBRC efforts to examine structural racism (i.e., COVID disparities) in an environment that is non-judgmental, reflective, and about shared learning.
These evaluation findings contribute to the growing body of literature that inclusive programs are critical and effective in advancing racial equity towards dismantling structures of racism in STEM [47–50]. Based on this work, we recommend that future STEM education programs use and test intentional design with culturally relevant pedagogy aimed at improving agency and cultural humility. Our team plans to build on our novel scale and include other constructs of culturally relevant pedagogy, such as critical consciousness. Other areas of study include evaluating other variables, such as the number of years of involvement in NIH-BUILD.

Sections

"[{\"pmc\": \"PMC10898773\", \"pmid\": \"38412191\", \"reference_ids\": [\"pone.0294307.ref001\", \"pone.0294307.ref002\", \"pone.0294307.ref006\", \"pone.0294307.ref007\", \"pone.0294307.ref011\"], \"section\": \"Introduction\", \"text\": \"Efforts to upend deep roots of systemic racism have been far-reaching in terms of discipline, number, and strength; however, many argue that this is only a small barrier to the landslide of inequities that continue to burden Black and Brown people in the United States. In this country, structural inequities permeate its history of unequal access to social mobility because of racist ideals and science education is no different. In recognition of these assertions in 2020, scientists across the country participated in the June 10th #ShutDownAcademia, #ShutDownSTEM, and #Strike4BlackLife protests, which called for white academics and BIPOC to take action towards eradicating anti-Black racism in academia and STEM [1]. Social media, editorials, and some peer-reviewed journals were vessels for an outpouring of stories by Black academics and other BIPOC, detailing the blatantly racist experiences that they have endured within academia [2\\u20136]. Their stories have highlighted how systemic racism has manifested in higher education and has been perpetuated by a non-inclusive culture in science. Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic brought to the forefront realities of health disparities in BIPOC communities. The disproportionately higher mortality rates of Black people have sparked conversations and calls to action within the science community [7\\u201311].\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10898773\", \"pmid\": \"38412191\", \"reference_ids\": [\"pone.0294307.ref012\", \"pone.0294307.ref015\", \"pone.0294307.ref016\", \"pone.0294307.ref017\", \"pone.0294307.ref018\", \"pone.0294307.ref015\", \"pone.0294307.ref015\", \"pone.0294307.ref019\", \"pone.0294307.ref021\", \"pone.0294307.ref022\", \"pone.0294307.ref023\"], \"section\": \"Introduction\", \"text\": \"BIPOC scholars show comparable interest in STEM fields, but such disciplines have not effectively retained these scholars [12\\u201315]. Specifically, Black people earn fewer than 8% of master\\u2019s degrees and fewer than 5% of PhDs in STEM fields [16, 17]. Science education has looked the same for much of the last century with learning models centered around lectures (as opposed to discussions/dialogues) [18]. Programs focus on the student deficit model, centering their efforts on building skills with a presumption that scholars are deficient [15], thus shifting accountability to scholars without assessing how educational structures may need to change [15, 19\\u201321]. Most STEM education ignores the community cultural wealth that scholars bring to the institution, minimizing their lived experiences and signaling to BIPOC scholars that only specific skills are pertinent to academic success [22, 23].\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10898773\", \"pmid\": \"38412191\", \"reference_ids\": [\"pone.0294307.ref024\", \"pone.0294307.ref027\", \"pone.0294307.ref028\", \"pone.0294307.ref015\", \"pone.0294307.ref029\", \"pone.0294307.ref031\", \"pone.0294307.ref032\"], \"section\": \"Introduction\", \"text\": \"There have been some efforts to increase racial and ethnic representation in undergraduate science education through an institutional change (versus a student deficit) lens [24\\u201327]. These include the National Institutes of Health Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (NIH-BUILD) which brings together ten universities from across the United States with the overarching goal of increasing entry of undergraduate scholars historically underrepresented in biomedical fields into relevant programs [28]. SF BUILD is one of the ten national NIH-BUILD sites [15, 29\\u201331]. The Virtual BUILD Research Collaboratory (VBRC) was developed out of the SF BUILD program in response to the cancellation of many summer programs in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic [32]. Summer programs are crucial to the success of many scholars, and the cancellation of these programs would have had disproportionate effects on BIPOC scholars. SF BUILD shifted its summer programming to a virtual format and created an online summer research program. Given the disruptions caused by the pandemic, our team had to transform the regular in-person offering into an eight-week online summer coding program, which took place from June 22 \\u2013August 13, 2020. The program was then offered to nine sister NIH-BUILD sites. We include a detailed description of the pedagogical components of the VBRC program for leaders in undergraduate education in the US, particularly for those who are attempting to set up summer or short experiences. The objective of the virtual eight-week summer coding program was to teach scholars to use the statistical programming language and software R/RStudio to perform research related to health disparities due to COVID-19 using culturally responsive pedagogy.\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10898773\", \"pmid\": \"38412191\", \"reference_ids\": [\"pone.0294307.ref030\", \"pone.0294307.ref031\", \"pone.0294307.ref033\", \"pone.0294307.ref030\", \"pone.0294307.ref030\"], \"section\": \"Culturally responsive pedagogy\", \"text\": \"VBRC utilized a culturally responsive pedagogical structure that leveraged student\\u2019s community cultural wealth [30], and their values to \\u201cgive back\\\" in science [31\\u201333]. Such linking of social identities to successful performance has been shown in K-12 education and non-STEM disciplines [30]. Preliminarily, in college-level STEM disciplines, the removal of stigma associated with a marginalized social identity increased persistence by signaling ambient belonging in science [30].\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10898773\", \"pmid\": \"38412191\", \"reference_ids\": [\"pone.0294307.g001\"], \"section\": \"Collaborative leadership style\", \"text\": \"VBRC was developed in collaboration with NIH program officials, SF BUILD staff, near-peer mentors (NPMs), and scholars (Fig 1). The structure of VBRC used a relatively flat hierarchical leadership style, where all participants were encouraged to share ideas, particularly those that would benefit scholars navigating structural or intellectual challenges. Forward-thinking NIH program officials approved the use of SF BUILD unobligated funds to support VBRC for all BUILD scholars because of the shelter-in-place ordinance that meant many would be derailed from their planned summer research experience. This pivot allowed scholars opportunities to meaningfully continue research and professional growth over the summer.\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10898773\", \"pmid\": \"38412191\", \"reference_ids\": [\"pone.0294307.s001\"], \"section\": \"Collaborative leadership style\", \"text\": \"VBRC faculty either came from racial or ethnic groups historically underrepresented in biomedical research or demonstrated a realized commitment towards diversity. The program was held on Zoom from June 22-August 13, 2020 (eight weeks). The program was led Monday-Thursday from 9 am to 1 pm (PST) by one faculty member, three staff members, one NPM coordinator, and eight NPMs. One external faculty member delivered statistics and R coding lectures. The full Student Training Core of the SF BUILD program (three faculty members, two staff members, and two student assistants) met weekly to develop specific inputs for VBRC and to troubleshoot issues. S1 Table describes the engagement speakers and topics included in VBRC.\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10898773\", \"pmid\": \"38412191\", \"reference_ids\": [\"pone.0294307.t001\"], \"section\": \"Overall structure\", \"text\": \"Despite the use of multiple tools and practices for regular communication, online learning can be disengaging and not convey that instructors genuinely cared about scholars. To better engage scholars and communicate genuine concern for their professional development and well-being, several activities were implemented. These were varied throughout the program as part of Zoom meetings that addressed emerging issues, which were structured to be stimulating and energetic to simulate an active learning classroom and build camaraderie. Table 1 summarizes these activities.\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10898773\", \"pmid\": \"38412191\", \"reference_ids\": [\"pone.0294307.ref034\", \"pone.0294307.ref036\"], \"section\": \"No grades\", \"text\": \"Educational psychologists have systemically studied the effects of grading on students and found that grades tend to (1) diminish student\\u2019s interest in whatever they are doing, (2) create a preference for the easiest possible task, (3) and reduce the quality of student\\u2019s thinking [34\\u201336]. Therefore, VBRC eliminated the traditional grading structure to affirm that scholars\\u2019 interests are held above traditional learning criteria and biased methods of evaluation. This enables scholars to develop and refine their skills through repeated trial and error without consequence.\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10898773\", \"pmid\": \"38412191\", \"reference_ids\": [\"pone.0294307.s002\"], \"section\": \"Methods evaluation\", \"text\": \"VBRC utilized a pre-post survey design delivered via Qualtrics. The survey measured several domains related to the VBRC educational model, including science identity, intention to utilize/pursue bioinformatics/coding in the future, perceived stress immediately after COVID-19 shelter-in-place restrictions and within the past month contextualized by current events; and impact of the different pedagogical structure. S2 Table describes the measures used for VBRC.\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10898773\", \"pmid\": \"38412191\", \"reference_ids\": [\"pone.0294307.ref039\", \"pone.0294307.ref037\", \"pone.0294307.ref038\", \"pone.0294307.t002\"], \"section\": \"Culturally relevant pedagogy\", \"text\": \"We developed a novel scale to measure two critical constructs of culturally relevant pedagogy. Gloria Ladson-Billings defines culturally relevant pedagogy as one that \\\"empowers students intellectually, socially, emotionally, and politically using cultural referents to impart knowledge, skills, and attitudes\\u201d [39]. Ladson-Billings identifies three theoretical constructs of culturally relevant pedagogy: student learning, cultural competence, and critical consciousness. In this way, Black students socially construct their reality through communication and interaction instead of focusing on the margins and borders of the past [37]. Infusing technological advancement into the forward momentum of advancement is consistent with the general empowerment objectives of African American Studies [and its] use of digitized resources in instruction encourage[s] them to think of themselves as potential knowledge producers rather than information consumers [38]. Building on these ideas, a 6-item scale, assessing agency and cultural humility was used. It utilized a 5-point Likert scale; the sub-items are summarized in Table 2 and described further below.\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10898773\", \"pmid\": \"38412191\", \"reference_ids\": [\"pone.0294307.ref039\", \"pone.0294307.ref040\"], \"section\": \"Culturally relevant pedagogy\", \"text\": \"Cultural humility. In her theoretical model of culturally relevant pedagogy, Ladson-Billings identifies cultural competence as a core tenet defined as \\\"the ability to help students appreciate and celebrate their cultures of origin while gaining knowledge of and fluency in at least one other culture\\\" [39]. However, we maintain that cultural competency is merely not enough to meet the demands of our diverse communities. Much of the dialogue around cultural competency is beginning to shift to the adoption of other cultural frameworks, such as cultural humility. The major limitation posed by the concept of cultural competency is that there is a discrete endpoint to one\\u2019s cultural education, which suggests that it can be mastered. However, cultural humility is different in that it is a commitment and active engagement in a lifelong process that individuals enter into on an ongoing basis with patients, communities, colleagues, and with themselves\\u2026 a process that requires humility in how physicians bring into check the power imbalances that exist in the dynamics of physician-patient communication by using patient-focused interviewing and care\\\" [40]. Thus, we posit that cultural humility is a more appropriate and effective conceptual framework for developing interventions for BIPOC scholars. In our evaluation, cultural humility was measured by four statements on our scale with a maximum total score of 24.\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10898773\", \"pmid\": \"38412191\", \"reference_ids\": [\"pone.0294307.ref041\"], \"section\": \"Perceived stress scale\", \"text\": \"Developed by Cohen, et al. [41], the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS) is a widely used and validated tool to measure self-reported psychological stress. We adopted the PSS to assess the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on perceived stress at two time periods: immediately after shelter-in-place restrictions were implemented (March 2020) and in the past month (August 2020). For our evaluation, PSS was measured on a 7-point Likert scale with a maximum total score of 50.\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10898773\", \"pmid\": \"38412191\", \"reference_ids\": [\"pone.0294307.ref042\"], \"section\": \"Data analysis\", \"text\": \"Because whites were underrepresented in VBRC, we used Latinx/Mexican American/Chican@ as the reference group for our regression analyses. This approach was also utilized to challenge the standardized practice of defining whites (often incorrectly referred to as Caucasians) as the reference group in research [42]. This represents one step towards deconstructing systems of racism built into data analysis.\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10898773\", \"pmid\": \"38412191\", \"reference_ids\": [\"pone.0294307.t003\", \"pone.0294307.s003\"], \"section\": \"Demographic characteristics\", \"text\": \"A total of 67 scholars participated in VBRC. Demographic characteristics for scholars (58 scholars and 9 NPMs) are described in Table 3. Many respondents identified as Latinx/Mexican American/Chican@ (46%) or Black/African American (34%); thus, they are overrepresented compared to the general population. S3 Table describes the institutional level participation in VBRC.\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10898773\", \"pmid\": \"38412191\", \"reference_ids\": [\"pone.0294307.t003\"], \"section\": \"Science identity\", \"text\": \"Scholars\\u2019 sense of science identity increased in nearly all items assessed post VBRC despite relatively high self-reports before participation (Table 3). Based on pre-survey medians for each item, most respondents entered VBRC with a relatively strong sense of science identity (Md = 4.00 or 5.00). Scholars\\u2019 sense of belonging to a community of scientists increased post VBRC (Md = 5.00, z = -3.22, p = 0.001, two-tailed) and science identity (Md = 5.00, z = -2.77, p = 0.006). Marginally significant findings also indicate an increase in scholars\\u2019 sense of belonging in the field of science (Md = 5.00, z = -1.82, p = 0.069). There was no change for the item \\\"derive great personal satisfaction from working on a science team that is doing important work\\\" because pre-survey median scores were at the maximum.\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10898773\", \"pmid\": \"38412191\", \"reference_ids\": [\"pone.0294307.t004\"], \"section\": \"Intent to pursue bioinformatics/coding\", \"text\": \"Based on the median for each item (4 or 5), most scholars started VBRC with relatively strong intentions to pursue bioinformatics/coding (Table 4). Post-survey medians remained relatively unchanged, with a one-point increase for the item \\\"how likely are you to take more data science classes in the future?\\\" (Md = 5.00, z = -3.09, p = 0.002, two-tailed). This may be attributed to the fact that participants entered VBRC with an already existing desire to pursue bioinformatics/coding.\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10898773\", \"pmid\": \"38412191\", \"reference_ids\": [\"pone.0294307.g002\"], \"section\": \"Culturally responsive pedagogy and perceived stress\", \"text\": \"A paired t-test was conducted to determine whether there was a statistically significant mean difference between PSS score at the end of VBRC compared to PSS score at the start of VBRC. Scholars had a slightly lower score at the end of VBRC (30.35 \\u00b1 5.88) as opposed to their score at the start of VBRC (32.71 \\u00b1 7.15); a statistically significant decrease of -2.35 (95% CI, -4.36 to -0.35), t(47) = -2.37, p = 0.02. Linear regression analyses revealed no significant differences in change in PSS score between race/ethnic groups (African American / Black: \\u0394 = -2.0, p = 0.58; Asian American / Asian: \\u0394 = -5.0, p = 0.72; Multiracial: \\u0394 = 0.5, p = 0.22; Southeast Asian: \\u0394 = -3.6, p = 0.91; Caucasian: \\u0394 = -7.0, p = 0.32; Overall: \\u0394 = -2.7, p = 0.02) (Fig 2).\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10898773\", \"pmid\": \"38412191\", \"reference_ids\": [\"pone.0294307.ref024\", \"pone.0294307.ref025\", \"pone.0294307.ref026\", \"pone.0294307.ref027\", \"pone.0294307.ref033\"], \"section\": \"Discussion\", \"text\": \"Scholars face a myriad of contributors to stress. For example, they also face racial microaggressions that may contribute to reduced retention of scholars in BIPOC communities [24, 25]. For example, Watson examined the biological effects of racial microaggressions on telomere length among Black male undergraduates at the University of California, Los Angeles. Longer telomeres are predictors of better health outcomes, and shorter telomeres are predictors of shorter lifespans and higher risk for chronic disease. The Watson study found that many of the participants anticipated that they would encounter some form of racial discrimination daily. It also revealed that a high proportion (85\\u2013100%) of scholars who attributed everyday discrimination in academia to racism had longer telomere lengths compared to participants who internalized racism (< 46%) [26]. This research suggests that efforts on the part of academic institutions to frame scholars as deficient rather than the institutional environments that limit their success not only push them out of science-related fields, but also worsen health. It also points to the need to create interventions that protect BIPOC student health and increase retention [27, 33].\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10898773\", \"pmid\": \"38412191\", \"reference_ids\": [\"pone.0294307.ref043\"], \"section\": \"Science identity and intent to pursue bioinformatics/coding\", \"text\": \"Similarly, the intent to pursue bioinformatics/coding was high at the beginning and end of VBRC. Based on pre-survey medians for each item, most respondents entered VBRC with a strong intent to pursue bioinformatics/coding in the future (Md = 4.00), which is not unexpected given that participants opted into the research experience, choosing it over other available training activities. The fact that interest was maintained shows that VBRC was effective in stimulating, sustaining, and catalyzing interest in the field of data science. This result is significant given that traditional STEM education, in the absence of training interventions, has been shown to lead to an overall decrease in intent to pursue advanced study by BIPOC [43].\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10898773\", \"pmid\": \"38412191\", \"reference_ids\": [\"pone.0294307.ref044\", \"pone.0294307.ref045\"], \"section\": \"Culturally relevant pedagogy\", \"text\": \"As a novel and non-validated scale, it was challenging to ascertain the impact of culturally relevant pedagogy on scholars, especially given the small sample size. We piloted measures of cultural humility and agency that we hypothesized were expected outcomes of exposure to culturally relevant pedagogy. Using these measures we found high endorsement of both scales, but somewhat unexpected associations between agency and perceived stress as elaborated below. To better understand the relationship between agency and stress, it is important to consider the possibility that while agency is needed to remain in a domain (i.e., field of study) it may also prove detrimental if scholars experience stereotype threat (S.T.) due to the more significant role they have in a domain in which they are stereotyped as incompetent. In other words, given that S.T. is triggered by high-stakes situations where individuals are of high ability and have increased interest in the outcome, it may be that greater agency triggers S.T. for people from stigmatized groups [44]. Consequently, for future evaluation efforts, we intend to expand our scale to include the two-item 7-point Likert measures for S.T. developed by Steele and Aronson: (1) People make judgments about my abilities based on my race, and (2) People make judgments about my racial group based on my performance [45].\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10898773\", \"pmid\": \"38412191\", \"reference_ids\": [\"pone.0294307.ref046\"], \"section\": \"Culturally relevant pedagogy and perceived stress\", \"text\": \"Our correlation analyses revealed a slight negative association between culturally relevant pedagogy and change in perceived stress score, albeit insignificant. This is consistent with our hypothesis that an increase in agency and cultural humility is correlated with a decrease in change in perceived stress. Similar results between S.T. and racial profiling were found, in that S.T. is reduced when discussing racial profiling in the context of shared learning [46]. In this context, cultural humility appears to operationalize VBRC efforts to examine structural racism (i.e., COVID disparities) in an environment that is non-judgmental, reflective, and about shared learning.\"}, {\"pmc\": \"PMC10898773\", \"pmid\": \"38412191\", \"reference_ids\": [\"pone.0294307.ref047\", \"pone.0294307.ref050\"], \"section\": \"Conclusion\", \"text\": \"These evaluation findings contribute to the growing body of literature that inclusive programs are critical and effective in advancing racial equity towards dismantling structures of racism in STEM [47\\u201350]. Based on this work, we recommend that future STEM education programs use and test intentional design with culturally relevant pedagogy aimed at improving agency and cultural humility. Our team plans to build on our novel scale and include other constructs of culturally relevant pedagogy, such as critical consciousness. Other areas of study include evaluating other variables, such as the number of years of involvement in NIH-BUILD.\"}]"

Metadata

"{\"Data Availability\": \"The data in this manuscript involve indirect identifiers, such as sex, race and ethnicity; the dataset is relatively small and publishing the data may risk identification of the study participants. Data may be requested from OpenICPSR (\", \"Outbreaks\": \"COVID-19\"}"