A resilience framework supports the retention and success of diverse talent

Abstract:

Diversity, equity, justice, and inclusion (DEJI) initiatives in STEM focus on the following components: recruitment, retention, and promotion. Here, we focus on issues with retention: if a person from a marginalized group is recruited into a setting without social support, they might experience stress and leave that department, field, or even STEM altogether. The language of these initiatives often includes the term “resilience” because successful diversity initiatives ultimately build resilient communities.

“Being resilient” can be problematic because it is a term often deployed by people from dominant groups as a buzzword, as code for a rather narrow definition of “success” in uncomfortable or hostile environments where dominant-group experiences are centered and normalized. A more clear and useful definition of resilience could be the ability of someone to return to their original and/or desired state after change or stress. We emphasize that in order to center and prioritize the experiences of marginalized people, marginalized individuals should identify their own definition of “original and/or desired state”. In this “recentered” way, a conceptual framework of resilience can be appropriately used to design DEJI policy.

Four dimensions of “recentered” resilience — borrowed from systems theory — are transformative, absorptive, adaptive, and restorative capacities. Applying these concepts to social issues requires us to prioritize the transformative capacity of marginalized communities as a swift, just, and inclusive transformation is imperative. However, we recognize that transformative design and implementation may not be immediate; the latter three capacities are essential in the meantime to mitigate harm, build community, and improve retention. Thinking in terms of these four capacities can help guide institutional policy toward a comprehensive, cohesive, and empowering model of resilience, thus increasing the retention of currently marginalized individuals.