‘ … Yet, it is still very White’: structural and cultural impediments to DEAI change in science museums

ABSTRACT

Diversity, Equity, Access and Inclusion (DEAI) work in museums is multifaceted, but typically approached from the perspective of external audiences and outcomes rather than a change in internal organizational culture. This article discusses findings from a research study examining what happened in five US science museums that were making a concerted, officially recognized effort towards internal change, and explores what those findings reveal about field-wide barriers to appreciable systemic change along with the impacts of the current status quo on marginalized staff. This study focused specifically on science museums in the US, but we believe findings are also applicable to the broader field of informal learning to activate museum leadership in all disciplines to engage in systemic internal DEAI change by confronting tensions between mission and equity, and tackling hard issues by accepting the risk of discomfort rather than diverting emotional work to marginalized staff in a bottom–up approach to change.

KEYWORDS:

• DEAI
• organizational change
• leadership
• science museums
• organizational culture
• equity

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 We capitalize both ‘Black’ and ‘White’ when those words refer to racial identity to recognizes the socially created concept of racial identity and disrupt the portrayal of ‘White’ as the natural and normal state. Kwame Anthony Appiah’s 2020 article ‘The Case for Capitalizing the B in Black’ discusses approaches to this question.

2 The American Alliance of Museums (AAM) recently described its intersectional approach to internal equity that still prioritizes addressing racism as a central feature of US-based inequity. https://www.aam-us.org/2021/05/11/looking-within-aams-internal-deai-work/

3 Institutional leadership received aggregated anonymous survey results to support their own DEAI work.

4 While oppression occurs at the system or institutional level, we also recognize that individuals play a role in explicitly or tacitly contributing to maintaining ‘Whiteness’ in museums.

5 According to research from MIT (Nadeau 2020), the 2019 living wage for an individual adult in the United States was $16.54 per hour for a family of four (two adults working full time with two children).

6 We recommend:

On being included: Racism and diversity in institutional life. (Sara Ahmed)

Racism without racists: Color-blind racism and the persistence of racial inequality in America, 5th Ed. (Eduardo Bonilla-Silva)

‘Whiteness as property’ Harvard Law Review. (Cheryl I. Harris)

We want to do more than survive: Abolitionist teaching and the pursuit of educational freedom. (Bettina Love)

Just us: An American conversation. (Claudie Rankine)

Superior: The return of race science. (Angela Saini)

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by NSF: [Grant Number 1612640].

Notes on contributors

Gretchen Haupt

Gretchen Haupt is a Research and Evaluation Associate with The Science Museum of Minnesota's Department of Evaluation and Research. She has been working in and studying informal science education settings since 2009.

Marjorie Bequette

Marjorie Bequette is Director of Evaluation and Research in Learning at the Science Museum of Minnesota. She has worked on many museum sector-focused studies over the years, and the majority of her research is centered around equity efforts and institutional change within museums.

Megan Goeke

Megan Goeke is a Research and Evaluation Associate with The Science Museum of Minnesota's Department of Evaluation and Research. She has worked and studying informal science education since 2016.

Choua Her

Choua Her is an Evaluation Specialist at Minneapolis Public Schools. As a qualitative researcher, she is committed to equity-oriented methodologies that engage youth, families, or communities in making social change.