Starting the Conversation: Initial Listening and Identity Approaches to Community Cultural Wellness

• Main Authors: Beverly Smith-Keiling, Archana Sharma, Sheritta Fagbodun, Harsimranjit Chahal, Keyaira Singleton, Hari Gopalakrishnan, Katrina E. Paleologos Paleologos, Jayla Brantley, Vy Nguyen, Mahesh Mathew, Amanda van de Ligt
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: American Society for Microbiology 2020-04-01
• Series: Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education
• Online Access: http://jmbesubmissions.asm.org/index.php/jmbe/article/view/2073

In active-learning or collaborations, when we start a group project jumping in so quickly on task that we do not get to know the team members, we miss opportunities to be an inclusive, well-functioning team considering diverse perspectives and deeper levels of cultural wellness. Whether undergraduates in class, faculty teams on campus, or mixed multi-tiered teams co-mentoring each other in community, initial conversations can, and should, go deeper than mere introductions based on sociohistorical and constructivist theories. While beginning a larger project toward incorporating molecular technologies at our home institutions, we, student and faculty co-authors, experientially considered steps for starting a project conversation. Together in community, we considered how to inclusively collaborate across a demographically, geographically, and structurally heterogeneous group including multiple tiers of students, post-graduates, and faculty from multiple ethnic backgrounds, cultural experiences, and institutions. We used an asset-based process grounded in several frameworks in a co-mentoring community learning from one another. Documenting our introduction process of deep listening for invisible identities and culture, recognition of mutual respect, being mindful of identities, applying inclusive practices, and developing mutual trust and understanding, we brought our heterogenous group toward completion of a task—this paper raising awareness of inclusive practices recognizing cultural wealth and knowing outside the dominant institutional culture. Focused on an orienting task, our community-building could yield better knowledge-sharing outcomes for the long haul. Building a community takes time and trust to go beyond the social norms to develop relationships benefitting from cultural wealth assets and promoting cultural wellness.