Description:

Elevating the Objectives of Higher Education to Effectively Serve Students from DiverseSocioeconomic Backgrounds

Significant advances in psychological science have shed insight on how to best support the achievement and well-being of students from a diverse range ofbackgrounds. This talk covers research on specific factors shaping the experiences and outcomes of students from marginalized communities. Recent studies provide evidence regarding the effects of strengths-based messages about students’ identities. A series of experiments demonstrate the importance of strengths-based messages and teaching practices, in addition to various levels of social and institutional forces surrounding students.

Mesmin Destin, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Psychology and School ofEducation and Social Policy at Northwestern University in addition to a fellow of Northwestern’s Institute for Policy Research. He completed his PhD in Social Psychology at the University of Michigan in 2010. Research in the Destin Lab investigates how social environments shape people’s identities and the consequences for motivation, behaviors, and trajectories in life. Particular emphasis is placed on understanding the ways that socioeconomic resources come to influence young people’s academic outcomes. Using social psychological methods, Destin and his students conduct laboratory and school-based field experiments to examine the types of contexts, experiences, interactions, and information that support motivation and well-being for students from a variety of backgrounds.

Destin’s research is widely published in journals spanning diverse areas across the social sciences and public policy. His work has been supported by organizations including the National Science Foundation, the Russell Sage Foundation, and the William T. Grant Foundation. He has received numerous accolades for his teaching, mentoring, and scholarship, including the American Psychological Association Distinguished Scientific Award for Early Career Contribution in 2019 and was named a Guggenheim Fellow in 2021.

About the HHMI Inclusive Excellence 3 Grant
With a goal of increasing institutional capacity for inclusion of all students in science, Inclusive Excellence 3 has created a learning community of faculty, staff, students, and administrators committed to collaborating in this effort. The 134 participating institutions work together in seven “learning community clusters” aimed at creating inclusive STEM learning environments. The learning clusters focus on new approaches to the content of introductory science courses, evaluation of effective and inclusive teaching, and partnerships between 2- and 4-year institutions.

At Northwestern University, the IE3 grant is supported by the Weinberg College of Arts & Science andthe Office of the Provost with the specific goal of establishing professional development tools for STEM faculty and creating a community of scholars committed to inclusive instruction practice.