Challenging “It’s Always Been This Way” with an Ethos of Care

By Risha RaQuelle, Chief Strategy Officer

The AAG will host the Convening of Care, September 19-20, 2024, funded by the National Science Foundation in partnership with the University of Colorado Colorado Springs (UCCS) and the National Organization of Research Development Professionals (NORDP).

Thirty participants, drawn from among early career scholars, department leaders, and representatives from the research enterprise (ex. funding officers at colleges and universities), will meet at the AAG offices in Washington, DC, to explore how belief systems such as the ones we live within today still carry the heat signature of systems created hundreds of years ago.

Many behaviors and practices that we take for granted in current institutions are in fact the legacy of these older systems, undermining the lives and often the careers of many of us:

• prioritization of timeliness and urgency at the expense of developing trusting and collegial partnerships,
• Individualism, competitiveness, and perfectionism, and
• hierarchies of power that reinforce one-way belief systems.

The exploration of how these entrenched systems and attitudes lead to protecting or reinforcing the “it’s always been this way” tradition, is paramount in creating an “Ethos of Care.”  An ethos of care seeks to enhance practices and processes within the research enterprise and enable collaborators to confront and address the accepted norms of power and bias, and “resolve to disrupt and transform those norms in a mutually beneficial, evolving and inspiring manner,” according to Principal Investigator Emily Skop of UCCS.

The goal of the convening is to enable practitioners in the research enterprise to probe the origins of knowledge discovery and inspire critical reflection on the ethical, political, economic, and emotional aspects of research practice and knowledge production.  Participants will complete an Ethos of Care Credential and a foundational paper to inform implications for care in practice.

Our work is ever-evolving, and optimistic that even the most permanent-seeming system of beliefs or policies once invented, can be transcended.  Did you know that we have a TLC GRAM toolkit? You can start today by evaluating and tracking your progress in this community engaged care movement.  I’m rooting for you.

The Convening of Care project is supported by the National Science Foundation under Award No. 2324401 and Award No. 2324402. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.

The AAG Culture of Care column is an outreach initiative by the AAG JEDI Committee. Don’t forget to sign up for JEDI Office Hours. The current theme of Office Hours is An Ethos of Care in the Research Enterprise.