THE ORGANIZATION OF LEARNING IN GEOSCIENCE FIELDWORK AND IMPLICATIONS FOR INCLUSION

Geoscience is one of the least diverse STEM fields in terms of gender, race, and disability. Geoscience outdoor field activities, known as fieldwork, offer significant opportunities for socialization into the discipline, but they can also pose barriers to participation for scholars from different backgrounds. This multiple-case ethnographic study examined the organization of learning in geoscience fieldwork with implications for inclusion and exclusion of diverse learners. The research involved 275 hours of observations and 32 interviews of participants at two separate undergraduate and graduate fieldwork courses in the western United States. The results indicate that conducting fieldwork affords significant opportunities for cognitive growth by encouraging scholars to grapple with complex problems that they are unlikely to encounter in a classroom or lab. Yet, the physical challenges of fieldwork also present significant barriers to equivalent participation in collecting data and group work, particularly for students with different physical abilities. The findings also indicate that, consistent with sociocultural perspectives on learning, managing social interactions constitutes a central part of fieldwork in group instruction. Furthermore, the quality of social interactions can vary according to different abilities and identities like disability and gender, which can affect the potential for learning and cognitive growth in fieldwork among students from different backgrounds. Based on these findings, we conclude with recommendations to design future research and practice geared toward inclusivity in geoscience fieldwork and equity in geoscience.