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What’s new on Coursera for Business – January 2020

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What’s new on Coursera for Business – January 2020

By Kyle Clark, Senior Skills Transformation Consultant

2020 is already proving to be an exciting year for skill development on Coursera. Our university and industry partners launched over 60 courses in January – an average of 2 courses per day. Our new courses range in topic from IT automation and feature engineering to visual analytics, privacy in Europe, and blockchain in Portuguese.

Here are our top picks for enterprises from January:

January 2020’s key launches:

Google IT Automation with Python, Google – This new beginner-level, six-course certificate, developed by Google, is designed to provide IT professionals with in-demand skills — including Python, Git, and IT automation — that can help you advance your career. This program builds on your IT foundations to help you take your career to the next level.

Data Processing and Feature Engineering with MATLAB, MathWorks –  This intermediate-level course is useful to anyone who needs to combine data from multiple sources or times and has an interest in modeling. By the end of this course, you will learn how to visualize your data, clean it up and arrange it for analysis, and identify the qualities necessary to answer your questions.

SAS Visual Business Analytics Specialization, SAS – Using SAS Visual Analytics, you will learn to access and manipulate data, analyze data with a variety of interactive reports and graphics, and design and share dashboards to visualize your data. SAS Visual Analytics is a useful skill in a variety of careers, including business analyst, researcher, statistician, or data scientist.

Privacy in Europe, EIT Digital – This course deals with the European legal system to protect privacy. European privacy protection is based upon human rights treaties, both on a European level as well global level such as, e.g. the UN Declaration on Human Rights. This course outlines and deals with these human rights treaties as well as with the specific rules and regulations that govern day to day privacy protection in Europe. 

Cloud Computing Basics (Cloud 101), LearnQuest – Welcome to Cloud Computing Basics (Cloud 101). We will discuss the basics of Cloud computing: what it is, what it supports, and how it is delivered. We will delve into storage services, Cloud economics, levels of managed infrastructure, and Azure services. We will also explore different deployment models of Cloud computing, as well as several hosting scenarios. Last but not least, we will compare some of the cloud platforms and discuss the future of cloud computing.

All Courses

Business


Data

Technology

Other

 

 

How Have You Learned About Slavery?

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How Have You Learned About Slavery?

Find all our Student Opinion questions here.

How have you been taught about slavery in the United States? Do you feel that it is a topic that has been accurately and thoroughly taught in your schools?

Have you learned about slavery outside of the classroom? Are there questions you still have that you want to explore further?

In “Why Can’t We Teach Slavery Right in American Schools,” Nikita Stewart writes about the history of teaching about slavery in American education and what it looks like today:

In 2017, the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit organization that researches and monitors hate groups, pored over 12 popular U.S. history books and surveyed more than 1,700 social-studies teachers and 1,000 high-school seniors to understand how American slavery is taught and what is learned. The findings were disturbing: There was widespread slavery illiteracy among students. More than a third thought the Emancipation Proclamation formally ended slavery. (It was actually the 13th Amendment.) Nearly 60 percent of teachers did not believe their textbook’s coverage of slavery was adequate. A panel made up of the center’s staff, an independent education researcher with a background in middle- and high-school education and a history professor with expertise in the history of slavery looked at how the books depicted enslavement, evaluating them with a 30-point rubric. On average, the textbooks received a failing grade of 46 percent.

Maureen Costello, director of Teaching Tolerance, a program at the Southern Poverty Law Center that promotes diversity education, said the rubric used to analyze the textbooks was about seeing how the history of enslavement was integrated throughout a book and exactly what those contents were. In most teachings, she said, slavery is treated like a dot on a timeline. “The best textbooks maybe have 20 pages, and that’s in an 800-page textbook,” Costello told me. “At its best, slavery is taught because we have to explain the Civil War. We tend to teach it like a Southern problem and a backward economic institution. The North is industrialized; the South was locked in a backward agricultural system.” About 92 percent of students did not know that slavery was the war’s central cause, according to the survey.

Ms. Stewart notes that teaching about slavery often begins before high school:

The law center’s study focused on high-school students, but the miseducation of children generally begins much earlier. Teachers bungle history as soon as children are learning to read. Because teachers and parents are often so afraid to frighten children, they awkwardly spin the history of this country. They focus on a handful of heroes like Harriet Tubman, whose is picture is tacked to bulletin boards during Black History Month and Women’s History Month. Elementary-school students learn about our nation’s founders but do not learn that many of them owned slaves.

Ms. Stewart invited readers to share how and what they learned about slavery. She featured some of their responses in this article: “‘It Was Very Humiliating’: Readers Share How They Were Taught About Slavery.” Some readers said that when they were in school, the emphasis was on the “good” parts of slavery:

In the fifth grade, my textbook said that many enslaved people were “sad” that slavery ended, because their enslavers took care of them and gave them food and clothing. I took the book home, and my parents made me go back to school and tell my teacher to change the book and teach us the truth — my parents said “justice demanded it.” — Kian Glenn, 32, went to school in Eden Prairie, Minn.

In my 10th grade American history class, we were given an assignment to write the “pros” and cons of slavery. Many of us questioned what, if any, “pro” would there be, but the assignment stood. — Deirdre Sheridan, 24, went to school in Scotch Plains, N.J.

Other readers shared that they had been told that slavery was not the cause of the Civil War and that instead it was states’ rights or Southern economic interest:

In eighth grade, we debunked the “myth” that slavery caused the Civil War. Instead, we learned, the Southern states felt as though their rights were being encroached on by the Northern states, and thus “states’ rights” actually led to the breaking up of the Union.— Daniel Tran, 20, went to school in Windham, N.H.

My high school history teacher was a strict economic determinist — all wars are fought for economic reasons, whether or not those reasons were actual or merely perceived was moot to him. To him, slavery was not a cause of the war, except to the extent that it threatened the economic interests of landed Southerners.— John Beauregard, 79, went to school in Windsor, Conn.

Some readers recalled poorly constructed lessons and demonstrations:

One day, I was looking at a work sheet my little sister brought home from school from the fourth grade. Two questions in particular caught my eye. One was “In what region did the African workers primarily settle?”

And another was “Why did the Virginia colony need African slave labor?” I couldn’t believe the work sheet referred to enslaved people as “African workers,” as though it was voluntary. I also couldn’t believe it said Virginia needed slave labor.— Hannah Lang, 23, Leesburg, Va.

In the fifth grade, I was one of three black girls in the class, and all three of us were assigned to be “slaves” during a presentation. I told my teacher that I was too nervous to give the presentation, and he told me to add that into the role playing.

He said if my voice shakes or cracks, I can say I sound like that because “massa will beat me or sell me if he knewed I was talkin’ to y’alls.” It was very humiliating, and I felt horrible afterward.— Mary Watts, 29, went to school in Orlando, Fla.

Other readers shared that very little class time had been dedicated to learning about slavery:

I was one of the few African-American students at my high school in Southern Virginia. While taking Advanced Placement U.S. History, I noted that our book only had about one and a half pages on slavery, which included the half-page diagram of a slave ship.— Brian M. Williams, 39, went to school in Botetourte County, Va.

There was minimal discussion about slavery at my school, but in our Texas history class, a teacher joked, “If the South won, you would be our slaves.” I was one of four black students and we looked at one another in shock. The teacher became angry and said it was “just a joke.”— Gina Kennedy, 46, went to school in Dallas

While many readers thought their education about slavery had been lacking, some believed their teachers had effectively taught about slavery:

I had an excellent, but unorthodox, U.S. History teacher. During one discussion, he said this: Enslavers loved enslaved people “like they loved their dogs.”

During that time, I think it was common for people to believe the adage: Enslavers “loved their slaves.”

I believe a student brought this up in discussion. Mr. Hall’s comment told us that “love” might mean something very different than appreciation. This realization was profound to me.

I came to see that it could be love of property, love of economic advantage, love of defining and “being superior,” love of degrading people.— Suzanne Zintel, 76, went to school in Ridgewood, N.J.

Students, read at least one of the articles, then tell us:

  • Did any of the reader comments resonate with how you have learned about slavery in school? What lessons or readings have your teachers used that you thought were effective? Are there other things you have learned or read in school about slavery that were inaccurate or unhelpful?

  • How was slavery framed and talked about when you were in elementary school? Both articles talk about how heroes, like abolitionists or black people who escaped to freedom, are of focus, particularly when teaching younger children about slavery. Do you think that young children need to be protected from the horrors and realities of slavery?

  • In the first article, Tiferet Ani, a social-studies specialist, suggests that teachers should use textbooks sparingly when teaching about slavery. What do you think? How do your teachers use textbooks and other sources to teach about slavery?

  • What language was used in school when you learned about enslaved people? How were enslaved Africans and free black people described or referred to? What were the causes of slavery that you learned in school? How does that compare with what you know now? Who were prioritized as key figures in slavery and abolition? Did you learn about rebellions or the resistance of enslaved people? How were national divisions described in what you learned about slavery?

  • What do you think should happen so that slavery is more accurately taught in schools? Do you think there should be national or statewide requirements? Who would determine those requirements? Do you think it is possible to have a national consensus on the reality and legacy of slavery?

Learning About Slavery With Primary Sources

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Learning About Slavery With Primary Sources

Then, if you would like to further investigate the broadside from a historical lens, you can use a document analysis worksheet from the National Archives. There are two worksheet options for written documents: one for secondary students and one for younger students and English-language learners.

Part II

If you would like more background, take some time to read the two-paragraph introduction to the article, either to yourself or aloud as a class.

  • Why do you think Ms. Elliott and Ms. Hughes chose to start their exploration of primary sources with these words? What drew you into the text? How did their use of language and imagery affect your reading experience?

  • According to the authors, why was the moment in August 1619 significant? How was the arrival of “20 and odd Negroes” different from the earlier presence of people of African descent in North America?

Note to Teachers: Given the length and structure of the featured article, we have created questions for each of its three sections. Depending on how much time you are able to dedicate to this lesson, it may be most effective to have students work in small groups, with each group focusing on one section and then sharing their findings with the class.

No. 1: Slavery, Power and the Human Cost, 1455-1775

  • What is the connection between the Roman Catholic Church, colonialism and slavery?

  • How does the painting “Sea Captains Carousing in Surinam” illustrate the relationship between the slave trade and wealth and power? Use both the authors’ text and the image to explain the connection.

  • In what ways was race encoded into law? Use historical examples from the text to support your answer.

  • What acts of resistance did you find most powerful to read about? What role did memory play in the lives of enslaved people? Do you think the act of preserving memories was a form of resistance? Explain.

No. 2: The Limits of Freedom, 1776-1808

The text of this section begins with the following lines:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” So begins the Declaration of Independence, the document that eventually led to the creation of the United States. But the words point to the paradox the nation was built on.

  • How would you describe that paradox in your own words, citing laws and beliefs from that period?

  • In what ways did enslaved people fight for their freedom?

  • What role did religion and churches have in resistance, advocacy and community?

  • What was the connection between westward expansion and the trans-Atlantic slave trade? How did the country respond to the Act Prohibiting Importation of Slaves, which took effect in 1808?

No. 3: A Slave Nation Fights for Freedom, 1809-1865

  • Why do you think Ms. Elliott chose to feature the portraits of Rhoda Phillips and Sgt. Jacob Johns? What do their stories illustrate about emancipation and the fight for freedom?

  • How were enslaved women and their children central to slavery? The article states, “there was no alliance of sisterhood among slave mistresses and the black mothers and daughters they claimed as property.” Why do you think the authors chose to emphasize that point?

  • In the wake of slave revolts, such as Nat Turner’s rebellion, white people became more fearful of slave uprisings and resistance. What new forms of surveillance did fearful white people instill? What was the Fugitive Slave Act? How did it expand the surveillance of slaves?

  • What does Joseph Trammell’s method for storing his freedom papers illustrate about the nature of freedom for free black people?

Part I

In the featured article, Ms. Elliott selected 13 artifacts from the museum’s collection to tell the story of slavery. Based on what you have read and heard presented by your classmates, what artifacts would you choose to tell the story of slavery?

Take on the role of curator and choose three artifacts from the article that you believe are key to telling the story of slavery in the United States.

  • If you were to summarize slavery in the United States, what would be the three most important points for someone to walk away with? Do any objects from the article correspond to those points?

  • What objects do you find most visually compelling in the article? Are there objects that you think relate to one another naturally or that help to weave a narrative together?

Once you have selected three artifacts, decide how to present them — for example, digitally, on paper or as a gallery exhibit. Can you enhance your narrative by arranging your artifacts in a specific way? What happens if certain artifacts are placed close to one another or far apart? What about lower or higher on a wall?

Prizewinning Poodle

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Prizewinning Poodle

Siba, a black standard poodle, won best in show at the 144th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show on Feb. 11. Did you watch the canine competition? Which breeds were your favorites? Have you ever entered a pet into a similar contest?

Tell us in the comments, then read the related articles to see more photos from the show and learn more about Siba and the other finalists.

Find many more ways to use our Picture Prompt feature in this lesson plan. You can find all our Picture Prompts in this column.

130 New Prompts for Argumentative Writing

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130 New Prompts for Argumentative Writing

What issues do you care most about? What topics do you find yourself discussing passionately, whether online, at the dinner table, in the classroom or with your friends?

In Unit 5 of our free yearlong writing curriculum and related Student Editorial Contest, we invite students to research and write about the issues that matter to them, whether that’s Shakespeare, health care, standardized testing or being messy.

But with so many possibilities, where does one even begin? Try our student writing prompts.

In 2017, we compiled a list of 401 argumentative writing prompts, all drawn from our daily Student Opinion column. Now, we’re rounding up 130 more we’ve published since then (available here as a PDF). Each prompt links to a free Times article as well as additional subquestions that can help you think more deeply about it.

You might use this list to inspire your own writing and to find links to reliable resources about the issues that intrigue you. But even if you’re not participating in our contest, you can use these prompts to practice the kind of low-stakes writing that can help you hone your argumentation skills.

Do Memes Make the Internet a Better Place?

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Do Memes Make the Internet a Better Place?

Find all our Student Opinion questions here.

How often do you look at memes? Every week? Every day? Do you seek them out? Do you share them? Do you ever create your own?

Do you appreciate meme culture? Do memes help inform you about what’s going on in the world? Do they help you process the news? Do they make you laugh when you need a good laugh? Does your love for memes connect you with a larger internet community?

On the other hand, have you ever seen memes that cross the line? That spread misinformation or racist attitudes, for example? Do you wonder who created them, and what their agenda is?

In “The Role of Memes in Teen Culture,” Jennifer L.W. Fink writes from the point of view of a concerned parent watching her sons react to humorous memes about serious news. The article begins:

How do you prepare for the coronavirus?

By cutting up a few limes.

That’s the message conveyed by a popular internet meme that shows a pair of hands slicing limes. The image and caption — “Me, preparing for the coronavirus” — are a bit subversive: While public health officials worldwide are scrambling to determine how to best treat and contain the virus that has killed hundreds, the meme plays on the name of the beer brand Corona, and suggests there’s no real need to worry.

Internet memes use images to celebrate, mock or satirize current events and popular culture, and they have become a defining part of how teenagers communicate in the digital world. The recent rise of memes seeming to make light of the Wuhan virus or international tensions offers a glimpse into how teenagers learn about and process world events. Today’s tweens and teens get their news via memes on Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat, while parents, teachers and grandparents still largely rely on news reports and Facebook and Twitter posts.

As a result, there’s a generational gap between how I learn about and perceive the news, and how my teenage sons learn about and react to the same events. When I learned (on Facebook) that an American drone attack killed Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, the powerful Iranian commander, my stomach dropped. Having been married to a Marine deployed in the gulf war in the 1990s, I know that war is no joke.

Our sons came home from school that day laughing at World War III memes claiming their generation is ready for war because they’ve been “training” in the video games Fortnite and Call of Duty.

My first impulse was to lecture my sons about the seriousness of war. But lectures almost never change teenagers’ behavior, so I dug deep into meme culture instead. What I found: Kids use memes to express and channel all kinds of emotions, including fear.

Many are harmless but some coronavirus memes risk spreading both misinformation and racist attitudes.

Ms. Fink talks about how humor is often used as a coping strategy for teenagers as well as adults:

Shortly after the drone strike in the Middle East, “my 14-year-old jokingly said that Iran should just blow up the U.S.A. and get it over with already,” said Tanya Brown, who lives in Ontario, Canada. “His comment caught me so off guard that it made me cry right then and there in front of him.”

She added: “We’ve raised our boys to be kind and empathetic to others, so when my son made such a hurtful comment, it really made me sad and angry.”

Making light of a deadly virus or the prospect of war may seem crass or thoughtless, but humor is often a way of coping with something we cannot control, whether it is a comedian joking about having cancer or the “Saturday Night Live” cast lampooning the Trump administration.

There is also some concern about misinformation being spread through memes and other social media:

Parents should also remind their children that “memes could be made by anyone, including foreign governments and those who want to spread rumors and dissension in society,” said Andrew Selepak, a media professor at the University of Florida. It’s also a chance to point out that fraudulent information may be spread in other forms, as happened with text messages that appeared to be sent by the Army telling the recipients they were being drafted. The Army said those were fake. Similarly, memes can spread false information about the coronavirus, often with anti-Asian racist messages — an opportunity to remind teenagers about the harm in using slurs.

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

  • Do you ever get your news from memes? Do humorous memes have a place in the news, or should the two things be kept separate? Is it O.K. to laugh at serious news?

  • Do you ever find that humor helps you to process scary or hurtful information? Is it ever not O.K. to use humor when talking about painful or tragic events? The article suggests that using humor in difficult moments can be a coping strategy. Do you agree or disagree with that statement? What are other ways that you process intense emotions or fears about the world?

  • Have you ever seen someone post a meme that you felt crossed a line? How did you know it had gone too far? Memes often try to make a point using very few words and mostly images. What are the advantages and possible dangers with that format? Do you ever see memes that use stereotypes or hurtful beliefs about an individual or groups to make a point?

  • The featured article was intended for parents of teenagers and offers the following advice:

Remember that most adolescents do not have personal experience with life-or-death experiences. “Even as adults, we can get something cognitively, but not really understand it until we experience it,” Dr. Manly said.

My four boys, ages 14, 16, 19 and 22, were born years after their father left the Marines and don’t know what it’s like to have a loved one deployed. They don’t know what it’s like to live through a pandemic.

According to Dr. Manly, sharing personal stories may be one way to help children understand the impact of international conflict and emerging health threats on individuals and families.

What do you think about this advice? Do you find it is easier to laugh about things that are distant from your own experience? Do you think that you are able to understand the pain associated with tragic events and still laugh at them? How do you feel when your peers laugh about something that you take seriously or personally?

1. Who created this message?

Introducing Coursera Plus: a subscription plan for unlimited learning

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Introducing Coursera Plus: a subscription plan for unlimited learning

by Anubhav Chopra, Lead Product Manager, Consumer

Everyone comes to Coursera with a unique learning goal. Some learners want just a single course on a specific topic, while others, like Sagi from Jakarta, take well over 20 courses in a variety of domains. Now, through Coursera Plus, a new subscription program that we’re piloting, learners who want to take several courses throughout the year have the flexibility to do so in a seamless, affordable way. 

With unlimited access to 3,000+ courses, Specializations, and Professional Certificates, Coursera Plus makes it even easier to learn anything at your own pace. Once subscribed, you can take as many courses and earn as many certificates as you would like for a single, all-inclusive price. Coursera Plus is one of many enrollment options available on Coursera including the ability to audit a course, take a course for free, apply for financial aid, or pay for a course, Specialization, or Professional Certificate individually.

Learners like Danielle are already appreciating the flexibility offered by Coursera Plus. “I really appreciate knowing that so much information is readily available with Coursera Plus,” said Danielle S., PhD candidate and Coursera Plus subscriber. “I can look into anything and learn so much whenever I feel like it. That’s so empowering.” 

Whether you have a long-term career goal that requires a wide variety of courses across multiple subject areas, or you’re a lifelong learner who’s constantly exploring for both personal and professional development, Coursera Plus provides the flexibility to pursue your learning goals. Try it today with a 14-day money back guarantee. 

Explore a sample of the courses, Specializations, and Professional Certificates that are available through Coursera Plus: 

Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python) (University of Michigan)

The Science of Well-Being (Yale)

Learning How to Learn (McMaster University, UC San Diego)

Algorithms, Part I (Princeton)

Data Science Specialization (Johns Hopkins University)

Improve Your English Communication Skills Specialization (Georgia Institute of Technology)
Google IT Support Professional Certificate (Google)

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How to Increase Female Participation in STEM (Gender Gap)

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How to Increase Female Participation in STEM (Gender Gap)

While you’ve likely heard the reasons why women leave STEM fields, Dr. Diana Bilimoria researches why they stay along with other ways to develop and advance the careers of women in STEM.

Recognized internationally for her leadership and research, Dr. Diana Bilimoria is a Key Bank Professor and Chair of Organizational Behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.

Below, listen to the conversation or read the transcript, and hear Dr. Diana Bilimoria’s thoughts on:

  • Her number one piece of career advice for women in STEM
  • Why women in STEM matter
  • Statistics on the gender gap in STEM and what percentage of STEM workers are female
  • Why there’s a lack of women in STEM
  • How to get more women in STEM
  • How to increase female participation in STEM and help bridge the gender gap
  • The importance of mentors and sponsors for women in STEM
  • Why women leave STEM fields and why they stay

Want to hear more from Dr. Diana Bilimoria?

Or if you’re a member of the press, or .

___________________________________________________________________________

Transcript

Coursera: [00:00:01] From Coursera, this is Emma Fitzpatrick, and today, I’m talking to Dr. Diana Bilimoria. 

She’s a Key Bank Professor and Chair of Organizational Behavior at the Weatherhead School of Management at Case Western Reserve University.

She’s been recognized internationally for her leadership and research, much of which focuses on gender diversity and women in STEM. As a refresher, STEM means science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

We’re talking with her about her research and findings. Specifically, we’re diving into the current gender gap in STEM, how to attract more women and girls to the field, and help keep them engaged and successful once they’re there.

Let’s go ahead and get started. 

Well, first, I’d love to hear what first got you interested in studying women in STEM.

Dr. Diana Bilimoira: [00:00:54] I’ve been studying women in the workplace for more than 30 years, and I focused at first primarily on corporate women, particularly in leadership and governance. And my early research was in the area of women on boards of corporations. 

And then as we got more involved in writing grants for the National Science Foundation’s Advance Program, I got very involved with other colleagues here at Case Western Reserve University about the lack of women in academia, the lack of women’s students in STEM. 

And so I started with a broader take, and then, it narrowed down to the importance of STEM.

Coursera: [00:01:41] Very interesting. So growing up, were you personally interested in math and science?

 Dr. Diana Bilimoira: [00:01:45] Absolutely, yes. My background has been in accounting and finance. I did an MBA degree and then came to the United States from India to study in business management. 

I specialized in organizational behavior, which is a social science, and subsequently got a faculty position at Case Western Reserve University.

Coursera: [00:02:10] Yes, and I’m curious if you have a piece of advice that you would give to a woman entering a STEM field who’s just starting out? 

Dr. Diana Bilimoira: [00:02:17] I would suggest is setting your vision very high–aspire to the heights. 

Equip yourself with the necessary knowledge, the skills, and the experiences that are necessary. And build strong relationships that will give you the resources, the support, the encouragement–to be resilient, to be effective, and to be wise in the contributions you make in your team and as a leader in the workplace and beyond.

Coursera: [00:02:50] I love that. So, before we dive into some of the specifics, I’d love to hear a little bit more about the broader picture of women in STEM. 

Dr. Diana Bilimoira: [00:02:58] What I’d like to do is just first speak about the importance of STEM. 

STEM is the driver, the engine of the economy. It is where innovation occurs. It’s where creativity is allowed, and it’s also the place where we can make a difference. We can solve the problems of the world, and that’s why it’s so important to get women into STEM. 

In terms of statistics and the gender gap, depending on the field of STEM, there’s great variation in workforce participation. 

Overall, women hold about 47 percent of all jobs, but of STEM jobs, women hold only 24 percent.

Yet by discipline, there’s great variation. For example, the life sciences–biology, biological sciences–women are represented almost at the 45 percent mark in the workforce.

In other fields, like computer science and engineering, not so much. In engineering, which is the lowest percentage of women in the workforce, close to about 12 percent, and computer science just over 20 percent.

 The gender gap is real in the workforce. It’s also real in terms of educational attainment.

At every level–except for biological sciences–women lag behind men in terms of educational attainment in physical science, in engineering, in computer science. And this is at every level at the bachelor’s level, master’s levels, and Ph.D. levels. 

As I said before, this is a reality, and we have to be looking for solutions that will help us to address the kinds of things that we need to do.

This is the area where there is the biggest opportunity for research to provide insights. What is the organizational, the institutional, and even the cultural and societal implications for transformational change in the area of STEM education as well as STEM workforce participation?

Coursera: [00:05:15] Right. I know I’ve heard a lot about the STEM gap in kind of broad sweeps, like those first numbers you talked about, but I’m really interested to hear how it differs depending on the science, you know, whether it’s engineering or computer science.

Dr. Diana Bilimoira: [00:05:29] In areas like the life sciences, there is more of a direct connection to meaningful work–of a direct connection between the science we do and the consequences for the improvement of humanity’s problems, illnesses, disease, and so on.

That direct connection is very important. It’s important for everyone, but it seems to be particularly important for women. 

There are other issues in education that is highly male-dominated. Many of us have heard of these challenges, of course, around implicit biases, micro-aggressions, other ways by which not everyone is included and made to feel welcome.

And that seems to be more likely in both workplaces as well as educational settings.

Coursera: [00:06:21] So where does this gap come from? How did it start?

Dr. Diana Bilimoira: [00:06:25] Oh, goodness! It isn’t a singular answer. I describe it in my courses and my classwork as a complex system affecting women’s achievement, and it consists of cultural issues, occupational issues, organizational issues, interpersonal and issues, and individual issues choices we might make. So, it’s a complex interplay between those.

For example, sex segregation in particular jobs or even careers: there are lots of reasons for that. They have to do with the image that the field has and how the media portrays leaders in those fields. It has to do with the role models that we have, the examples we see.

It has to do with the mentorship and the sponsorship and the coaching, the advancement, the networking, the training, the development. 

It has to do with the promotion systems, the recruitment systems, the evaluation systems. All of these come in as organizational realities. 

But these are historical. These are widespread. And one-off solutions do not work. 

We need simultaneous, multi-level, multi-dimensional interventions. 

Coursera: [00:07:42] Based on your research, what are some successes or changes that you would like to see to effect and have a positive change?

Dr. Diana Bilimoira: [00:07:48] This is the work that we’ve been doing for the last 15-plus years through the National Science Foundation’s Advance Program. 

I’ve studied many institutions of higher education as they have sought to transform their cultures, their structures, their policies, their practices around the recruitment, advancement, retention, and leadership of women, both faculty and students.

My research is showing that there need to be many things happening simultaneously at many levels.

So, for example, at the individual level, we do need to equip women with the kinds of political savvy, the necessary knowledge, and skills for making them competitive. 

But at the same time, we also need to move into the organizational level.

We need to train and develop the department heads–the deans in an academic setting, the managers in a workplace setting–to be more facilitative of the career development of women employees, to understand their role in affecting these women’s careers by providing the kind of resources and supports that would enable their career advancement.

We need to look at the organizational level also in terms of the policies. How are the policies used? Are they equitable? How do we create a level playing field? 

How do we create sponsors, who, when decisions are being made about who might be assigned a particular task or who might be given a particular leadership opportunity, that they are able to bring forward names of women, not just men? 

So, these are systematic changes that need to happen, and they are at different levels. 

They are at the policy level. They’re the structures. They’re about training and development and education. 

And they are about providing individuals with opportunities to change their mindsets so that they’re not continuing doing things as businesses as usual, but they’re taking intentional steps to make a more equitable workplace.

Coursera: [00:10:07] And what would that look like on the workplace level? Are there any changes that you’ve found in your research that would be most effective?

Dr. Diana Bilimoira: [00:10:15] What we’re finding is that there has to be a will to change. That involves creating education for managers at all levels–insights about what would make for more equitable decision-making. And it can be at the level of salary. It can be at the level of recruitment for positions, availability of positions for every level.

How do we make sure that we can have more equity?

So, training is involved, and it could be implicit bias training, but it’s more about discussion. It’s more about education, not just telling people what to do, but rather sharing the reasons needed for change.

We have many thousands, if not tens of thousands of jobs, that are in STEM areas that are remaining unfilled because we cannot find the talent to fill these jobs. We’re not making the full utilization of our workforce, and the full development of talent is not yet occurring. 

And this is what needs to be shared with every single manager up and down the organizational hierarchy–coming from the top, starting from the bottom, and then middle out.

Change does not come from one direction. Change must come from all directions.

Coursera: [00:11:36] Hearing you talk about open jobs and empty roles, I would imagine that goes back to what you mentioned earlier in that a lot of women and girls aren’t going into those fields, and they aren’t graduating at the same rates with those degrees. 

I’m curious to hear at an education level: how can we get more women interested in STEM? What’s the research shown?

Dr. Diana Bilimoira: [00:11:57] The research shows that we have to start early. This is the most important. If we wait until high school, we’ve lost a lot of opportunity already. 

So, I can cite a report from the Girl Scouts of the United States.

Starting as early as middle school, we need to create exposure to the kind of projects, meaningful work, role models, other women in STEM, to help girls see themselves, identify themselves as potential scientists, engineers, astronauts, and so on.

I would say confidence is very important. Having high aspirations, hard work, and persistence–these are some of the findings that the Girl Scouts studied. 

We found that exposure to STEM fields, meeting and having conversations with the women who are in those fields–and then having support from the family and from the educational system.

 I want to speak not just, you know, in a monolithic sense about girls and women.

Women of color are particularly more likely to be excluded from STEM. Girls– African-American, Hispanic girls–have the highest interest in STEM. They have the highest confidence and the highest work ethic, as the Girl Scouts’ report showed. But they have fewer supports. They have less exposure, and they have lower academic achievement than white girls do. 

And so, we need to understand that there is a variation even among girls, and certainly among women as well, and recognize that the pathways in STEM need to be more nuanced. And, we need to have multiple fronts at which this issue is handled.

Coursera: [00:13:49] I love talking about kind of like the two sides of this: getting more women into STEM, which we’ve talked about, and then also how to ensure that women stay in STEM once they actually get there.

I saw one study recently that half of female scientists leave their job after their first child, and of course, that’s just one study. But I’m curious to hear your reasons from the research about why women leave once they finally get there. 

Dr. Diana Bilimoira: [00:14:13] Research is very clear about why women leave. 

As you mentioned, the lack of parental supports, childcare, but there are other reasons that have been well supported in the literature by multiple reports: poor working conditions, tough, work-life balance issues, lack of recognition, and opportunities for advancement.

A more masculine, male-dominated workforce that does not support and recognize the contributions of women. This comes up in almost every report that you can imagine, and literally, there are dozens of reports over the last maybe five-to-10 years.

So, the reasons why women leave are completely clear. 

Our research focuses on why women stay. Why do women persist in engineering or in science? 

This is what we have found: the reason why women stay is not the opposite of why they leave. 

So, the reason why women stay is not because they have excellent working conditions. It is not because they don’t experience work-life balance challenges. It is not because they don’t face male-dominated workplaces. 

It’s not that. It’s a whole different set. The reasons why women stay are primarily because they identify with science and engineering as part of their identity, rather than feeling forced or pushed into the profession.

They have a vision and goals for who they want to be in the future. They’re able to see the kinds of options they have and navigate the workplace.

And so, the practical implications of this is that we need to encourage women and girls in our educational systems as well as in our workplaces to develop a sense of vision about their future, confidence about their skills and abilities even more than they already have. 

I feel women already have a lot of confidence. It’s that the workplace doesn’t recognize that. We need to help our workplaces recognize the contributions that women make and appropriately reward them for that and advance them for that. 

And we need to help our women to create the kind of leadership, the goals, the vision that will enable them to be able to navigate workplaces that are sometimes quite difficult and challenging, which every report has mentioned.

Coursera: [00:16:52] So, it sounds like having a mentor, specifically at the place where you work, could really be a key piece of the puzzle here at an individual level. 

To have someone that you can go to, to figure out, how do I advance here? What’s important? How do I navigate it? 

Dr. Diana Bilimoira: [00:17:08] Mentoring is key, but mentoring doesn’t have to be only in your specific organization or in your specific workplace. 

Mentoring can be more general. It can be almost what we will now refer to as 360-mentoring. So, you can find mentoring outside of your organization, within your industry. You might even find mentors outside of your industry. They might be people, even in your social circles. 

Equally important to mentoring, we are finding that there’s a particular role–it’s called a sponsor. 

A mentor is somebody who provides advice, guidance, and usually has had the experience and understands the political realities of the organization system.

A sponsor is somebody who undertakes what we call professional advocacy. They’re the people who will put your name forward when there is an opportunity that is available. They’re people who will fight for you to get the resources in order to enable your leadership development. They will be the people who open doors, provide you network connections, provide resources, visibility, and so on. 

And so, the roles of mentors and sponsors are complementary but not necessarily substitutable. 

So an employee, male or female, but particularly with women, needs to have both mentors and sponsors.

And the sponsorship role, many studies are beginning to find is even more critical for purposes of advancement.

Coursera: [00:18:50] And the mentor role–I know we talked about–could be someone outside of the workplace. But should this sponsor be someone who does work with you so that they can bring your name up in those conversations? 

Dr. Diana Bilimoira: [00:19:03] Yes, the sponsor needs to be present at the decision table. If they’re not there, your name is not brought forward. So, the sponsors often need to be physically present in these decision-making settings. 

I am so excited about this course. It’s called “Women in Leadership: Inspiring Positive Change,” and we offer it on the Coursera platform.

I hear from people who participate in this course, literally from far corners of the world, and I hear about the tremendous change that they are bringing about in themselves and being able to see themselves, the opportunities, and engage with the workforce that is around them in different ways. 

So, the course focuses on some individual elements, such as developing a leadership vision, becoming more clear about your contributions, your strengths, your gaps.

And then it also goes into some other more team level and group level aspects, such as managing in teams and being a team leader, negotiating more effectively, communicating with others in a way that is inspiring.

And finally, the course ends at the purpose of the changes that we seek in our workplaces, in our societies, in our communities. How can we bring about and inspire and enable and support change in a positive direction that benefits everyone?

We have heard from many, many women who have benefited from this free course.

Coursera: [00:20:44] To learn more from Dr. Diana Bilimoria,

 And as always, thanks for listening and happy learning!

 

Is Childhood Today Over-Supervised?

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Is Childhood Today Over-Supervised?

Find all our Student Opinion questions here.

Would you describe your childhood as free? When you were younger, did your parents allow you to explore the world around you — such as to venture into your neighborhood or the woods alone with friends? Or did you feel adults were always nearby, supervising your every move?

In “I Had a Gloriously Wild Childhood. That’s Why I Wrote ‘How to Train Your Dragon’,” Cressida Cowell, an author and illustrator, writes:

I was 9 years old, hanging on as tightly as I could to my father’s legs as he dangled over the edge of a gigantic sea cliff on a tiny little island off the west coast of Scotland. He was trying to see whether the bird’s nest some 15 feet below was being inhabited by a white-tailed sea eagle or a buzzard.

The answer was important to my father. Sea eagles had only just been reintroduced into the Hebrides, and a nest would be a sign that they might be able to re-establish themselves in that part of the world. What was more important to me was that the gale whistling briskly off the Atlantic sea should not blow us off the cliff entirely: If I lost hold of my father’s legs, he would plunge to his death on the rocks below.

I remember wondering, as the cold rain lashed my face and the wind tore at my flapping anorak: “Why on earth is my father so unconcerned? What would make him trust his life to my puny little 9-year-old arms? How can I possibly be related to this wonderful but crazily fearless man?” When a sudden gust of wind made him sway a few moments later, my heart stopped. I could feel myself losing my grip on his legs.

The adventure on the cliff top was just one of many exciting but terrifying experiences in my gloriously wild childhood. There was the time my father accidentally tied the boat to a lobster pot instead of a buoy and we were blown out to sea. There was a trip out in a storm where the waves turned into great hills, and we had to bail out the water coming over the side of the boat. When I was a child, these experiences had been scary. But when I look back as an adult, I realize how much I owe to the freedom to explore nature that my parents allowed and encouraged.

It troubles me that children of today do not have that same freedom. What might that mean for their future creativity and their relationship to the natural world? As we face the threat of the climate crisis and the slow destruction of habitats around the world, we must give children the opportunity to interact with nature in a “wild” way, so that they learn to preserve the natural world around us.

The Opinion essay continues:

I spent a great deal of time as a child on a tiny, uninhabited island off the west coast of Scotland. The island had no roads or electricity — just a storm-blown, windy wilderness of sea birds and heather. My family and I would be dropped off like castaways on the island by a local boatman for the summer holidays and picked up again weeks later. While we were staying on the island, we had no way of contacting the outside world.

Because there wasn’t any electricity, the house was lit by candlelight. Without a telephone or a television, I spent a lot of time drawing and writing stories. In the evenings, my father told me and my siblings tales of the Vikings who invaded the island 1,200 years before, of the quarrelsome ancient British tribes who fought one another and of dragons who were supposed to live in the caves in the cliffs of the island. That was when I first started writing stories about dragons and Vikings, way back when I was 9 years old, by candlelight on that little island. These were the stories that later turned into “How to Train Your Dragon.”

My siblings and I — growing up in the 1970s — had a freedom children today do not. “Bye kids, come back when you’re hungry,” our parents said as we walked out the door for our adventures. “Don’t fall off a cliff!” Ah, what unimaginable liberty.

It concludes:

Trees grow throughout children’s books. From “Peter Pan” to “A Monster Calls,” “The Lord of the Rings” to “Harry Potter,” trees are refuges, prisons and symbols of nature’s potency. They can be a friendly home, like the Hundred Acre Wood in “Winnie-the-Pooh,” or give a sense of menace, like the snowy forest in “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.” They can also be symbolic, like the cement-filled dying tree in “To Kill a Mockingbird.” The writers I loved when I was a child were similarly inspired by magical landscapes and nature: Ursula K. Le Guin, J.R.R. Tolkien, L. Frank Baum, Diana Wynne Jones, Lloyd Alexander, Robert Louis Stevenson, T.H. White — and so many others.

Today, children have much less unsupervised access to the countryside. I worry that they may never know the magic of the wilderness, the power of trees and the thrilling excitement of exploring nature without an adult hovering behind them. And so I write books for children who will never know what the freedom of my childhood was like.

My father never found out whether the nest in the cliff belonged to a white-tailed sea eagle or a buzzard. The gust of wind that scared me brought him to his senses, and he scrambled back up the side of the cliff before I could lose my grip. We staggered back through the gale to the little stone house on the island where, in the candlelight, we dried out in front of the fire.

Students, read the entire article, then tell us:

  • What are some of the benefits of unsupervised play, especially in nature, at a young age? What do children lose when their freedom to play and explore the world around them is limited? What, on the other hand, might be the drawbacks of great liberty?

  • Have you read any of Ms. Cowell’s books? If yes, what did you learn or enjoy about them? If not, does reading the article make you curious about them? Why?

  • If or when you have children, how much freedom would you allow them? Would you make opportunities for free play in nature a priority? Is a gloriously wild childhood something you would want to give them?

Lesson of the Day: ‘In India, Protesters and Modi Tussle Over Who Can Claim Gandhi’

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Lesson of the Day: ‘In India, Protesters and Modi Tussle Over Who Can Claim Gandhi’

Find all our Lessons of the Day here.

Featured Article: “In India, Protesters and Modi Tussle Over Who Can Claim Gandhi”

In this lesson, you will learn about the protests that began in India last year over a law regarding citizenship and religion. Both the government and the protesters refer to Mohandas K. Gandhi’s ideals and challenge which side has the right to use his name and image. After reading the article, you will think about other historical figures whose words and ideas have been used on different sides of contemporary debates.

If you do not know anything about the protests in India, read this article, “Why People Are Protesting in India,” and answer the following questions:

  • What does the Citizenship Amendment Act require and who would be most affected by the law?

  • What could happen to those who are not able to pass the citizenship test?

  • Why are Indian Muslims particularly concerned about the law? What are some of the concerns of non-Muslims about the law?

Now, watch this one-minute Times video that documents some of the protests and protesters. Then take notes on one or two things you noticed while watching, as well as what questions the video raised for you.

Read the article, then answer the following questions:

1. Why has Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India used Mohandas K. Gandhi’s image and referred to his beliefs? What do protesters think about those actions?

2. What are some of the changes Mr. Modi has enacted since his re-election? How have his supporters reacted to his decisions? What kinds of things have his critics said?

3. Why did Ramachandra Guha, a historian who wrote a biography of Gandhi, say, “You can’t have Einstein without relativity”? What point was he trying to make?

4. How have the protests changed over time? How have the responses and reports from officials differed from firsthand accounts and images?

5. According to Mr. Modi and his supporters, how have his actions and decisions as prime minister been connected to the legacy of Gandhi? What part of Gandhi’s story has Mr. Modi left out, and why is that significant?

6. How does Tushar Gandhi, a great-grandson of Gandhi, view the protests and Mr. Modi’s use of his great-grandfather’s image and story?

7. What are some of the concerns about pamphlets and social media posts being created and circulated by the Bharatiya Janata Party?

8. How have protesters tried to model Gandhi’s ideologies in their actions? How did the protester Saima Khan talk about the movement?

The article focused on how Gandhi’s words and image have been used after his death by two groups with very different beliefs and perspectives. Here is one example of how Gandhi’s words were used, and taken out of context, to make a point:

A pamphlet recently distributed by the party, addressing what it calls “misinformation” about the citizenship law, features Gandhi’s image along with a quote from him appearing to suggest that he would have supported the law.

But the quote — about India welcoming Hindus and Sikhs from Pakistan — is taken out of context, and critics contend that it is actually itself misinformation. Originally, Gandhi was excoriating Hindus who questioned Muslims’ loyalty to India.

Have you ever seen people on social media or in the news refer to famous historical figures and make contemporary points or connections? Can you think of times when this was done accurately and effectively? Are there other instances where you believe framing or lack of context changed the meaning of a quotation?

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