Strengthening DEI and Racial Justice through Collaborative, Community-Based Research

Purpose

Various organizations mandate DEI training as part of their compliance strategies (Kalev & Dobbin, 2006), whereas other agencies consider this type of training as essential to their success (Roberts & Mayo, 2021). Yet, little scholarly attention has been paid to these desired behavior changes as well as organizational outcomes from DEI training (Anand & Winters, 2008). This study is a unique collaboration between social work scholars, institutional organizers, and a community-based non-profit examining the effects of both racial equity workshops and monthly caucusing on knowledge of race and racism, systemic disparities, and biases; the applied skills learned; and planned personal and professional behavior of research participants.

Methods

This research employs a mixed-methods, multi-group pre- and post-test research design surveying two modalities: racial equity workshops and monthly caucuses. The online survey instruments were developed to assess changes in knowledge of key concepts regarding race and racism, personal values and beliefs, and skills/planned behavior/next steps and were co-created by experts in survey research, racial equity trainers, and diverse members of the local and university communities. Quantitative data were analyzed using t-tests and ANOVA and qualitative data were analyzed using the constant comparison method to identify emergent themes using the unitized comments.

Between February 19, 2015, and March 31, 2020, approximately 5,324 individuals registered for 174 Racial Equity Workshops (REWs). Of those participants, 2,690 individuals participated in the workshop component of this study. For the caucus component, 120 survey respondents who had participated in at least one caucus session between July 2013 – April 2021, participated.

Results

Most respondents (90.8%) indicated that they learned significant information regarding race, racism, bias, and US racial history. Using constant comparison qualitative analysis, a consistent theme from these data was that respondents’ definitions of racism typically began on a more individual-level before the training and included a more systemic-level perspective after the training. Eighty-five percent of REW participants reported that their knowledge regarding disproportionality across systems changed as a result of attending the workshop. Respondents defined implicit bias and two themes emerged from the data: 1) most REW participants acknowledged that everyone has these biases and 2) respondents noted the subconscious/ unconscious nature of implicit bias after the training. Almost all respondents (94%) indicated planned behavior change. Examples and themes across both modalities are included.

Implications

To date, little social work science has been applied to the addressing the social problem and GCSW, racism (Teasley et al., 2021). To address racial and ethnic inequities and build solutions, we use data from 2,690 workshop attendees and 120 monthly caucus participants in addition to the extant literature to offer six evidence-based recommendations for social workers to implement DEI training and support their communities and organizations to foster more equitable decisions and workplaces.

Based on their broad continued efforts toward cultural competence and commitment to social justice, social workers may be uniquely positioned to implement, facilitate, and assess diversity trainings, racial equity workshops, and affinity groups/caucuses and our collaborative research can help they do that more effectively.