Starting the Conversation: Initial Listening and Identity Approaches to Community Cultural Wellness

Inclusion of multiple viewpoints increases when teams are diverse and provides value in scientific communication and discovery. To promote retention and raise the critical mass of underrepresented persons in science, all voices must be heard "at the table" to include "ways of knowing" outside the dominant institutional culture. These community-based inclusive concepts promote hearing all diverse perspectives for inclusive recognition of deeper socio-historical cultural wealth-collectively termed cultural wellness. When undergraduates and graduates in active-learning groups in class, or faculty collaborative teams on campus, start a project too quickly on task, opportunities are missed to be inclusive. While beginning a larger science project, we, student and faculty co-authors, first addressed this challenge -the need for greater inclusion of diverse perspectives-by starting a conversation. Here, we share ideas from our inclusive process. Based on social constructivist theories of co-constructing learning interpersonally, we co-mentored each other, learning from one another in community. We experientially considered how to inclusively collaborate across a demographically, geographically, and structurally heterogeneous group including multiple academic tiers from multiple ethnic backgrounds, cultural experiences, and institutions. Through an asset-based process grounded in several frameworks, we documented our introduction process of listening deeply, being mindful of identities including invisible cultural identities, recognizing each other with mutual respect, applying inclusive practices, and developing mutual trust and understanding. Building community takes time. Initial conversations can, and should, go deeper than mere introductions to build trust beyond social norms for relationships promoting cultural wellness.