Content area
Full Text
Diversity education has become an essential part of undergraduate academic courses across the U.S. as universities seek to better prepare students for participation in an increasingly diverse society. The results of three studies examining the impact of diversity course participation on college students' awareness of privilege and oppression, openness to diversity, and ethnocultural empathy are presented. The results were mixed across the three studies. Study 1 compared a broad assortment of diversity vs. non-diversity courses at three universities and found that diversity course participation led to more awareness and empathy. Study 2 results showed no significant improvement in awareness, openness, and empathy for students who had self-selected into a diversity-oriented academic major and noted significantly higher scores in openness for students who had not self-selected into a diversity-oriented program. Study 3 examined the impact of two diversity courses on a group of undergraduates over consecutive fall semesters and found significantly higher scores on awareness and openness, but no impact on empathy. These collective results suggest that diversity course participation generally leads to higher awareness, openness, and empathy, but these gains are not automatic. Study 3 results suggest that participation in multiple diversity courses may enhance student outcomes. Recommendations for future researchers and educators are provided.
Keywords: Awareness; openness; empathy; privilege; oppression; diversity; diversity education; diversity training
Diversity education has become an expanding and integral part of undergraduate academic courses on many college campuses (Goodman, 2001; Howard-Hamilton, Cuyjet, & Cooper, 2011; Mallinckrodt et al., 2014). Much of this expansion has been attributed to a desire to better prepare students for interactions with a U.S. population that is growing increasingly more diverse (Howard-Hamilton et al., 2011; Mallinckrodt et al., 2014). Diversity education may play an important role in preparing undergraduate students to participate fully in this diverse society after graduation. For example, Kulik and Roberson (2008) suggested that academic settings are advantageous learning environments for diversity training because full-length academic courses allow more time (e.g., 1016 weeks) to devote to building important intergroup knowledge, facilitating attitudinal changes, and improving communication skills than what is feasible in other settings (e.g., a workplace setting where lengthy trainings can be expensive for employers to provide).
There are also a number of positive benefits associated with college diversity courses that...