Minorities in the Chemical Workforce Diversity Models that Work: A Workshop Report to the Chemical Sciences Roundtable (2003) / Chapter Skim
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2 Preparing College Students for a Diverse Democracy
2 Preparing College Students for a Diverse Democracy
Pages 16-35
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The RAND Institute conducted a survey of employers who identified some key cognitive and social skills that are desirable (Bikson and Law, 1994~. Among the skills identified that are particularly relevant to our research focus are (1)
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In our current research project we have identified a series of cognitive outcomes that are defined as "active thinking" skills. It is not just logical deduction that is necessary to handle more complex and messy social problems but, rather, complex thinking skills.
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, is that equal status peer groups are very important in breaking down stereotypes and overcoming "tokenism." Moreover, highly diverse environments provide more opportunities for daily interaction across diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences. When numbers of diverse people are sufficient, individuals are less likely to fall into the same stereotype of social hierarchies, but can begin to recognize differences and similarities.
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This informal interaction with diversity is not particularly controlled by the institution. We often assumed that if we diversified the student body, that stereotyping and discrimination would dissipate because people would be able to interact with diverse people.
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Figure 2.2 addresses the issue of whether diversity in the curriculum has an impact on students. Using two factor-analyzed measures, intellectual engagement and citizen engagement, we explored this question breaking down the national sample into white, African American, and Latino college students.
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100 908070605040302010O- . | Intellectual engagement and motivation index White African Latino American | Informal interactional diversity FIGURE 2.3 Informal interactional diversity and student outcomes.
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We also ran the analysis with controls for having been exposed to a diverse curriculum and found that informal interaction maintains its own unique contribution to the variance in the educational outcomes. Providing opportunities for students to discuss coursework and deal with the diversity of background and experiences on an equal status during college is very important for all racial groups; however, it was particularly important for African Americans' intellectual skills, engagement, and motivation to have the opportunity to interact with others in a diverse environment.
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Students with frequent interaction with diverse peers demonstrated greater intellectual engagement and active thinking four and nine years after college entry. They also showed a greater capacity to engage in a diverse workplace after college, which is important for the issues we are concerned about at this workshop.
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We had to get permission to gain access to samples of students in selected introductory courses to administer some of these tests. We administered a critical thinking skills test, the critical thinking dispositions test, the test of reflective judgment, and in later studies, we added a test of moral judgment.
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The second is, based on some of your findings, would it imply that African Americans who go to traditional historically black colleges and universities (HBCU) would not be as effective in a diverse environment?
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, which offers similar ideas in the context of technical innovation. He discusses the concept of disruptive technologies, the notion that real change is made when new concepts actually challenge existing views of what is useful and important.
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Ron Estler, Fort Lewis College: The segment of the underrepresented population that I am interested in is the Native American students. Fort Lewis College, located in southern Colorado, has a 15 percent enrollment of Native Americans of the 4,500 student population.
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One of the things that I made clear to Purdue when I went there was that I wanted to teach the freshmen because that was a critical point where I felt I could have the most impact. In my thinking, I was originally anticipating influencing the African Americans and being visible for these kids.
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- r -- r -- -7 That is so important to them at that stage, and it gets back to the sense of belonging. It is having both intellectual engagement and the mentorship of a graduate advisor or supervisor in the research process that makes all the difference in the world of graduate students.
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I have seen different departments introduce the cooperative learning model, not simply because it improves achievement, which has been proven in elementary schools, but also because it is important for the workplace. Stanley C
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Sylvia Hurtado: Thank you for raising that issue. We just completed focus group interviews with students on the ten public university campuses, and that came up quite a bit in their interactions with other students and in classrooms.
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They think of minority students, "You have a free ride, that is how you got here." So, when it comes to fostering some of those important peer interactions that should promote more critical thinking, more engaged scholarship, better citizenship, and all the kinds of things that we say we want as diversity outcomes, significant barriers exist that prevent these outcomes ~ . from occurring.
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After a number of employees in R&D had undergone diversity training in the ELG, the graduates of the ELG process volunteered to become mentors for summer interns; many of the interns, but not all, were African Americans. Because of this, the summer intern program for all interns improved tremendously such that the interns became a diverse community of students with a diverse group of mentors, coworkers, and advisors.
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Those are the key principles. This type of diversity training is probably one of the most innovative programs around.
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So, thinking about how to create change in organizations is probably the key to the answer for these individuals to help young people move through the system. I think that my only strategy as a department chair is bringing people at a senior level who can enter the discussion on an equal peer status basis and have a very different way of thinking.
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