Experiencing Diversity: Understanding Climates for Diversity in Educational Institutions

• In Event: Roundtable Session 73
  In Roundtable Session: Reenvisioning Schools as Institutions

Abstract

The complex multi-dimensional and layered nature of educational institutions’ climates for diversity, underscored by ongoing societal racial tensions and intolerance, necessitates a similarly complex and multi-dimensional methodological approach for research. In this paper we advance a conceptual and methodological framework and mixed methods approach for studying institutional climates that includes interviewing, document analysis, demographic mapping, and comparative analysis. We present findings from a study of one educational institution that account for multiple dimensions of climate, and thus provide a nuanced and comprehensive understanding of the institution’s climate for diversity. These findings illustrate the potential application of this method in an educational institution seeking to map its climate for diversity.

Authors

• Celia J. Oyler, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Robert T. Carter, Columbia University

• Limarys Caraballo, Queens College - CUNY

• Keisha McIntosh Allen, Teachers College, Columbia University

• Sarah L. Schlessinger, Teachers College, Columbia University