Social Science Research and School Diversity

• In Event: 60.076 - The Social and Political Contexts for Research Utilization in Education Policy Making

Abstract

For decades, policy makers, advocates, and researchers have been engaged in efforts to make educational opportunity more equal for students from different racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups. A great deal of research has been conducted on their efforts; however, there is some disagreement on the extent to which research has been influential. The Brown v. Board of Education decision is one of the best-known examples of social science research influencing policy change. In its unanimous opinion, the Court cited psychologists’ findings that segregation harmed Black children by undermining their self-esteem. Although that finding has been disputed by some scholars, social scientists have repeatedly found that students benefit from integrated or diverse educational settings (Mickelson 2008; Pettigrew and Tropp 2006). However, actual federal policies related to school diversity have shifted in the opposite direction. As early as the 1970s, federal courts backed away from ordering integration, and made it easier for school districts to be released from desegregation orders (Orfield 197). Since the 1970s, advocates of affirmative action in higher education have had some success in making the argument that colleges and universities should be able to consider applicants’ race as one of several factors in a broader review of qualifications, because of the value of diverse learning environments. K-12 school districts not under desegregation orders have also adopted diversity as their goal (McDermott 2001). Within the past decade, although the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2007 Parents Involved in Community Schools decision narrowed K-12 districts’ policy options for maintaining diverse schools, majorities of the Justices in Parents Involved and the 2013 Fisher v. Texas case maintain that government has a compelling interest in diverse learning environments.
Although policymakers show an interest in diverse school settings, the authors set out to examine the level of influence that social science research has had on actual policymaking that focuses on school diversity. The authors conducted unstructured interviews with eight activists who use such research in arguments about school diversity. Findings from the study indicate that activists felt the influence of social science research is ambiguous. Given that, the current political climate for diversity advocates can be viewed as a sort of mirror image of the one in which the Court decided Brown. Many White Americans believe that racism is no longer a problem (Bonilla-Silva 2010), and as study participants noted, many Americans of all races are seeking ways to improve schools that serve low-income students of color that do not require integration. In sum, findings suggest that activists felt that social science research would have an influence if (a) they target specific policy goals over a period of time, and (b) they pursue school diversity policy in a hospitable context, particularly given the current political climate.

Authors

• Sheneka M. Williams, University of Georgia

• Kathryn A. McDermott, University of Massachusetts - Amherst