Building and Strengthening the Undergraduate Pipeline With Education Courses That Fulfill Diversity Requirements

• In Event: 60.083 - Roundtable Session 19
  In Roundtable Session: 60.083-19 - Division I Roundtable E. Researching a Region for Education Equity: A Symposium With University of California, San Diego, Faculty and Researchers

Abstract

Over half the universities in the U.S. have a diversity course requirement for undergraduate graduation that compels undergraduates to study issues of race, culture, and/ or gender (Conciatore, 2000). Several researchers have attempted to assess the affective and cognitive outcomes of socio-political course work on undergraduates’ beliefs and attitudes towards women and people who are not the same race as the students in the course (Laird, 2005; Bowman, 2010; Neville, Potent, Lewis, & Spanierman, 2014). A recent study of 600 students’ affective responses to sociopolitical issues at the University of Michigan found that general education courses focused on socio-political issues “are effective in buffering students from the negative effects that appear to be part of the contemporary educational experience, and to some extent they may influence students' political belief systems” (Henderson-King & Kaleta, 2000, 159). White students who took a required course focused on issues of race and racism marginally increased their understandings of people of color, while students who did not take these courses experienced a decline in their conceptions of people of color (Henderson-King & Kaleta, 2000). A study of undergraduates from 25 different diversity courses (Chang (2002) focused on cognitive growth rather than affective response. Chang found that “students who had nearly completed their course requirement made significant more favorable judgments of blacks than those who had just started their requirement” (p. 35).
While these courses have been researched across university disciplines and departments, research from the field of education, with regard to such courses, is limited. In fact, undergraduate education research primarily focuses on students who are seeking admittance or have already been admitted to certification programs (Chang, 2002), rather than exploring the impact of general education courses on undergraduate students who are not interested in K-12 teaching. Moreover, few studies qualitatively explore the content or instruction methods used in large undergraduate courses focused on socio-political issues. Teaching large undergraduate courses to students, who may not be directly bound for K-12 education, extends the undergraduate pipeline into our Masters and Ph.D. programs, and influences students’ understandings of racial and social factors impacting public education.
We initiated the study because of our students’ comments about how the undergraduate education classes changed their perspectives on education and sparked their interest in the field. We surveyed over 600 students, from six education courses marked as fulfilling the diversity requirement, taught by four different faculty members. The survey consisted of 15 likert scale questions and six open ended questions. Because of the general diversity requirement, students hail from across the university, and are not necessarily interested in K-12 teaching; in fact, many students land in our classes because of amenable scheduling, not a passion for education. Findings showed an increased interest in education research, an increase in students’ desire to incorporate education into their current fields of study, new understandings of issues of race, class, gender, and other social factors and identity indicators, and awareness of how federal, state, and local laws and policies impact local education contexts.

Authors

• Thandeka K. Chapman, University of California - San Diego

• Makeba Jones, University of California - San Diego