© 2004 the president and fellows of harvard college the harvard national campus diversity project...
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© 2004 The President and Fellows of Harvard College
The Harvard National Campus The Harvard National Campus Diversity ProjectDiversity Project
Bok Center for Teaching and LearningBok Center for Teaching and LearningWinter Teaching ConferenceWinter Teaching ConferenceTuesday, February 3, 2004Tuesday, February 3, 2004Cambridge, MACambridge, MA
The National Campus Diversity ProjectHarvard Graduate School of [email protected]
Dean Whitla, [email protected]
Researchers:Carolyn Howard, [email protected]
Presented by Frank Tuitt, [email protected]
Richard Reddick, [email protected]
© 2004 The President and Fellows of Harvard College
Outline of Today’s PresentationOutline of Today’s Presentation
• Overview of the Project• Academic Enhancement Programs• Aspects of Curricular Transformation• Student Experiences: Negative and Positive• Implications for Practice
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Support for our ResearchSupport for our Research
• Atlantic Philanthropies• Ford Foundation• Mellon Foundation
© 2004 The President and Fellows of Harvard College
Goals of the National Campus Diversity Goals of the National Campus Diversity ProjectProject
Identify best practices and characteristics found in successful diversity initiatives
Locate programs that have improved academic achievement of underrepresented minority (URM) students and examine the components of these
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Research QuestionResearch Question
How do students, faculty, and staff describe success in providing diversity in curricula, and teaching and learning?
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Our School Selection ProcessOur School Selection Process
A minimum rate of structural diversity among student population
Higher than average retention rates of minority students
Special initiatives or Centers noted in the academic press/journals (e.g., UMD’s Diversity Web, UMichigan’s Center for Race and Ethnicity)
Recommendations from Advisory Board
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Categorization of Schools Based on:Categorization of Schools Based on:
Size Selectivity Funding Sources – Public vs. Private Geographic Region
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Research SampleResearch Sample
Started with 101 schools that met our criteria Narrowed down to 50 NCDP has visited 28 campuses to date From the 28 campuses that we have visited, we
have interviewed:– 9 college presidents– 12 vice presidents or provosts– 120 faculty members– 250 administrators– Over 400 students
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Data CollectionData Collection
Phone Interviews Web-based research Campus interviews Focus group interviews with students Existing literature and institutional research
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Attributes of Successful ProgramsAttributes of Successful Programs
Programs targeted specifically for promoting the achievement of URM students
Faculty and staff training and support on diversity issues
Majority student engagement in events and in the classroom
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Academic Enhancement Programs for URM Academic Enhancement Programs for URM StudentsStudents Model programs create a “culture of achievement”
for URM students who might otherwise associate academic achievement with social isolation
Instructors explicitly state that high standards are the criteria for success, challenging “stereotype threat”(Steele, 1999)
Virtually all model programs were in the SMET disciplines
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Academic Enhancement Programs:Academic Enhancement Programs:University of TexasUniversity of Texas
University of Texas’ “Emerging Scholars” (Derived from the University of California-Berkeley)
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Academic Enhancement Programs:Academic Enhancement Programs: Yale University & Rice University Yale University & Rice University
Yale’s STARS Program Rice’s Spend a Summer With a Scientist Program
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Academic Enhancement Programs:Academic Enhancement Programs:Other InstitutionsOther Institutions
Carnegie Mellon, Mt. Holyoke, Occidental, Northwestern, Stanford, the University of Florida, the University of Miami, Wellesley, and Williams College all have specific, very successful SMET programs for URM and female students
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Aspects of Curriculum TransformationAspects of Curriculum Transformation
There are a few full ethnic/specialty departments (e.g., African American, Latino, and Women’s Studies) that a have range of courses
Transformation is typically spurred by diverse faculty
A very few schools have mandatory enrollment in one or more courses that focuses on social justice issues; or history, status, achievement of diverse groups
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Curriculum Transformation continuedCurriculum Transformation continued
Course Development funds – Exist at some schools but are often too few at most– At a few schools (e.g., UC Berkeley, U Maryland,
Stanford, U Michigan), course core requirements have spurred sincere interest in course development
Teaching and Learning Centers for faculty do exist– Workshops offered for faculty and staff encouraging
interdisciplinary methods or diversity issues content– However, many are underused by the very professors
who need the training
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Teaching and Learning ChallengesTeaching and Learning Challenges(for students)(for students) Negative Classroom Experiences
– Native Informants
– Perceptions of/by Faculty (varying by race)
– Microaggressions
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Negative Classroom ExperiencesNegative Classroom Experiences
• Students become Native Informants“Well, oftentimes, when you come into a classroom, you sort of become the token person (laughter). I mean, whenever a question comes up, whether it’s in political science or in history or whatever, everyone will sort of like turn to you — you would be amazed by the whipping action, and everyone looks at you and they’re like, “So how do you feel about this?” and sometimes even if you want to agree with the majority of the class, you’ll disagree just so that you can give the other side and I mean, its really obvious sometimes that your professors are mostly White, the TAs are often White. Um, even in the African Studies department, a lot of the teachers are White.”
-African-American female at an Ivy school
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Negative Classroom ExperiencesNegative Classroom Experiences
• Perceptions of/by Faculty“I had a really interesting experience with a Black woman professor who hated Black students. And [she] really felt like Black students felt she should give them an ‘A’ because we were Black, so we had to work really hard. This is my first Black woman professor, like I was really excited, you know. And then you just get in there and my first meeting with her was like, ‘Well, you wrote this paper because obviously you think you can write, but this paper shows you can’t.’ And I was like, ‘Wow. Okay.’ I had a really interesting experience with that.”
-African-American female at a small private school
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Negative Classroom ExperiencesNegative Classroom Experiences
• Microaggressions“I'm taking an ‘America in the 1960s’ class... There was the one time I felt a student was totally racially targeted. I was extremely uncomfortable with the whole situation, and there were maybe, three students of color in that class, including me. And everyone else is White, and it’s kind of like, the whole atmosphere at [a neighboring school] is different. Well, there’s this one African-American male in the class, and we were talking about the Civil Rights movement, and the teacher, who was White, kept saying, ‘Tim, where are you in this picture? Tim, where are you? You aren’t even represented at all.’ And the class was laughing, and the teacher was laughing too. And, I was like, that would never happen at [my school]. People would have said something immediately. And I was so uncomfortable, and it was like the second day of class, I was the only Asian student in that class. And so, I didn’t say anything, and I’m just kicking myself for not saying anything. And the guy that was being called on, he answered, and he chuckled with his answer. But I was like, ‘does this happen all the time?’
-Asian female at a small private school
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Positive Teaching and Learning ExperiencesPositive Teaching and Learning Experiences
Faculty-Student Engagement Creates the space for Diverse Perspectives White students have the chance to explore
assumptions Student-to-Student Engagement Attentiveness to how students are
experiencing the learning environment
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RecommendationsRecommendations
Assessment is key– Schools in our research sample have institutional
research departments– Course evaluations– Self-assessment of one’s own racial and cultural biases
Faculty Development opportunities– Teaching centers
Funding for curricular transformation and pedagogical innovation
Diversifying the faculty
© 2004 The President and Fellows of Harvard College
Thanks for attending!Thanks for attending!
Dr. Dean Whitla, Principal [email protected]
Carolyn Howard, Research [email protected]
Richard Reddick, Research [email protected]
Frank Tuitt, Research [email protected]
This presentation is available online at:http://icommons.harvard.edu/~gse-h352/Presentations/