The controversies that have surrounded the Supreme Court ruling in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (Zirkel & Cantor, this issue) apply as well to current debates about the educational value of racial and ethnic diversity, and the importance of diversity in defending affirmative action in higher education. One of the controversies concerns the difference between racial desegregation and racial integration, or the difference between mere contact and actual interaction between students of different racial backgrounds (Pettigrew, 1998). In current debates about the educational role of diversity, some argue that the mere presence on campus of students from varied racial backgrounds must be shown to directly foster educational benefits (Wood & Sherman, 2001). This argument mirrors the early assertion that mere contact of racially diverse students through school desegregation would be beneficial to all students. Eventually it became clear, however, that mere contact through desegregation was not sufficient to produce educational benefits (Zirkel & Cantor, this issue). Just as Allport (1954) had theorized, contact needed to occur under certain conditions — where there was equality in status, existence of common goals, and intimacy of interaction if it was to have positive effects. Educators needed to create a racially integrated learning environment that went far beyond simply putting diverse students together in the same classroom.
These conditions that make intergroup contact positive also help determine now when racial and ethnic diversity has educational benefits. As Orfield (2001) recently summarized in regard to K-12 public education, there is strong evidence of “instructional techniques that increase both the academic and human relations benefits of interracial schooling” (p. 9). Higher education institutions as well need to create curricular and co-curricular opportunities for students to experience genuine racial integration — to interact in meaningful ways and to learn from each other — if diversity is to have a positive educational impact. The presence of diverse students on a campus is a necessary but certainly not sufficient condition for diversity to work in a positive manner. In this article we stress the importance of actual experiences with diversity through cross-racial interaction in classrooms, intergroup dialogues that bring students from diverse backgrounds together to discuss racial issues, and participation in multicultural campus events.
A second controversy that arose from Brown v. Board of Education concerns what kind of benefits may stem from racial integration in education. Many different outcomes have been studied in the fifty years since the Brown decision; many are analyzed in this volume. We focus on preparation for citizenship, which we argue is an important outcome of experience with racial and ethnic diversity just as it was seen as an important aspect of personal development at the time of Brown v. Board of Education (Clark & Clark, 1947; Deutscher & Chein, 1948). We argue that experiences with diversity educate and prepare citizens for a multicultural democracy.
We analyze the impact of curricular and co-curricular experience with racial and ethnic diversity on democratic sentiments and citizenship activities in two field studies: a quasi-experimental study comparing undergraduate participants in a curricular diversity program with a matched control group (n=87 in each group), and a longitudinal survey of University of Michigan students (n=1670).
These conditions that make intergroup contact positive also help determine now when racial and ethnic diversity has educational benefits. As Orfield (2001) recently summarized in regard to K-12 public education, there is strong evidence of “instructional techniques that increase both the academic and human relations benefits of interracial schooling” (p. 9). Higher education institutions as well need to create curricular and co-curricular opportunities for students to experience genuine racial integration — to interact in meaningful ways and to learn from each other — if diversity is to have a positive educational impact. The presence of diverse students on a campus is a necessary but certainly not sufficient condition for diversity to work in a positive manner. In this article we stress the importance of actual experiences with diversity through cross-racial interaction in classrooms, intergroup dialogues that bring students from diverse backgrounds together to discuss racial issues, and participation in multicultural campus events.
A second controversy that arose from Brown v. Board of Education concerns what kind of benefits may stem from racial integration in education. Many different outcomes have been studied in the fifty years since the Brown decision; many are analyzed in this volume. We focus on preparation for citizenship, which we argue is an important outcome of experience with racial and ethnic diversity just as it was seen as an important aspect of personal development at the time of Brown v. Board of Education (Clark & Clark, 1947; Deutscher & Chein, 1948). We argue that experiences with diversity educate and prepare citizens for a multicultural democracy.
We analyze the impact of curricular and co-curricular experience with racial and ethnic diversity on democratic sentiments and citizenship activities in two field studies: a quasi-experimental study comparing undergraduate participants in a curricular diversity program with a matched control group (n=87 in each group), and a longitudinal survey of University of Michigan students (n=1670).
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