Universities researching how to prepare students for diverse democracy

ANN ARBOR—Higher education plays a central role in preparing students to live and work in a society where one out of three Americans will be a member of a racial/ethnic minority and most of the growth in new jobs will require a college degree. What are the new skills that students will need to become engaged citizens in the future? Several colleges are working together to launch a new project that will explore how diversity is linked with learning on college campuses and to share promising practices that enhance their goal of preparing students for engagement in a diverse society. “Preparing College Students for a Diverse Democracy” is a collaboration involving 10 public research universities: Arizona State University; University of California, Los Angeles; University of Maryland; University of Massachusetts-Amherst; University of Michigan, Ann Arbor; University of Minnesota; University of New Mexico; Texas Southern University; University of Washington and University of Vermont. The project is funded with a three-year grant of $872,000 from the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Educational Research and Improvement. Campus representatives are meeting today (April 7) at Arizona State University to officially launch the project. The main goal of the project is to understand how different campuses achieve goals for student learning and address the skills needed for participation in a democracy through initiatives designed to increase student engagement with diverse perspectives. According to Sylvia Hurtado, associate professor of education at the University of Michigan and the project’s principal investigator, colleges have developed a wide range of initiatives that include such practices as community service learning programs, facilitated intergroup dialogues and a variety of curricular initiatives. “However, we have yet to understand how students develop cognitive, social, and democratic skills through campus initiatives and informal interactions with diverse peers during their college experience,” Hurtado said. “We will use different methods to collect information including a longitudinal survey of students which will track their college experience, several focused classroom-based studies, and student focus groups. We expect that each campus will be able to utilize student data in future planning activities and share promising practices that may serve as a model for other institutions across the country.” Hurtado further describes the project as a significant attempt to bring empirical evidence to inform the practice of educating a diverse student body. “It intends to move beyond the current affirmative action controversy to provide action and discussion about the types of education that will be necessary for citizenship in a diverse society with a common destiny. Timed to coincide with the national elections, we have a unique opportunity to learn about student orientations regarding self-interest or public interest, their conceptions of democracy, and engagement in formal democratic processes. Institutions are searching for a new vision and are eager to acquire research and theory that can guide practice. “Therefore, this project is important in revitalizing higher education’s mission to prepare a diverse student body for future democratic citizenship and has the endorsement of the American Association for Higher Education, the Association of American Colleges and Universities, and the American Council on Education,” said Hurtado. For further information contact the Diverse Democracy Project staff at (734) 647-7439, or 610 East University Ave., 2022M SEB, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1259. General questions can be e-mailed to divdemo@umich.edu.

Arizona State UniversitySylvia HurtadoAmerican Association for Higher Educationdivdemo@umich.edu