Improving Intergroup Relations Among Youth Summary of a Research Workshop (2000) / Chapter Skim
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Appendix A: Project Descriptions
Appendix A: Project Descriptions
Pages 31-70
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From page 31... ...
APPENDIX A Project Descriptions The Workshop on Research to Improve Intergroup Relations Among Youth highlighted the findings of 16 research projects on intergroup relations among youth, each of which received initial funding from the Carnegie Corporation of New York in 1996, as part of its research initiative on race and ethnic relations. This appendix, drawn from the principal investigators' own materials, describes each project in more detail.
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an outcome study to evaluate whether a classroom-based model of FHAO promotes growth in psychosocial competencies (interpersonal understanding, interpersonal skills, and personal meaning) moral and ethnic identity development, increases in positive civic attitudes and participation, and reductions in fighting behavior and attitudes about racism, and (b)
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Abstract conceptions such as the roles played by bystander, victim, perpetrator, and resister in history, for example, came to life for individual students as they struggled to make sense of and respond to personal and often painful experiences in their peer relationships. Programmatic/Policy Implications: Both the outcome study and the case study demonstrate that 8th graders are most meaningfully engaged with issues of social justice within their own peer society, suggesting the importance of teaching strategies that encourage connecting FHAO course themes to critical incidents in the students' peer culture that many students are aware of and concerned about.
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6. Mediational models found that high self-esteem mediated the relationship between ethnic identity and openness to others, with higher self-esteem associated with more positive other group attitudes regardless of ethnicity.
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PR OJECT DESCRIP TI ONS 35 3. Consider the important role of peers in influencing intergroup attitudes; target interventions to the peer group.
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Engaging in community service was positively related to young people's desire to promote intergroup understanding and with their commitments to public interest goals. Among the "enemy images" adolescents listed as prominent in the media today were Arabs, Muslims, African-Americans, Latinos, Asians, communists, gangs, militia groups, and the American government.
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There are two implications regarding the media from our data: first, opportunities to discuss current events with adults can help young people see the connections of their lives with the broader society and appears to be implicated in their desire to promote intergroup understanding; second, youth are cognizant of the "enemy images" promulgated in the media and would benefit from opportunities (in school or youth groups) to Reconstruct those stereotypes.
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The elite school district we observed was more self-conscious than the working-class district in its attention to organizing activities related to diversity, such as festivals, music concerts, art displays, and prejudice reduction workshops. Despite this attention, in the more elite school district, African American and Latino children were more likely to be in the lowest-achieving groups compared to Asian and Anglo children, and African American children were most likely to be perceived as discipline problems and as creating more challenges around discipline for
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While the challenges around discipline most often concerned African American boys, African American girls also presented challenges, particularly when their teachers were male. African American pupils presented fewer discipline problems in the classrooms of African American teachers.
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In general, white children were less likely to endorse inclusive strategies, exhibit positive racial attitudes, or engage in positive intergroup interactions than were other groups of children. School and classroom contexts appear to be influential in mediating the effect of the video on particular outcome variables.
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This research suggests a need to examine teacher preparation and in-service professional development programs. It also suggests the need to examine the roles of administrative, school district, and state policies regarding the use of video and television in the classroom and the importance of the creation and maintenance of positive intergroup interaction.
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Age interacted with race group, revealing that black children's bias levels increased with age, whereas white children's decreased. White children also exhibited stronger preferences for same-race playmates and used racial cues more readily to judge their similarity and dissimilarity to other children.
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More fine-grained analyses of children's performance during the training sessions revealed that lower post-test bias scores for the cognitive condition were found for those who exhibited the highest cross-race empathy. Programmatic/Policy Implications: The present findings demonstrate that the racial attitudes of young children are quite malleable and that a variety of procedures can be used effectively to foster more positive racial attitudes.
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The project is designed to produce a clearer focus on intergroup relations within Mission High School, the development of an action plan for the adoption and development of programs and curricula to increase cross-cultural awareness and interaction, and a reduction in the level of intergroup conflict at the school. What makes the program unique is that it encourages young people themselves to lead the movement for improving intergroup relations.
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Racial and ethnic attitudes toward other groups appear to indicate tolerance among the vast majority of students. There was little evidence of entrenched negative attitudes toward any group, though African Americans were ranked slightly lower than other racial groups.
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Young people are the best resource for improving intergroup relations among adolescents. Youth-driven and youth-run programs that aim at changing the cultural environment of their school or community have tremendous potential for affecting the attitudes of a large number of youth and changing the context and environment in which they interact into one which facilitates contact and cooperation.
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. Key study questions included: To what extent are cultural factors, such as ethnic identity and bicultural self-efficacy, related to intercultural group relations and social problems, such as violence and aggression?
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Programmatic/Policy Implications: The results of the project pointed to the great need that culturally diverse adolescents have for information that validates their cultural heritage and background. Also evident was their need for enhancing their ethnic identity and for increasing their intercultural communication and relationship skills.
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PR OJECT DESCRIP TI ONS 49 organized opportunities for adolescent students to interact and develop relationships with those outside of their cultural groups. More research needs to be encouraged to more carefully examine the relationship between cultural factors, such as ethnic identity and bicultural self-efficacy, and social problems, such as intercultural group relations and social problems among high-risk adolescents (e.g., violence and aggression)
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2. How do systematic school strategies designed to improve intergroup relations foster border-crossings, increased opportunities to interact, and the identification of commonalties?
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These different approaches include passive, reactive, and proactive measures to creating conditions for students to explore their ethnic identity and to set the norms and rules of behavior for intergroup interactions. The "passive" school is characterized by lack of widespread acknowledgement that intergroup tensions exist on campus and few, if any, programs are implemented with the expressed purpose of directly promoting intergroup contact.
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Positive intergroup relations can be achieved through strategies that seek to enhance students identity, development, and learning experiences. While some schools have heightened students' levels of awareness of their ethnic identity and of issues of race to create a more meaningful context for students to interact, school-wide efforts may not be effective unless they take into account students' varying needs and levels of readiness to grapple with issues of intergroup relations, as indicated by the different "types" they represent.
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PR OJECT DESCRIP TI ONS 53 and affirmation of who they are so that they do not feel the need to hide their racial and ethnic selves. · Type II students need safe spaces to explore common fears, perceptions, and understandings, and to exchange coping strategies.
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Each team has members of three or four major ethnic groups playing together on the same team: African American, Asian American, Latino, and Euro American. A multimethod technique was used to collect the data for this study.
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In Phase 2 of the study, we completed an intervention with two girls' basketball teams that we had previously studied. We tried to use what we had learned about value-based conflict in Phase I of the project to improve intergroup understanding and harmony within each team.
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56 Contact: Patricia Marks Greenfield Department of Psychology University of California, Los Angeles 405 Hilgard Avenue Los Angeles, CA 90095 310-825-7526 310-206-5895 (fax)
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Nevertheless, assimilated immigrant youth recognize that they are not fully American and thus identify as a "hyphenated American," such as Haitian American or Cuban American, rather than simply American or African American or Latino.
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While we continue to examine multiculturalism and equal status, our tentative conclusion is that unity can be accomplished while still promoting multicultural activities. The goal is not, however, easy to achieve.
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PR OJECT DESCRIP TI ONS Contact: Alex Stepick Director, Immigration & Ethnicity Institute Florida International University Miami, FL 33199 305-348-2247 305-348-3605 (fax) Email: stepick@Fiu.edu 59
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To investigate whether students' behavioral journalism can change attitudes related to intergroup hostility, a quasi-experimental research project was carried out among two multicultural Houston high school populations. The technique used student newsletters to promote improved intergroup relations among 91 high school students in two Houston schools.
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During future years we plan to expand the "Students for Peace" campaign throughout the Houston school district and to other interested communities. Because of its flexibility and convenience for mass application, this method can efficiently reach diverse communities in large populations.
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Methodology: The first component focused on the development of adolescents' racial/ethnic identity as a strategy for improving intergroup relations. Approximately 50 middle school students from six racial/ethnic groups (Latino, African-American, Asian Pacific American, EuropeanAmerican, Jewish, and biracial)
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of participating educators. The third component involved a series of parent meetings designed to provide the parents of middle school students with information about adolescent identity development and intergroup relations in the school, to encourage positive intergroup interactions among adults as a way of modeling desirable behavior, and to serve as a way of identifying parent and community resources who might help with the CIG project.
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Our data suggest that young people and adults alike need and benefit from "safe spaces" to explore personal attitudes and to reflect upon their own and others' racial and ethnic identity. Creating such opportunities can have a positive impact on interethnic relations in schools.
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The faculty one African American man and one white woman collaborate regularly to sustain intellectually and politically rich classes. The focus is on desegregated classrooms and detracking.
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geared toward the arts in Buffalo, New York. The school is highly mixed ethnically and racially, having 45 percent white, 45 percent African American, 8 percent Latino/Latina, 1 percent First Nations People, and 1 percent Asian students.
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Contact: Lois Weis Organization Administration and Policy State University of New York, Buffalo 468 Baldy Hall Buffalo, NY 14260 716-645-6626 716-645-2481 (fax) Email: Weis@acsu.Buffalo.edu
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were racially balanced, reflecting the overall population of the district (about 50 percent European American, 40 percent African American, and 10 percent children of other ethnic backgrounds) the elementary schools (housing the 3rd and 4th graders)
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The shift away from other-race friends was less dramatic but significant nevertheless: 45 percent of African American 3rd grade students as compared with 30 percent of African American 5th grade students reported that "all" or "many" of their friends were a different race from themselves. In a school district that is fully integrated, one would expect about equal numbers of students reporting same-race and other-race friendships.
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Not surprisingly, parental socialization messages were quite strongly associated with African American students' peer preference patterns. Perhaps the most puzzling aspect has been the absence of a relationship between proposed predictor variables and peer preference patterns within the subsample of white students.
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