University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

- The study analyzed underrepresented racial minority students (URM)'s grades over 2 years in comparison to white/asian students 
- They found that a multicultural approach to diversity ideologies help to improve URMs grades (and does not affect white/asian students), and thus helps to close the racial achievement gap 
- main takeaway-colleges cannot simply acknowledge diversity and inclusion-the specific way that they go about it matters 

multiculturalism vs colorblind diversity ideology-reducing the racial achievement gap 

Birnbaum, H. J., Stephens, N. M., Townsend, S. S., & Hamedani, M. G. (2020). A diversity ideology intervention: Multiculturalism reduces the racial achievement gap. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 1948550620938227.

This study examined the difference in effect of colorblind and multiculturalism ideologies 

Diversity ideologies 

- 1-the Multiculturalism intervention instead of the colorblindness intervention will increase grades of URM students
- 2-the multiculturalism intervention will increase grades of URM students in comparison to those who did not have any interventions 
- 3-the multiculturalism intervention compared to the colorblindness intervention will increase the students’ engagement and college experience in general
- 4-the multiculturalism and colorblind interventions alike will not impact asian and white students 


Hypotheses of diversity ideology experiment 

- 407 participants (assigned a treatment)-38% URMs 
- Comparison group (not assigned a treatment)-1221 non participants (222 URMs)
- Randomly assigned to colorblind diversity statement or multiculturalism diversity statement during the first semester during college 
- Students had to read about a potential diversity statement which encouraged diversity and inclusion 
- After they read the statement, they took a survey 
- Completed an end of the year statement to see how engaged the students were 

methods/procedures of diversity ideology study

- 2 x 3 anova- (URM vs white/asian) and (multiculturalism vs colorblindness vs control)
- Significant interaction between race and condition 
- URM students in the multiculturalism condition scored significantly better than students in the colorblind condition 
- URM students in the multiculturalism condition scored significantly better than students with no intervention at all 
- URM students in the colorblind group performed the same as URM students with no intervention at all 
- The interventions did not impact the performance of white/asian students
- Found a racial achievement gap in the colorblind and control conditions 
- The achievement gap was much smaller in the multiculturalism condition-the GPAs were not statistically significantly different from white/asian students 
- Analyzed grades across time→ the intervention effects did not waver as time persisted 


results of diversity ideology study 

- Difference education teaches students about the contexts of their differences and why they have developed over time 
- Difference education explains how differences can be both positive and negative 


Learn Before

Related