Multiculturalism and Student Learning

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Multiculturalism and Student Learning

• Implications for Teaching and Assessment

Victor M. H. Borden, Ph.D. Associate Vice
President University Planning, Institutional
Research, and Accountability (IU) Associate
Professor of Psychology (IUPUI) vborden_at_indiana.ed
u
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In Conclusion

• Multiculturalism is a multi-layered construct
• Choose some common threads
• Enable individual faculty and staff to experiment
  and innovate
• Collaborative inquiry is the key to understanding
  and constructive change
• assessing together to plan, implement, evaluate,
  and improve
• To incorporate multiculturalism into your
  teaching requires you to hold yourself to the
  same learning expectations that you hold your
  students
• But first

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Who am I?

• Social psychological in perspective
• Neo-Lewinian with Argyristic tendencies and a
  perverse fascination with situated learning
• A lifelong administrator with an added faculty
  line
• Areas of specialty
• Multiculturalism not really
• Diversity more so
• Organizational transformation through
  evidence-based practice Id like to think so
• IR at the core
• Frontperson for the AIR Windbreakers

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Where am I?

• Not Kansas, apparently
• Purdue Calumet
• Carnegie 2000 - Masters Colleges Universities
  I
• Carnegie 2005
• Undergraduate Instructional Program 
• Professions plus arts sciences, some graduate
  coexistence 
• Graduate Instructional Program
• Postbaccalaureate with arts sciences (business
  dominant) 
• Enrollment Profile
• Very high undergraduate
• Undergraduate Profile
• Medium full-time four-year, inclusive
• Size and Setting
• Medium four-year, primarily nonresidential 
• Basic Master's Colleges and Universities (medium
  programs)

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IPEDS Data Feedback Report

• Central Missouri State University (Warrensburg,
  MO)
• Chicago State University (Chicago, IL)
• Eastern Illinois University (Charleston, IL)
• Emporia State University (Emporia, KS)
• Fort Hays State University (Hays, KS)
• Georgia Southwestern State University (Americus,
  GA)
• Governors State University (University Park, IL)
• Indiana University-Northwest (Gary, IN)
• Indiana University-Purdue University-Fort Wayne
  (Fort Wayne, IN)
• Indiana University-South Bend (South Bend, IN)
• Indiana University-Southeast (New Albany, IN)
• Kean University (Union, NJ)
• Kennesaw State University (Kennesaw, GA)
• Minnesota State University-Mankato (Mankato, MN)
• Minnesota State University-Moorhead (Moorhead,
  MN)
• Northeastern Illinois University (Chicago, IL)
• Northern Michigan University (Marquette, MI)
• Northwest Missouri State University (Maryville,
  MO)
• Pittsburg State University (Pittsburg, KS)

• Southeast Missouri State University (Cape
  Girardeau, MO)
• Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
  (Edwardsville, IL)
• The University of Tennessee-Chattanooga
  (Chattanooga, TN)
• University of Central Oklahoma (Edmond, OK)
• University of Massachusetts-Boston (Boston, MA)
• University of Michigan-Dearborn (Dearborn, MI)
• University of Minnesota-Duluth (Duluth, MN)
• University of Nebraska at Omaha (Omaha, NE)
• University of North Carolina at Greensboro
  (Greensboro, NC)
• University of North Carolina-Wilmington
  (Wilmington, NC)
• University of Northern Iowa (Cedar Falls, IA)
• University of Southern Indiana (Evansville, IN)
• University of Wisconsin-La Crosse (La Crosse, WI)
• University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point (Stevens
  Point, WI)
• Valdosta State University (Valdosta, GA)
• William Paterson University of New Jersey (Wayne,
  NJ)
• Winona State University (Winona, MN)

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Purdue Cal Indiana Context

• In comparison to
• Purdue North Central
• IPFW
• IU Northwest
• IU South Bend
• IU Southeast
• IU Kokomo
• IU East

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Student Body Profile 1
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Student Body Profile 2
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Student Body Profile 3
10
6-Year Graduation Rate
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Faculty Profile 1
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Faculty Profile 2
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Racial/Ethnic Faculty to Student Ratios
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Back on Task

• What is multiculturalism in relation to student
  learning?
• What can you do at Purdue Calumet to improve
  teaching and learning for our diverse,
  multicultural student body?
• Why and how is assessment (and collaborative
  inquiry in particular) an important part of the
  effort?

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Perspectives on Multiculturalism

• Knefelkamp
• Attending to the variety of learning styles
• Banks five overlapping dimensions
• Content integration Knowledge construction
  Equity pedagogy Prejudice reduction Empowering
  classroom culture
• Kolbs four step approach to MC pedagogy
• Concrete experience Reflective observation
  Abstract conceptualization Active experimentation

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Perspectives on Multiculturalism

• Grant Sleeter Context Specific
• Perspectives of under-represented peoples
• Instructional strategies for multiple learning
  styles
• Promotion of social justice
• Removing bias from questions and cases
• Appealing to varied interests
• Bennet Teachers as
• Student advocates inquiry-based practitioners
  agents of social change competent with content
• Gay Culturally responsive pedagogy
• Kitano Developing democratic citizens

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Recommended Resources 1

• AACU Diversity Web - http//www.diversityweb.org/
  

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Recommended Resources 2
http//www.opd.iupui.edu/diversity/resource_guide.
htm
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Other Resources

• Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (U
  of M) Section on Multicultural teaching
• http//www.crlt.umich.edu/multiteaching/multiteach
  ing.html
• EdChanges Multicultural Pavilion
• Multicultural Teaching Toolbox,
  http//www.edchange.org/multicultural/teachers.htm
  l
• Banks et al., (2001). Diversity within unity
  Essential Principles for Teaching And Learning in
  a Multicultural Society (http//www.educ.washingto
  n.edu/coetestwebsite/pdf/DiversityUnity.pdf)
• Schoem, D., Frankel, L., Zuniga, X., Lewis, E.
  (1993). Multicultural teaching in the
  university. Westport, CT Praeger
• National Association for Multicultural Education
  (NAME)
• http//www.nameorg.org/

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So What Do We Do?

• If multiculturalism can be so many different
  things to different people at different times,
  how do we proceed?
• By developing some core objectives
• With as much or more individual experimentation,
  innovation, and creativity
• By bringing more people on board

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Developing Core Objectives

• Whats the problem?
• Are racial/ethnic, low SES, or first-generation
  performance gaps related to uni-cultural teaching
  practices?
• Is there a problem of awareness and/or
  acceptance?
• Maybe its more an opportunity than a problem
• Given its environment and mission, can Purdue
  Calumet stake a claim in this territory?

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Things to Look At

• Leadership commitment
• Is this on senior administrators radar screen
  and, if so, how?
• Are there sufficient rewards, incentives, and
  supports?
• Curricular requirements
• Is understanding and working with human
  difference part of the Gen Ed program? Major
  outcomes? How is it taught and assessed?
• Campus climate
• See recent IUPUI experience
• Representational diversity
• What does the gap between student and faculty
  representation portend?
• How are different students represented across
  majors (gender race/ethnicity age, etc.)

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For Example
Bachelor's Degrees Conferred at Purdue Calumet,
2004-05
Percent
Black
and
Hispanic
Total Number
Business
199
9
13
72
15
15
Social Sciences and History
6
10
Engineering-Related Technologies
69
11
8
Computer and Information Sciences
66
4
14
Education
57
13
18
Health Professions/Life Sciences
56
21
6
Communications
53
15
9
Psychology
47
5
27
Humanities and Fine Arts
41
15
10
Engineering
40
6
6
17
Physics/Math
6
50
16
Home Ec/Park Rec
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And What About

• DFW rates in popular introductory courses among
  various groups?
• Student responses, overall and by group, to key
  NSSE items
• Included diverse perspectives (different races,
  religions, genders, political beliefs, etc.) in
  class discussions or writing assignments
• Had serious conversations with students
• A) of a different race/ethnicity
• B) who are very different in terms of religious
  beliefs, political opinions, or personal values
• Understanding people of other racial and ethnic
  backgrounds
• Compared to faculty responses (FSSE)?

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How Else Can You Find Out Whether

• Students feel welcome in class?
• Teaching methods accommodate different learning
  styles?
• There are any unintended use of language
  barriers?
• There are any biases in examples used?

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Multicultural Assessment

• There are many ways to do assessment
• It is about looking for evidence to determine
  what is happening, relative to what you think
  should be happening
• Evidence takes many forms
• Documented (what others have observed and
  written)
• Direct observation quantitative and
  experiential (practitioner and client/user)
• Contextual

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Assessment All Along the Way
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The Outcomes Assessment Matrix
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Learn About It, and Then

• Identify some core issues to approach as a
  community
• Identify interesting practice
• Visit if possible
• Brainstorm to adopt and determine how you will
  assess
• Try it, check it, learn from it
• Tweak and check or try something else
• But give things time to see if they can be done
  better

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Enabling Individual Development and Exploration

• What kind of supports are in place and what
  incentives promote there use?
• Important to enable individuals to innovate,
  experiment, check, learn, and disseminate
• Scholarship of teaching, learning, and supporting
• Communities of practice is a useful concept for
  enabling individuals to work together toward
  individual and collective gain

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Communities of Practice

• Learning as a social system (Etienne Wenger)
• Members of a community, bound by what they do
  together and by what they have learned through
  their mutual engagement in these activities
• Based on distinctions between
• Learning about and learning to be (Bruner)
• Knowing that and knowing how (Ryle)

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CofP is not

• a business or functional unit in that it defines
  itself in the doing, as members develop among
  themselves their own understanding of what their
  practice is about
• a team in that the shared learning and interest
  of its members are what keep it together
• a network in the sense that it is "about"
  something it is not just a set of relationships

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Learning to Teach Better

• We expect our students to
• Learn how to think differently (deconstruct/recons
  truct)
• Learn how to be effective students
• What can they expect from us?
• Adopt our teaching strategies to changing
  realities
• Accommodate diversity

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Parting Suggestion

• Create a community of practice around
  multicultural teaching and learning
• Assess the situation
• Look at available data
• Visit each others classes, looking for
  multiculturalism opportunities
• Talk to students outside class
• Come up with some ideas for interventions
• Try them test them
• Write it up for presentation, publication, and,
  most importantly improvement

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How is This Different?

• Typical Centers for Teaching and Learning focus
  on individual faculty development/improvement
• CofP approach represents mutual engagement
• Inherently multi-disciplinary and multicultural
• Can promote buy-in among broader base

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Local or Global

• Might Purdue Calumet adopt multicultural teaching
  and learning as a strategic initiative?
• Would it be better to let this grow from the
  ground up or is it better to have top-down
  direction?
• Is there a hybrid approach that fosters local
  organization with leadership support and
  incentive?

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Closing Quotes from Ted Marchese

• Good teachers, like "reflective practitioners" in
  other professions, constantly test, adjust, and
  reframe their models of practice on the basis of
  experience and reflection.
• Assessment is a process in which rich, usable,
  credible feedback from an act -- of teaching or
  curriculum -- comes to be reflected upon by an
  academic community, and then is acted on by that
  community -- a department or college -- within
  its commitment to get smarter and better at what
  it does.
• http//www.newhorizons.org/lifelong/higher_ed/marc
  hese.htm