Perceptions of diversity among on-campus undergraduate students, undergraduate faculty, and administrators at a private institution of higher education
University of San Francisco, PhD Thesis, (2000)Zusammenfassung
The study was conducted at one medium-sized, private university in Northern California. Kanter's (1977) theory of tokenism was used to examine factors related to diversity issues at an institution of higher education (IHE). According to Kanter, “forms of a group with a skewed distribution of social types generates certain perceptions of the token by the dominants. These perceptions determine the interaction dynamics between tokens and dominants and create the pressures dominants impose on tokens” (Kanter, 1978, pg. 971). The participants in this study included undergraduate students, undergraduate faculty, and administrators. Three hundred and fourteen students were surveyed, and six were interviewed. Also, six faculty and five administrators participated in a structured interview. In this study, a researcher-developed Likert scale survey instrument with four scales was used to gain information on students' perceptions of issues related to diversity at the IHE studied. The four factors included: Campus Climate, Curriculum, Personal Growth, and Extracurricular Activities. Interviews were also used to gain more in-depth information on the same four factors. ANOVA (analysis of variance) and Scheffe post-hoc tests were calculated to analyze the survey data. Results of the ANOVA indicated some differences among proportionality groups. Scheffe post-hoc tests were calculated to find where the differences were between proportionality groups. Results on the Campus Climate and Curriculum scales indicated statistically significant differences between tokens and dominants and the tilted and dominant groups. Scheffe results on the Extracurricular scale indicated statistically significant differences between titled and dominant groups. On none of the scales were significant differences found between the token and tilted groups. Five themes emerged from an extensive content analysis of the transcripts from the interviews. Themes included: low enrollment of African-American and Latino/a students, lack of faculty of color, receptiveness by the university community to diverse groups, usefulness of multicultural clubs and activities, and implementation of multicultural curriculum campus-wide. Responses from the interviews added interesting insights into essential areas of this study.