Download Understanding Others

Service Learning & Multicultural
Understanding:
Putting Theory into Practice
Randall E. Osborne, Ph.D.
Texas State University-San Marcos
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
What Service Learning Can Teach That
Relates to Multicultural Understanding

Minimize Dispositional Inferences
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Enhance Civic Attitudes
Prompt Changes in Diversity Philosophy
Change In-Group/Out-Group Identities
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Maximize Situational Correction
Expanded social identity = expanded interaction &
few assumptions
Diminish “Worldview Defense”
Alter beliefs about a “Just World”

Do people “get what they deserve & deserve what
they get?”
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Defining Service Learning

type of experiential education in which
students participate in service in the
community and reflect on their
involvement in such a way as to gain a
further understanding of course content
and of the discipline and of its relationship
to social needs and an enhanced sense of
civic responsibility (Bringle & Hatcher,
1997, p. 153).
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Accomplishing Effective Service
Learning

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Effective service learning will not
just happen
It is purposeful and an interwoven
part of the fabric of the course
As one develops the course,
however, one must also determine
how best to “cultivate” the learning
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Howard’s (1993) “Best Practices”

Howard states that effective service
learning:
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provides educationally sound
mechanisms to harvest the community
learning
In other words, it provides methods for
reflecting on what is being learned
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Reflection

Bringle and Hatcher (1995) remind
us that "reflection" must be:
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intentional,
related to the experience, and
connected to particular learning
objectives.
Faculty can reflect on the relationship
between the service-learning projects and
the development of their courses using
the same principles.
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Effective Reflection

Bringle and Hatcher (1995) summarized
the criteria for the good practice of
reflection. Effective reflection activities:
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link experience to learning;
are guided;
occur regularly;
allow feedback and assessment; and
foster the exploration and clarification of
values.
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Effective Reflection - 2

Eyler, Giles and Schmiede (1996),
provided a useful rubric for
developing reflection activities:
faculty should remember the four
Cs of reflection:



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continuous,
connected,
contextualized, and
challenging.
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Effective Reflection – 2 -Defined
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Reflection that is continuous requires students to reflect
on the experience before, during and after the
experience.
Reflection that is connected, links the reflection to the
course content and the course learning goals.
Reflection that is contextualized is given a framework.
Reflection activities that are challenging should push
the student to consider difficult issues, to address those
issues from multiple perspectives, and to explore
contradictions and inconsistencies.
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Making Attributions
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Everyday we encounter a wide range of
behavior from other people
How do we sort all of this information &
come to know the people we meet?
We attempt to explain “what made
them do that?”
Attribution – our decision about why
someone has acted a particular way.
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Types of Attributions


Dispositional Inference = decide
that a person’s behavior is caused
by personal characteristics.
Situational Inference = decide
that a person’s behavior is caused
by something in the environment.
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
How Are Attributions Made?
The “AND” Model
Observe
Someone’s
Behavior
Dispositional
Inference
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
AND
Situational
Correction
Being Cognitively Busy

Major Assumptions of the “AND” Model
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Dispositional Inference is first, Situational
Correction is second
Dispositional Inference is easy, Situational
Correction is hard
Busy perceivers (those doing more than one
mental task) will be able to make
dispositional inferences but should be unable
to engage in situational corrections.
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
How Do Errors In Our Impressions
Get Made?
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
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Anything that interferes (lack of
motivation, limited cognitive resources,
emotional processing, etc.)with our ability
to engage in both:
Dispositional Inference, and
Situational Correction

Will result in a biased first impression.
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Personality Versus Situation
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Levels of Attribution!
Internal Vs. External

Who is responsible?
Temporary Vs. Stable
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Will this happen next time?
Global Vs. Specific

What does this tell me about the rest of who I
am or who this other person is?
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Defensive Attributions

We many times make attributions to reduce our
own anxiety.
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When we become emotionally aroused, we hold the
victim responsible for his or her own fate
“He got what he deserved”
“Anyone dressing like that is just asking for it”
We become less rational as observers when our own
fears (such as “this could have happened to me) get
activated
To avoid such fears, we tend to blame the victim so we
can convince ourselves that such a fate will not befall
us.
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Saliency Bias

What You See Is What You Get!!!
 Behavior is so obvious
 Situational forces are often subtle and
hidden
 Anything that sets the individual apart
from others (e.g., race, gender, class,
etc.) will tend to be remembered more
than anything else
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Identity

Research on Self and Identity show
that individuals develop two
identities:

Personal identity
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A sense of my own attributes – short,
smart, honest, shy, etc.
Social identity

Which groups define who I am? –
American, Psychology Major, Bobcat,
Lutheran, etc.
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Social Identity Theory
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My social identity influences my
INTERACTIONS with and
ASSUMPTIONS about other people
Social Identification Theory:
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We categorize – place people into
categories
We identify – gain self-esteem by
belonging
We compare – judge by comparing to
others Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Social Identity Theory

Here-in lies the problem
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In order to make my “group” seem superior, I
am likely to make another group seem inferior
(should be more likely to lead to defensive
attributions and saliency bias)
In-Groups are assessed positively
Out-Groups are assessed negatively
Even young children show this bias
 Kids in grade school assess children at
their own school as superior to those at
other schools
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Social Identity & 9-11
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We were all affected by 9-11
Despite the tragedy, we have to find a way to place it
into “perspective” - In other words – we want to know
“why?”
The media and other sources encouraged us to refer to
our “social identity” as Americans = natiocentrism
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Implications of natiocentrism (geographic estimations,
assessments of educational quality, estimates of crime
rates, intention to travel)
Remember that S.I. leads us to:
 Categorize
Identify
Compare
To “value” our own group – we must, to some level,
“devalue” the other group(s)
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
New Research
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Assess Natiocentrism
Assess Individual’s Diversity Philosophy
Continuum from “Assimilation” to
“Inclusiveness”
Thomas and Butler (1998) = “Tolerance is
acceptance and open-mindedness of different practices,
attitudes and cultures; does not, necessarily, mean
agreement with the differences. Implies an
acknowledgement, or acceptance or respect. Not
necessarily an appreciation and usually consists of only
surface level information.”
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
New Research
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Inclusiveness = “the practice of emphasizing
our uniqueness in promoting the reality that
each voice, when, valued, respected and,
expected to, will provide positive contribution
to the community.”
Relate to perceptions of “hate crime”
legislation, judgments of characteristics of
others (subtle inclusion of ethnic differences),
and tendency to engage in non-effortful
attributions.
Implications for jury selection & voting behavior
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Diversity Philosophy – Sample
Questions
 What
foundational premise best
guides your thoughts about race?
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A. Race is a social construct.
B. It is not the color of their skin, but the content of
their character that matters.
C. Race is biologically based and needs to be used in
race definitions.
D. Respect for each race is important in building a
diverse society.
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A= Inclusiveness
C= Assimilation
B= Tolerance
D= Multicultural
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Diversity Philosophy – Sample
Questions
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What foundational premise best guides
your thoughts about religion?
A.
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B.
C.
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D.
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We are a nation built on Christian values. These are our
guiding principles
We should not condemn those who are not Christians.
We should actively utilize the values and insights from the
many different religions to enhance clarity and
understanding.
We should acknowledge and respect many religions.
A= Assimilation
C= Inclusiveness
B= Tolerance
D= Multicultural
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Service-Learning
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Service-learning may be a very valuable
tool for assisting students in fostering
connections between the campus and the
community and between the community
and their lives.
To date, however, these assumptions have
not been tested.
A pilot project was conducted in which 8
sections of the university seminar course
were selected to include a service-learning
Presented May 23, 2006 @
option.
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Pre-Post Data
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Students were solicited for consent to
complete a battery of surveys at the
beginning of the course and the end of
the course.
After completing the initial surveys,
students declared the service-learning or
non-service-learning option.
At the end of the course, students
completed the surveys again.
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
The Instruments
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Who Am I? students write down the first 20 words or short
phrases that come to mind when they are asked Who Are You?
Locus of Control Scale measures student views of the degree
to which internal or external factors determine what happens
to people.
Civic Attitudes and Skills Questionnaire measures student
intentions to become involved in future community service,
self-evaluation of their interpersonal and problem-solving
skills, self-evaluations of their awareness of local and national
political issues, etc.
Demographic questionnaire asks students basic demographic
questions that may be relevant to their scores on the
preliminary surveys and their academic success indicators
(birth order, degree of involvement outside of classes, size of
hometown, etc.).
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Who Am I?
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Naïve raters categorized responses on the
Who Am I? Measure as either “internal”
(focused on self) or “external” (focused on
other).
After establishing an interrater reliability
of .90, raters scores were averaged.
A ratio was created for internal and
external descriptors by dividing each
number by the total number of descriptors
Presented May 23, 2006 @
generated.
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Pretest Data

As expected, there were no significant differences
between the groups (those who opted for SL and
those who did not) at the beginning of the
semester:
NSL
SL
CASQ
Internal
External
117.08
.4035
.5965
117.60
.4212
.5846
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Posttest Data

As expected, the SL students changed
significantly on the CASQ (attitudes increased)
and Who Am I? (they became more external in
describing self and less internal:
NSL
SL
CASQ
Internal
External
117.40
.3987
.5578
123.40*
.3119*
.6881*
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Pretest-Posttest Comparison
SL
NSL
CASQ
Internal
External
Pre
117.60
.4212
.5846
Post
123.40*
.3119*
.6881*
Pre
117.08
.4035
.5965
Post
117.40
.3987
.5578
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Previous Research
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Previous research suggests that Belief in a Just World influences
individuals’ perceptions of victimization, decisions whether to lend
assistance, and degree of commitment to justice (e.g., Appelbaum,
Lennon & Aber, 2003; Lerner, 1980; Lipkus, Dalbert & Siegler,
1996).
The National Center for Children in Poverty developed vignette’s in
which women were portrayed varying randomly on 11
characteristics, including:
 whether she works or receives welfare,
 whether she attends school,
 whether she is looking for a job, and
 whether she sometimes skips a meal so that her family can eat.
In all cases, the subject was described as the mother of two
children.
Respondents with a strong Belief in a Just World find women less
deserving the more they act responsibly or make efforts to improve
their situation.
Respondents with a weak Belief in a Just World find women more
2006 to
@ improve their situation.
deserving the more theyPresented
make May
an 23,
effort
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Previous Research

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The results of the study from the National Center for
Children in Poverty suggest that the belief system is
challenged for people with a strong Belief in a Just World
when they are presented with women who make efforts
to improve their situation but still can’t get ahead.
In order to protect their belief system, people with a
strong Belief in a Just World will devalue and blame the
victim.
The current study attempted to build on our
understanding of the impact of Belief in a Just World by
assessing the relationships between academic major and:
 Perceptions of the causes of juvenile crime
 Belief in the possibility of juvenile rehabilitation, and
 Belief in a Just World
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Social Identity Theory
Personal
Achievements
Personal
Identity
Need for SelfEsteem
Social
Identities
Group
Achievements
SelfEsteem
Favoritism toward
ingroups and derogation
of outgroups
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Social Identity Theory

People’s identities are derived
primarily from their membership in
various groups:
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Social identity consists of those aspects of
an individual’s self-image that derive
from the social categories to which he/she
perceives self as belonging.
People are generally motivated to achieve
and maintain a positive social identity –
thereby boosting their self-esteem.
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Social Identity Theory
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The positive identity that comes from the ingroup
identification (social identity) derives mainly from
comparisons between the ingroup and available or
relevant outgroups.
There will be a preference for favorable comparisons
between the ingroup and the outgroup.
People look for ways or outgroups that will enable the
ingroup to be seen as positive and distinctive
If necessary, then, individuals will denigrate the
outgroup, focus on the negative rather than the positive
characteristics, and engage in discrimination in order to
feel more positively about self and our ingroups.
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Social Identity Theory – Basic
Predictions
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Makes Two Basic Predictions:
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Threats to one’s self-esteem heighten
the need for ingroup favoritism
Expressions of ingroup favoritism
enhance one’s self-esteem
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Terror Management Theory
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“thoughts of one’s own death
creates existential terror and people
manage this anxiety by convincing
themselves that their view of the
world is the correct one to hold.”
Mortality Salience (implicit versus
explicit)
World View Defense
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Diversity Philosophy

Take the Diversity Philosophy measure
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Diversity Philosophy

Essentialism/Assimilation = the practice of
categorizing a group based on artificial social
constructions that impart an “essence” of that
group, which homogenizes the group and effaces
individuality and differences. The word implies
that we are forming conclusions, relationships,
and other cultural ties based only on the essential
elements, as determined by “us”. It also implies
that there is some minimal level of understanding
that applies to groups.
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Diversity Philosophy

Tolerance = acceptance and openmindedness of different practices, attitudes,
and cultures; does not necessarily mean
agreement with the differences. Implies an
acknowledgement, or an acceptance or
respect. Not necessarily an appreciation and
usually consists of only surface level
information.
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Diversity Philosophy

Multiculturalism = the practice of
acknowledging and respecting the various
cultures, religions, races, ethnicities,
attitudes and opinions within an
environment. The word does not imply that
there is any intentionality occurring and
primarily works from a group, versus
individual, orientation.
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
Diversity Philosophy

Inclusiveness = the practice of
emphasizing our uniqueness in
promoting the reality that each voice,
when, valued, respected and expected
to, will provide positive contribution to
the community.
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute
What Did We Learn?
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
Tolerance is not enough!
Example from student

“I always prided myself on being
tolerant. This exercise has made me
ashamed of myself. I realized that
tolerance is not enough. Tolerating
someone does NOT counter hate.”
Presented May 23, 2006 @
Multicultural Curriculum
Transformation Institute