From Separate Corners to Dialogue and Action

Abstract

How can higher education programs engage students in building a shared commons to address inequalities and foster commitment to intergroup collaboration? Intergroup dialogue is one such possibility to provide forums for meaningful engagement among students from diverse backgrounds. Findings from field experiments at nine colleges and universities show that students in intergroup dialogues increased significantly more than counterparts in control groups and social science comparison groups in their critiques of inequality and their commitments to post-college action to redress inequalities. Further, students in intergroup dialogues rated the frequency of the core communication processes more highly than the social science comparison students. The communication processes help account for the greater increase in students' critiques of inequality and commitment to postcollege actions.

The Comparative Impacts of Social Justice Educational Methods on Political Participation, Civic Engagement, and Multicultural Activism

“…A Multi-University Intergroup Dialogue Research Project implemented random-assignment field experiments at nine higher education institutions to evaluate the efficacy of intergroup dialogues focused on race or gender (Nagda, Gurin, Sorensen, Gurin-Sands, & Osuna, 2009). The study found that students who participated in intergroup dialogues that were focused on race were better able to critique inequality, when compared to their counterparts in control and comparison groups.…”

Aversive Racism and Intergroup Contact Theories: Cultural Competence in a Segregated World

“…In contrast to these studies, a national study of intergroup dialogue (IGD) found that participants expressed greater intent to be involved in social justice actions than did comparison groups with no IGD (Nagda, Gurin, Sorenson, Gurin-Sands, & Osuna, 2009). IGD's success in motivating participants to take social action was likely due to its intentional learning design.…”

“…For years, leaming theorists have suggested that the most effective learning models are those that include cognitions, concrete experiences, and reflection (Kolb, 1984;Nagda et al, 2009), such as are provided by this type of dialogue. Bain (2004) suggested that we have constructed mental models throughout our life and that they are slow to change even in the face of overwhelming proof.…”

“…Bain (2004) suggested that we have constructed mental models throughout our life and that they are slow to change even in the face of overwhelming proof. Nagda et al (2009) argue that for students to understand oppression, inequality, and disparity, they must have multicultural lab experiences analogous to lab work for the natural sciences. Therefore, instructors should explicitly include social justice activity as a required part of any classroom assignment designed to help students reduce prejudice through shared, equal status IGC.…”

From Dialogue to Action: The Impact of Cross-Race Intergroup Dialogue on the Development of White College Students as Racial Allies

“…All students who expressed a desire to be enrolled in the race/ethnicity dialogue completed an application. As each campus representative received applications they were randomly assigned into one of two groups: an experimental group and a wait-list control group (Nagda, Gurin, Sorensen, & Zúñiga, 2009;Nagda, Sorensen, Gurin-Sands, & Osuna, 2009). The experimental group was comprised of students who were then enrolled in the race/ethnicity dialogues, and the control group consisted of students placed on a waitlist that offered enrollment in a dialogue the following semester.…”