Why Diversity Became Orthodox in Higher Education, and How it Changed the Meaning of Race on Campus

Berrey, Ellen

doi:10.1177/0896920510380069

Cited by 115 publications

(108 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…The essay is an institutionalized vehicle for their expression, and its very presence on the application as a requirement sends a strong message. Of course outside lawsuits, the Supreme Court, and other cultural forces like multiculturalism pushed along the changes at the University of Michigan (Berrey, forthcoming). And of course the applicants want to get into a competitive university, not ruminate on legal concepts.…”

Section: Introduction: “Uh How Do I Bring Diversity?”mentioning

confidence: 99%

“How Do I Bring Diversity?” Race and Class in the College Admissions Essay

Kirkland¹,

Hansen²

2011

Law Soc Rev

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In the first systematic study of what college applicants invoke when required to submit a diversity essay, we revisit many settled assumptions on both the left and the right about how such an essay would operate after Grutter and Gratz as well as after the passage of anti-affirmative action ballot initiatives. Our data are a sample of 176 diversity essays submitted to the University of Michigan in the immediate aftermath of the University's Supreme Court win, analyzed both qualitatively and quantitatively with special attention to the differences that the essay writer's race and class position make. We find that in many respects the essays are similar when written by applicants from similar backgrounds but different races, and that conservative critics were wrong to assume the essay would function simply as a way of announcing oneself as an under-the-table affirmative action candidate. Rather than suggesting a straightforward lineup of advantage and disadvantage, we suggest rather that the essay is a vehicle for the youngest generation of citizens to both receive and send back a new conception of difference that has some essentializing elements but overall is turning in a postracial, cosmopolitan direction.

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Section: Introduction: “Uh How Do I Bring Diversity?”mentioning

confidence: 99%

“How Do I Bring Diversity?” Race and Class in the College Admissions Essay

Kirkland¹,

Hansen²

2011

Law Soc Rev

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“…Esta visión de la diversidad y de la alteridad cultural contrasta con la de los relatos sobre la diversidad elaborados en otros contextos, como el latinoamericano, donde los ejes centrales se apoyan más en la condición rural e indígena (Ibáñez et al, 2012) o el estadounidense focalizado en la diferencia racial (Ahmed, 2007;Berrey, 2011;Marvasti y McKinney, 2011;Bhopal y Rhamie, 2014).…”

Section: El Relato Intercultural: La Inmigración Extranjera Y Las Difunclassified

“…El presente estudio se sitúa dentro de una tradición internacional de investigaciones y debates sobre la construcción discursiva de la categoría diversidad. Estos estudios se han desarrollado fundamentalmente en el contexto estadounidense en torno a la cuestión de la raza y la categorización de los grupos escolares respecto la normatividad "blanca" y se han centrado en el análisis del discurso expresado por docentes y estudiantes universitarios (Ahmed, 2007;Berrey, 2011;Marvasti y McKinney, 2011;Bhopal y Rhamie, 2014) y en el discurso educativo institucional (VanDeventer, 2007).…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Definiendo a los otros: relatos académicos sobre la diversidad en la escuela

Rodrigo

Guzmán-Ordaz

2016

conrec

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The present paper reviews Spanish social scientific literature analyzing the employment of the "diversity" concept applied to the school field. The research methodology started with detailed scrutiny and examination of the Social Sciences journals indexed in CSIC-ISOC and DIALNET databases, published between 2006 and 2012, followed by the documentary analysis of 218 articles extracted from those sources. Discourse analysis enables us to single out distinct narrative configurations about how "the other" is defined at school grounds. Results show two hegemonic narrative patterns: an institutional narrative based upon the legal sorting of students classified by scholar results and abilities, and an intercultural narrative constructed around cultural categories that would differentiate nationals from foreigners. We conclude that both accounts unveil predominantly essentialized views of the "diversity" idea and its conceptualization, failing to ponder over other social and economic categories when addressing school related inequalities and differences. Key words: cultural diversity, literature analysis, social construction of reality, interculturality. Resumen: Este artículo indaga en los usos académicos del concepto diversidad en el ámbito escolar a partir del análisis de la literatura científica española. El método se basa en el análisis documental partiendo de una exhaustiva búsqueda y revisión de 218 artículos publicados entre 2006 y 2012 en revistas indexadas en CSIC-ISOC y DIALNET. Se aplicó un esquema estructural de análisis que permitió identificar diferentes configuraciones narrativas en torno a la definición del "otro" en la escuela. Los resultados señalan dos relatos hegemónicos: institucional, basado en las clasificaciones legislativas del alumnado en función de sus capacidades y rendimientos escolares; e intercultural, sustentado en categorizaciones en torno a las diferencias culturales derivadas de la condición inmigrante-extranjera. Concluimos que en ambos relatos se proyecta predominantemente una visión esencializada de la diversidad construida desde parámetros dicotómicos y excluyentes, sin apenas considerar otras categorías sociales y económicas en la conformación de las diferencias y desigualdades educativas. Palabras clave: diversidad cultural, análisis de la literatura, construcción social de la realidad, interculturalidad.

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“…Subsequently, the University turned away from public discussion of minority enrollment targets. Instead, its public rhetoric emphasized diversity as a social characteristic and treated students as bearers of personal and social qualities that could contribute to the university community (Berrey 2011). In practice, however, the University further quantified its admissions decisions.…”

Section: -1998: the Rationalization Of Affirmative Admissionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Announced in January 1964, OAP was a scholarship program for students who were academically talented but whose socio-economic background was one of "deprivation and disadvantage." 9 This was a logic of redistribution, justified with a rhetoric of creating opportunity to remedy disadvantage (Berrey 2011). Although University administrators downplayed the treatment of race, in practice, OAP served primarily black students, who comprised 85% of the first four OAP classes.…”

Section: -1978: Affirmative Action's Holistic Beginningsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dequantifying diversity: affirmative action and admissions at the University of Michigan

2016

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To explore the limits of quantification as a form of rationalization, we examine a rare case of dequantification: race-based affirmative action in undergraduate admissions at the University of Michigan. Michigan adopted a policy of holistically reviewing undergraduate applications in 2003, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional its points-based admissions policy. Using archival and ethnographic data, we trace the adoption, evolution, and undoing of Michigan's quantified system of admissions decision-making between 1964 and 2004. In a context in which opponents of the system had legal avenues to engage a powerful outside authority, we argue that three internal features of the University's quantified admissions policy contributed to its demise: its transparency, the instability of the categories it quantified, and the existence of qualitative alternatives. Our analysis challenges the presumed durability and inevitability of quantification by identifying its vulnerabilities and suggests that quantification should be understood as a matter of degree rather than a simple binary.

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Why Diversity Became Orthodox in Higher Education, and How it Changed the Meaning of Race on Campus

Cited by 115 publications

References 35 publications

“How Do I Bring Diversity?” Race and Class in the College Admissions Essay

“How Do I Bring Diversity?” Race and Class in the College Admissions Essay

Definiendo a los otros: relatos académicos sobre la diversidad en la escuela

Dequantifying diversity: affirmative action and admissions at the University of Michigan

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