Experience With Racial Diversity: Ethnographic Case Study

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7. Park, Julie J. & Chang, Stephanie H. (2015). Understanding Students’ Precollege Experience With Racial Diversity: The High School as Microsystem. Journal of College Student Development, v56 n4, 349-363.
SUMMARY: This qualitative study used data from an ethnographic case study (from a multiracial campus religious organization in California) to illustrate how students can enter college without meaningful engagement around diversity, as well as reviewing quantitative studies that documented racial segregation in high schools. They also reviewed qualitative studies on various high school environments (both diverse and homogeneous) and how this affected high school students’ engagement with diversity. The author’s motivation for this study was to assist educators by providing a better understanding of where students are with diversity engagement and perspectives when they enter college. Thirty-four participants were selected by email, a …show more content…

Although this qualitative study was well intended and gave great inclusive actions to take on a campus, it did not provide an adequate sample size to represent a general population. The major downfall in this study was that there were no Black students to share their experiences as well as the sample being taken from a religious institution in on region of the country. Various parts of the regions have different diversity experiences. I don’t agree with how they handled the interview process of only selecting 10 students out of the 34 that they interviewed to pull their information only because those students openly talked about their high school experiences. The researchers could have formulated questions that would have been more concise and effective in gathering the information this need to have a successful study. I would suggest renaming the title to be more representative of the