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FOR
RELEASE MONDAY, NOVEMBER 4, 1996
CARNEGIE
CORPORATION LAUNCHES RESEARCH
INITIATIVE ON RACE AND ETHNIC RELATIONS
Aims
to "Create a New Generation of Tolerance"
NEW YORK, November 4 -- A major initiative to stimulate a rebirth
of research on racial and ethnic relations among children and youth
in the United States and to create "a new generation of tolerance"
is being launched by Carnegie Corporation of New York.
Announced today by the foundation are grants totaling $2.1 million
to sixteen different institutions for research to update and expand
knowledge of the sources and dynamics of racial and ethnic prejudice
among young people and to identify approaches that foster intergroup
understanding. (See descriptions of grants.)
The sixteen awards, to research groups within universities and independent
organizations in nine states, range from $49,000 to $175,000 each.
The mainly school-based studies will use different methodologies
to yield important information on existing intergroup relations
among elementary, middle, and high school students. They will also
shed light on whether and how young people themselves seek to reduce
intergroup tensions and otherwise cope with overt expressions of
ethnic, cultural, or religious intolerance among their peers.
Some of the projects will evaluate the effects of school-based programs
and policies on attitudes and behavior among children and youth;
others will try new kinds of experimental interventions to improve
the school climate for group interaction.
"Efforts
by schools, community organizations, religious institutions, and
others to improve relations among diverse youth require a solid
knowledge base from research and expert experience," commented
David A. Hamburg, the Corporation's president. "Research on
these crucial problems has not had appropriate priority over the
past two decades, as foundations and government have turned their
attention elsewhere. Now more than ever, in a time of growing American
diversity and worldwide economic participation, cooperative relations
among different groups is essential to the nation's future. We need
to create a new generation of tolerance for the next century."
Anthony W. Jackson, the Corporation's program officer managing the
intergroup relations project, said, "Our hope is that this
grant program will help catalyze a new and critically needed era
of rigorous scholarship on ethnic and racial relations that will
strengthen the programs and policies of schools and other youth-serving
organizations."
"We
are not just talking about attitudinal problems," said Vivien
Stewart, who chairs the grant program on Children and Youth. "We
are talking about the way a school functions. If a school's structure
and culture serve to erect barriers among different groups of students,
those same barriers may prevent all groups of children from achieving
academically. Some of the studies being supported are attempting
to find out what practices within schools can create an atmosphere
of mutual respect and positive relations among peers and between
students and teachers, in which all children can learn well."
The need to test strategies for preventing prejudice and for improving
group interactions is all the more urgent because of changes occurring
in the racial and ethnic makeup of the country and in the structure
of economy, intensifying competition between young people for what
many see as a diminishing share of good opportunities, Jackson pointed
out.
The minority population of the United States tripled between 1960
and 1990, and the minority-group percentages of the total population
rose from 15 to 25 percent. "Many schools and communities are
today seeking effective ways to meet the needs of their increasingly
diverse constituents," Jackson said, adding, "Employers
are already giving young workers the signal that they must learn
to function in teams with people of all backgrounds. The willingness
to work collegially will be a key to employability in the future."
The awards are the result of a grants competition initiated by the
Corporation in October 1995, which solicited proposals from research
centers across the nation. Altogether 260 research designs were
submitted to the foundation for review by an expert committee, following
a year-long planning period and several years of inquiry into the
current state of interethnic and intercultural studies.
The principal investigators reflect the varied backgrounds of the
young people under study and include Asian American, Hispanic American,
European American, and African American researchers. Several grants
went to institutions in California, Texas, and Massachusetts --
states that have growing multiethnic populations. The majority of
the projects focus on middle- and high-school-aged youth, although
several will help to illuminate ways of preventing or reducing prejudice
among younger children.
"These
grants represent the most significant program of new research on
interracial and interethnic relations among children and youth in
nearly twenty years," commented Jackson. "They should
help to build a solid foundation of practical knowledge that will
guide educators, parents, and program managers in bringing about
needed changes in interethnic and intercultural relations among
young people."
Hamburg added, "Ethnic prejudice and hatred exist all over
the world and are an ancient part of the human legacy. But there
are equally stunning examples of tolerance, cooperation, and friendship
between youth from different groups. What are the conditions under
which the outcome can go one way or another? If we could understand
such questions better, perhaps we could learn to tilt the balance
toward cultures of peace."
l.
University of California, Los Angeles, CA
Two-year grant of $175,000
Principal Investigator: Patricia Marks Greenfield, Professor of
Psychology (310) 825-7526
Observation and intervention study. Examination of racially diverse
boys' and girls' basketball and volleyball teams in two Los Angeles-area
high schools. Will explore whether facilitated discussion and self-reflection
can illuminate underlying value differences between cultures and
reduce conflict arising from them.
2.
University of California, San Francisco, CA Two-year grant
of $91,000
Principal Investigator: Howard Pinderhughes, Assistant Professor
of Social and Behavioral Sciences (415) 502-5074
Two-part study -- a survey by a student group and a curriculum intervention.
Researchers examining whether students themselves can be helped
to conduct research and design programs to reduce intergroup conflict
in one troubled Bay Area high school.
3.
City University of New York, New York, NY
Two-year grant of $144,000
Principal Investigator: Michelle Fine, Professor of Psychology (212)
642-2509
A "naturalistic" study of innovative approaches to intergroup
relations. Three sites chosen in which students and adults have
achieved social integration across race and ethnic lines: an art
school, a ninth-grade world literature course, and a high school
in Buffalo, Montclair, New Jersey, and Philadelphia, respectively.
A collaboration among researchers from City University of New York,
Harvard University, and the State University of New York, Buffalo.
4.
Claremont University Center and Graduate School, Claremont, CA
One-year grant of $49,000
Principal Investigator: Michele Foster, Professor of Education (909)
621-8105
Observation and interview study of relations in multicultural classrooms
and schools in southern California. Researchers examining existing
relations between young members of minority groups and the impact
of school practices and policies. Includes a significant number
of Native American children.
5.
Education Development Center, Newton, MA
Eighteen-month grant of $175,000
Principal Investigator: Ronald G. Slaby, Senior Scientist (617)
969-7100
Experimental study in East Boston investigating the role that witnesses
or "bystanders" can play in preventing or reducing prejudiced
behavior. Comparing attitudes and behaviors of four groups of sixth
and seventh graders. From watching video segments, one group reflecting
on the harm done to others by words or acts of prejudice (cognitive
skills-building strategy); the second working together on community
service projects (cooperative goal-directed strategy); the third
participating in both programs; the fourth not participating in
any program.
6.
Facing History and Ourselves National Foundation, Brookline, MA
Two-year grant of $175,000
Principal Investigator: Dennis J. Barr, Psychologist (617) 232-1595
Experimental evaluation of program effects. Boston-area study assessing
impact of Facing History and Ourselves, a national program
that uses the Holocaust and other examples of extreme prejudice
to help students examine individual and group behavior. Researchers
focusing on adolescents' moral reasoning and on psychological processes
thought essential to engender positive intergroup relations.
7.
Florida International University, Miami, FL
Two-year grant of $175,000
Principal Investigator: Alex Stepick, Director of Immigration and
Ethnicity Institute (305) 348-2371
Ethnographic and interview study of relations between immigrant
and native-born students. Researchers studying interactions of students
from four Miami schools in predominantly minority neighborhoods
and how parents and local residents convey attitudes about group
interactions. Also examining how teachers and school and district
policies on intergroup conflict influence racial and ethnic relations
among the students.
8.
Hunter College of the City University of New York, NY
One-year grant of $50,000
Principal Investigator: Sherryl Browne Graves, Associate Professor
and Chair of the Department of Educational Foundations and Counseling
Programs (212) 772-4710
Two New York City-area evaluations of a prejudice-reduction video
curriculum on primary grade children. In one, researchers studying
effect of the curriculum on racial attitudes and group interactions
among first, second, and third graders; in the other, researchers
testing the conditions under which the video curriculum is most
likely to be effective among second graders.
9.
Institute for Research on Social Problems, Boulder, CO
Two-year grant of $100,000
Principal Investigator: Phyllis A. Katz, Director (303) 449-7782
Basic research concerning influences on children's categorization
and perceptual discrimination capacities. Researchers determining
the effects of two strategies to modify racial attitudes and behavior
among kindergarten and second-grade children in Denver and Boulder.
One strategy helping children learn how to avoid making racial distinctions
among people; another helping them categorize people in ways other
than by race and become empathetic toward children who belong to
other groups.
10.
ETR Associates, Santa Cruz, CA
Two-year grant of $160,000
Principal Investigator: Fernando I. Soriano, Senior Research Associate
(408) 438-4060
Experimental evaluation of effects on intergroup relations of a
three-part program in northern California at schools for youth on
probation. Intervention run by county probation departments, involving
classroom instruction, cooperative learning, and community service.
11.
Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA
Two-year grant of $165,000
Principal Investigator: Beverly Daniel Tatum, Associate Professor
of Psychology and Education
(413) 538-2086
Experimental evaluation of three-part intervention at the middle
school level in Northampton, Massachusetts. Study determining the
impact of small-group activities among three groups from varying
racial or ethnic backgrounds: students, teachers, and parents. Interventions
designed to help participants develop positive racial and ethnic
identity, explore their own attitudes toward others, and improve
intergroup relations.
12.
New York University, New York, NY
Two-year grant of $156,000
Principal Investigator: Diane Hughes, Associate Professor of Psychology
(212) 998-7906
In suburban New Jersey, researchers examining the effect on intergroup
relations and student learning of the transition from elementary
to middle school and the impact of academic tracking during the
middle grade years.
13.
Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA
Two-year grant of $85,000
Principal Investigator: Constance A. Flanagan, Associate Professor
of Agricultural and Extension Education and of Human Development
and Family Studies (814) 863-3824
Study examining the relationships between young people's views on
social justice, including sensitive issues like affirmative action,
and their behavior toward different racial, ethnic, and immigrant
groups. Researchers conducting focus groups, surveys, and interviews
among sixth, ninth, and eleventh graders in Michigan and Pennsylvania.
14.
Social Policy Research Associates, Menlo Park, CA
Two-year grant of $175,000
Principal Investigator: Hanh Cao Yu, Social Scientist (415) 617-8625
Experimental/control study to evaluate existing efforts to improve
high school students' intergroup behavior. Researchers examining
the effects of curriculum- and project-based programs developed
by school faculty members in three California schools: urban, suburban,
and rural.
15.
University of Texas, Austin, TX
Two-year grant of $50,000
Principal Investigator: Cindy I. Carlson, Professor of Educational
Psychology (512) 471-4407
Analysis of development of intergroup relations among students making
the transition from primary to middle school, and assessment of
effects of middle school reform on intergroup relations. Researchers
surveying one of twelve Texas schools already participating in a
middle grade reform project administered by the Corporation (Middle
Grade School State Policy Initiative).
16.
University of Texas, Houston, TX
Two-year grant of $175,000
Principal Investigator: Alfred L. McAlister, Associate Professor
of Behavioral Sciences (713) 792-8540
Multi-level intervention in two Houston high schools, based on peer
leadership/role models. Study conceptualizing racism as a public
health problem and applying methods used successfully in preventive
medicine to the improvement of intergroup relations.
The Intergroup Relations Initiative, within the Corporation's grant
program on Children and Youth, is part of a broader effort by the
foundation across various program areas to address problems of intergroup
conflict; foster democratic processes of decision making and conflict
resolution; encourage voter participation and citizen involvement
in politics; and promote cooperative learning and prosocial skills
among young people. The Corporation's grants for these purposes
focus mainly on the generation and application of new knowledge
from research and on research-based interventions.
In the first board meeting of fiscal year 1997, held October 10,
1996, the trustees approved grants totaling $15,427,000 in the four
program areas of Children and Youth, Preventing Deadly Conflict,
Developing Countries, and Special Projects.
The Corporation's assets at current market value are $1.3 billion.
The program budget for the coming year is $59 million.
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