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.
Press
Releases