Janet Ward Schofield

Racial and Behavioral Cues in Black and White Children's Perceptions of Ambiguously Aggressive Acts

To explore the way in which the interpretation of ambiguous social behavior can be influenced by racial stereotypes and cultural differences, 40 black and 40 white 6th-grade males were shown a variety of ambiguously aggressive behaviors performed by black and white stimulus figures. As predicted, both black and white preadolescents rated these behaviors as more mean and threatening when the perpetrator was black than when he was white. In contrast, rating of personal characteristics were in general determined by individual behavior rather than by group stereotypes, although blacks, whether they were the perpetrator or the recipient of the behaviors, were rated as stronger than their white counnterparts. Cultural differences between subject groups were apparent in the greater tendency of the white children to read threat into ambiguously aggressive behaviors involving no physical contact and to assume that the perpetrators of such behaviors were stronger than the recipients.

Diversity within Unity: Essential Principles for Teaching and Learning in a Multicultural Society

The authors offer these design principles in the hope that they will help education policy makers and practitioners realize the elusive but essential goal of a democratic and pluralistic society. WHAT DO WE know about education and diversity, and how do we know it? This two-part question guided the work of the Multicultural Education Consensus Panel, sponsored by the Center for Multicultural Education at the University of Washington and the Common Destiny Alliance at the University of Maryland. This article is the product of a four-year project during which the panel, with support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York, reviewed and synthesized the research related to diversity. The panel members are an interdisciplinary group consisting of two psychologists, a political scientist, a sociologist, and four specialists in multicultural education. The panel was modeled after the consensus panels that develop and write reports for the National Academy of Sciences. In such panels, an expert group studies research and practice and arrives at a conclusion about what is known about a particular problem and the most effective actions that can be taken to solve it. The findings of the Multicultural Education Consensus Panel, which we call essential principles in this article, describe ways in which education policy and practice related to diversity can be improved. These principles are derived from both research and practice. They are designed to help practitioners in all types of schools increase student academic achievement and improve intergroup skills. Another aim is to help schools successfully meet the challenges of and benefit from the diversity that characterizes the United States. Schools can make a significant difference in the lives of students, and they are a key to maintaining a free and democratic society. Democratic societies are fragile and are works in progress. Their existence depends on a thoughtful citizenry that believes in democratic ideals and is willing and able to participate in the civic life of the nation. We realize that the public schools are experiencing a great deal of criticism. However, we believe that they are essential to ensuring the survival of our democracy. We have organized the 12 essential principles into five categories: 1) teacher learning; 2) student learning; 3) intergroup relations; 4) school governance, organization, and equity; and 5) assessment. Although these categories overlap to some extent, we think readers will find this organization helpful. Teacher Learning Principle 1. Professional development programs should help teachers understand the complex characteristics of ethnic groups within U.S. society and the ways in which race, ethnicity, language, and social class interact to influence student behavior. Continuing education about diversity is especially important for teachers because of the increasing cultural and ethnic gap that exists between the nations teachers and students. Effective professional development programs should help educators to 1) uncover and identify their personal attitudes toward racial, ethnic, language, and cultural groups; 2) acquire knowledge about the histories and cultures of the diverse racial, ethnic, cultural, and language groups within the nation and within their schools; 3) become acquainted with the diverse perspectives that exist within different ethnic and cultural communities; 4) understand the ways in which institutionalized knowledge within schools, universities, and the popular culture can perpetuate stereotypes about racial and ethnic groups; and 5) acquire the knowledge and skills needed to develop and implement an equity pedagogy, defined by James Banks as instruction that provides all students with an equal opportunity to attain academic and social success in school.1 Professional development programs should help teachers understand the complex characteristics of ethnic groups and how such variables as social class, religion, region, generation, extent of urbanization, and gender strongly influence ethnic and cultural behavior. …

Peer Interaction Patterns in an Integrated Middle School.

The interaction of black and white students in a new open enrollment desegregated middle school which meets most of the criteria Allport (1954) specified as important in fostering positive intergroup relations was studied. Seating patterns in the cafeteria were observed during the schools first year of operation. Analysis of these patterns using indices based on Campbell et al.s (1966) formula for analyzing racial aggregation suggested: (a) race is an extremely important grouping criterion even for students who have chosen a desegregated school; (b) however, sex is generally an even more important grouping criterion; (c) girls show more racial aggregation than boys; and (d) racial aggregation decreased over time in the seventh grade but increased in the eighth grade, which had a predominantly white accelerated academic track and a predominantly black regular track.

A meta-analysis of research on adolescent contraceptive use

Meta-analysis was used to summarize the results of 134 studies of adolescent contraceptive use in relation to two major explanatory models, the career model and the decision model. There was evidence in support of both models, although there has been less research conducted on variables related to the decision model. The major variables found to affect young womens contraceptive use were partner influence to use contraception, acceptance of ones sexuality, future orientation, positive attitudes toward contraception, an exclusive sexual relationship, and frequency of intercourse. The major variables affecting young mens contraceptive use were partner influence, frequency of intercourse, and positive attitudes toward contraception; however, there was relatively little research on young men compared to young women. A number of possible future directions for research are noted.

Teachers, Computer Tutors, and Teaching: The Artificially Intelligent Tutor as an Agent for Classroom Change

This article documents, explores, and explains a paradox—that students who assert that a teacher provides better help than an artificially intelligent computer-based tutor nonetheless prefer using the tutor to learning in a more traditional manner and appear to learn more while doing so. An intensive qualitative study of eight classrooms using the tutors as well as control and comparison classrooms suggests three factors that account for this seeming inconsistency. First, rather than replacing the teacher, the tutor provided an additional resource for students. Second, using the tutors allowed teachers to provide more individualized help. Third, students using the tutors had more control over the kind and amount of help they received from the teacher, with helping interactions becoming more private and potentially less embarrassing. None of these changes were envisioned by the tutor’s developers, highlighting the importance of exploring the unintended effects of technology on classroom functioning.

The Impact of Positively Structured Contact on Intergroup Behavior: Does It Last under Adverse Conditions?.

Interracial interaction patterns were observed in a new school selected for study because its sixth and seventh grades came close to meeting the conditions Allport (1954) specified as conducive to improved intergroup relations. The schools eighth grade, however, did not meet these conditions since its students were divided into a predominantly white accelerated track and a predominantly black regular track. A previous study carried out during the schools first year found that, as predicted, racial clustering in the schools cafeteria decreased over the course of the year in the seventh grade, but increased in the eighth grade (Schofield and Sagar, 1977). This paper reports on the interracial behavior of the previously studied seventh-graders as they moved through the essentially segregated eighth grade. As predicted, compared to students who entered the schools eighth grade the previous year from largely segregated schools, these students interacted more across racial lines. Nevertheless, they showed decreasing interaction during their eighth-grade year, as had their counterparts the previous year.

Intergroup friendships on campus: Predicting close and casual friendships between White and African American first-year college students

Intergroup friendships have been linked to important outcomes such as reduced prejudice, increased empathy for outgroups, and lower intergroup anxiety. However, little is known about the factors facilitating such friendships. This longitudinal study therefore examined factors associated with the development of friendships between White and African American freshmen at a predominantly White university. African American (vs. White) and male (vs. female) students had more intergroup friendships at the end of freshman year. Friendships between African American and White freshmen were also associated with more direct and indirect intergroup contact during high school, less prejudice upon entering college, having an outgroup roommate (White or African American), having any roommate, and having more contact with outgroup members during the academic year.

Correlated Versus Uncorrelated Social Categorizations: The Effect on Intergroup Bias

Previous research has shown that independent cross-cutting social categories reduce discrimination between groups. How-ever, the effect of correlated cross-cutting categories on intergroup relations has not been studied. Female college students who were categorized into two groups on the basis of an art preference task and a dot estimation task were told that there was either no correlation, a moderate correlation, or a high correlation between the two categorizations. On two generalized measures of bias, subjects exhibited more intergroup bias as the degree of correlation between categorizations increased. Furthermore, in the high-correlation condition, subjects exhibited just as much bias against the partial out-group as against the total out-group. A situationally specific measure of bias failed to yield the same pattern of results. Overall, the results suggest that the degree of correlation between cross-cutting categorizations has an important impact on intergroup bias.

The effect of group education on improving attitudes about AIDS risk reduction

Four hundred sixty-four homosexual and bisexual men, recruited from a cohort of 1,700 men enrolled in a study of the natural history of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), participated in a peer-led, small-group educational session promoting AIDS risk reduction. Although levels of knowledge about AIDS and human Immunodeficiency virus (HIV) transmission were uniformly high prior to intervention, at least 60% of the men reported having engaged in unprotected, receptive anal intercourse with more than one partner in the preceding six months. Prior to intervention, a substantial number of the men had mixed feelings about AIDS risk reduction or endorsed negative attitudes about AIDS risk reduction. After attending the session, attitudes improved significantly in five of the six areas surveyed.

School desegregation and social science research.

Research on the effects of school desegregation, once quite common in psychology and related fields, has declined considerably since the mid-1980s. Factors contributing to changes in the quantity and focus of such research since the Brown v. Board of Education (1954) decision are discussed, with an emphasis on those related to the decline of this research in the last 2 decades. These factors include the nations retreat from the policy of school desegregation and the associated decline in research funding. Changing perspectives regarding desegregation, the outcomes of desegregation that merit study, and the desirable composition of research teams studying desegregation have also played a role. Demographic changes in our society and its schools that have made salient other research topics and the development of effective research paradigms for studying intergroup relations in the laboratory have also contributed to this decline. ((c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved)