Projects / Yale University,
Assessing the Impact of Courses that Require Students to Engage Across Difference
PI: Khalilah L. Brown-Dean, Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science and Department of African American Studies; Donald Green, A. Whitney Griswold Professor of Political Science and Director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies; Cynthia Farrar, Director of Urban Academic Initiatives.
Location: Institution for Social and Policy Studies.
Yale University’s proposal is designed to systematically examine whether faculty members’ efforts to address difficult subjects can actually promote greater understanding. In spite of the importance of the subject matter, the hypothesis that college coursework contributes to political tolerance has never been tested experimentally. The project addresses the perceived need for serious discussion across difference by testing in a rigorous way whether classes that bring a range of different perspectives to bear on a topic that engages the religious/cultural/ethnic identities of students actually have an impact on their intellectual range and their civic attitudes. The contexts selected for this study are intended to address the particular kinds of mutual incomprehension most characteristic of Yale’s student population at the moment: the relationship between African Americans and Jews in America; Middle East politics and policy; the implications of ethnic identity; and the variety of religious and secular perspectives on ethical and political dilemmas.
The project will use random assignment of students to selected courses to gauge the impact of coursework on knowledge opinion, and behavior. The findings will be published in academic journals and presented at conferences, and can be expected to inform future research. The proposed experimental approach to “difficult dialogues” offers a chance to move the conversation about diversity and dialogue beyond untested assumptions and familiar pieties, both at Yale and elsewhere.