The Impact of a Cultural Diversity Forum on Students' Openness to Diversity
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Authors
Susan Sanner
Dee Baldwin
Kathleen Cannella
Lillian Parker
Jennelle P Charles
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Journal Article, Academic Journal
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Abstract
An intervention study with a pre-test, post-test design was conducted in an effort to ascertain the impact of one school of nursing’s initiative to enhance the cultural awareness and sensitivity of students. The research question that guided data collection and analysis was: 1. What is the effect of a combined educational strategy using both a cultural diversity workshop format and small group discussion on college students’ openness to diversity and challenge for students matriculating within a predominately minority majority University? The research hypothesis is: Scores on the Openness to Challenge and Diversity Scale would be significantly related to time of testing, specifically, that the posttest scores would be significantly higher than the pretest scores. One hundred and twenty students registered and attended a Diversity Forum which included a lecture and cultural sensitivity activities. A total of fifty-five students completed pre and post tests. The impact of the Diversity Forum on students’ openness to diversity experiences was measured by Pascarella’s et al. (1996) 8-item Openness to Diversity and Challenge Scale.. Descriptive statistics and the Mann-Whitney U were used to analyze the data. The results of the study indicated that the Diversity Forum did have a significant impact on students’ openness to diversity/challenge.