Diversity and Disconnection: Does an Online Setting Affect Student’s Understanding of Privilege, Oppression, and White Guilt?
By Shannon McQueen, West Chester University
Diversity courses are a growing part of the college curriculum, but should they be taught online? We know little about the best modality for diversity courses but understanding the experience and outcome of students in these courses provides critical information for what produces a successful learning experience. Furthermore, if there are no differences in learning outcomes when teaching diversity courses online, colleges can have new opportunities to reach students unable to attend synchronous classes.
To explore this question, I utilize pre and post-surveys from students taking a diversity course in a medium-sized state institution during the 2021-2022 term. The course explores how historically underrepresented groups have been marginalized and represented in the American political system and involves learning about race, sexuality, gender, ethnicity, and privilege. Online and in-person versions of the course cover the same material, incorporate the same activities, and have the same professor. The difference lies within the medium: half of the sections were taught asynchronously online, and the other half were taught face-to-face, meeting three times per week. The pre and post-surveys measured multiple learning outcomes concerning race, ethnicity, sexuality, and gender, as well as a measure of sense of belonging and a measure of white guilt for white students in the course
Online learning is not for every student, nor can every class be taught in an online format. However, results from this study broadly suggest the value and ability to teach political science diversity courses in both an online and face-to-face setting. 92% of students in the in-person course and 85% of students in the online course report learning “a lot” or “a great deal” from the diversity course. There were also no statistically significant differences in sense of belonging or levels of white guilt. However, students who identified as Republicans entered the course with lower levels of understanding of race and privilege and seemed to benefit from an in-person setting. These results remind educators to consider the importance of prior political socialization when learning about privilege and oppression in the classroom. Although earlier decades likely saw variation in understanding privilege and oppression, current polarization means that this variation is strongly associated with partisan identity.
The Journal of Political Science Education is an intellectually rigorous, path-breaking, agenda-setting journal that publishes the highest quality scholarship on teaching and pedagogical issues in political science. The journal aims to represent the full range of questions, issues and approaches regarding political science education, including teaching-related issues, methods and techniques, learning/teaching activities and devices, educational assessment in political science, graduate education, and curriculum development.