Bridging the Researcher-Practitioner Divide in Intergroup Relations

Editors' introduction: Walter Stephan's interest in intergroup relations grew from his early involvement in intercultural relations. He spent substantial time in Latin America as well as Vietnam during his college years. These experiences influenced his choice to study social psychology at the University of Minnesota. His first foray into intergroup relations came with his move to Austin, Texas, in 1971. A Court mandate ordered schools to be desegregated, and Stephan examined the effects of school desegregation there on students' self-esteem and intergroup attitudes. His field research on the effects of desegregation as well as classroom interventions to improve intergroup relations was complemented by his laboratory research on intergroup biases, intergroup threat, intergroup anxiety, and empathy. Stephan brings this lifetime of involvement in both basic and applied research, and deep concern for effective practice and humanistic philosophy, to his commentary. He opens the commentaries with an elucidation of the difficulties in, and benefits of, the central thrust of this volume: the researcher-practitioner collaboration. He paints portraits of practitioners, researchers, and practitioner-researchers, and classifies articles in this issue accordingly. He notes the difficulties among the various parties interested in improving intergroup relations, spanning from simple lack of knowledge to lack of contact to lack of meaningful ways to interact. However, potential benefits of collaboration are abundant for all parties, and Stephan proposes a number of ways in which such partnerships could be actualized.     

The Advantages of Multilevel Approaches

Editors' introduction: Thomas F. Pettigrew was born and raised in tightlysegregated Richmond, Virginia in 1931. But his Scottish-immigrant family did not subscribe to the South's racist norms, and he identified with and had early positive contact with African Americans. As an undergraduate at the University of Virginia, he discovered that there was a discipline that studied and resisted racism. These formative experiences forged his career path in social psychology to study intergroup relations. As a student of Allport's, Pettigrew is widely recognized as having expanded personality-oriented perspectives on prejudice to include a more social, contextualized orientation ( Kimmel, 1986 ). In that same vein, he focuses his commentary on incorporating multiple levels of analysis as we integrate theory, research and practice on intergroup relations. He emphasizes the importance of macro-level—institutional and societal—contextualization of social psychological work. Pettigrew thoughtfully considers each article in the issue and contends that multiple level analyses, and incorporating the macro-level, are critical for theoretical and empirical progress as well as maximizing effectiveness of interventions .     

Looking Back as We Look Ahead: Integrating Research, Theory, and Practice on Intergroup Relations

This article looks back at the origins of intergroup relations in social psychology just over 50 years ago. Pioneers in the field—Robin Williams, Gordon Allport, and Kurt Lewin—were all deeply concerned with integrating social science and social action. We seek to re-center this mutuality of research and practice, and to expand the focus of intergroup relations from prejudice reduction to social inclusion. The articles in this issue document cutting-edge research, theory, and practice, and make substantive contributions to the future of intergroup relations. A unique feature of this issue is a set of commentaries by prominent scholars and practitioners in the fields of intergroup relations and education. Walter Stephan, James Banks, Thomas Pettigrew, and Patricia Gurin each reflect on the collection of articles through the lens of their own personal and professional biographies to help define the intersections of research, theory, and practice on intergroup relations.     

Bilingual Education Programs: A Cross-National Perspective

We examine alternative forms of bilingual education that have significant implications for intergroup relationships and the reduction of prejudice in two different national settings: Canada and the United States. The Canadian programs are intended for English-speaking students from the culturally dominant group, whereas the U.S. programs we discuss are intended for language minority and language majority students. Both aim to promote proficiency in English and another language. These programs provide many of the conditions that are argued to be essential for the reduction of prejudice and discrimination. They also provide students with the communication skills and cultural awareness that facilitates intergroup contact. The history and current structure of these programs along with salient educational practices are reviewed, and research relevant to changes in intergroup behavior and attitudes is discussed.     

Breaking Barriers, Crossing Borders, Building Bridges: Communication Processes in Intergroup Dialogues

Research in intergroup contact and intergroup education is increasingly focused on the psychological and pedagogical processes to explain the impact of interventions on desired outcomes. This emerging scholarship has enriched our understanding about what types of interventions are effective or not and how these interventions impact outcomes of prejudice reduction and social inclusion. In the present study, a new theoretical dimension of processes operating in intergroup contact and education is investigated: communication processes. Factor analyses of communication processes within an intergroup encounter, using data from a pretest/posttest design with a diverse group of students ( n = 211), revealed four factors: (1) appreciating difference, (2) engaging self, (3) critical self-reflection, and (4) alliance building. Furthermore, path analysis shows that these communication processes fully mediate the impact of intergroup dialogue on bridging differences. The communication processes illuminate a deeper understanding of what happens within the context of intergroup encounters and provide a link between pedagogical strategies and psychological processes.     

The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations: Can Research Inform Practice?

In the four decades since the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka desegregation decision, social psychologists have generally avoided direct involvement in policy making in thearena of intergroup relations. A review of research and theory on the social psychology of intergroup relations since the 1960s is used to argue that it is time to renew such involvement. In recent years, policy making in the United States has shifted from assimilationism to various forms of pluralist or multicultural politics. This paper suggests that the route to multiculturalism may be perilous unless better informed by relevant social psychological research.     

蔡元培美育教育思想探析

著名教育家蔡元培先生积极倡导美育教育思想,提出德、智、体、美相融并举的育人方针及其理论依据。他一生中身体力行,倡导美育,实践美育,为近代中国新文化建设和美育教育事业做出了重要贡献。     

The Racial Divide in Response to the Aftermath of Katrina: A Boundary Condition for Common Ingroup Identity Model

The disastrous aftermath of Katrina brought to light a great rift between Blacks and Whites in the United States. Polls taken shortly after the disaster gave clear indication that many Blacks felt that the response to Katrina was slowed by racism. At the same time, many Whites felt that the residents of New Orleans were to blame for their predicament. To understand the causal role ethnic identity plays in shaping individuals' perceptions, the present study experimentally manipulated Whites' social identification and measured their perceptions of the Katrina disaster's aftermath. Our results indicate that White Americans exhibited greater prejudice when thinking of themselves as "American" (an identity seemingly inclusive of Blacks) than when identifying as "White American" or "European American" (an identity that seemingly excludes Blacks). This finding demonstrates a boundary condition to the Common Ingroup Identity Model, such that a dual identity is more conducive to positive intergroup relations when strong racial assumptions exist about the overarching identity.     

Valuing Diversity and Interest in Intergroup Contact

The present research examines ways in which valuing diversity relates to interest in intergroup contact among members of minority and majority status groups. Using open-ended responses, Study 1 reveals that ethnic minority group members are less likely to perceive that diversity is valued than ethnic majority group members, yet those who perceive that diversity is valued tend to express greater interest in intergroup contact. Surveys of Black and White respondents (Study 2) and ethnic minority and majority respondents (Study 3) indicate similar trends. Moreover, these studies consistently show that valuing diversity uniquely predicts interest in intergroup contact among majority group members, whereas perceiving that outgroup members value diversity predicts interest in intergroup contact among minority group members. Implications of these findings for understanding the role of diversity in intergroup relations, and reformulating aspects of intergroup contact theory, are discussed.     

＂Who Are We？＂ Woodrow Wilson,the First World War and the Reshaping of America＇s National Identity

在美国崛起为世界大国的新形势下，威尔逊借助美国卷入大战和实施战争动员这一难得的时机，通过重新阐释美国的传统与特性以及利用德国作为“他者”与美国相对照，成功地使美国的自我形象与国际角色从19世纪的“共和榜样”和“自由典范”转换为“自由卫士”和“世界领袖”。威尔逊对国家身份的重塑不仅有助于当时的战争动员，而且解决了美国踏上世界舞台后的角色困惑与身份危机，为崛起的美国确立了长远的国家政策走向。他对美国理想、角色和命运的创造性阐释主导了美国人对自己国家存在意义以及美国与世界关系的理解，成为20世纪美国最有影响力的外交政策话语，对美国外交产生深远的影响。     

Low-Income Parents and the Public Schools

This article addresses the responses likely to be received by low-income parents from teachers and staff in their children's public schools in the United States. A review of the relevant literature reveals that teachers and school administrators tend to subscribe to the dominant beliefs that low-income parents do not care about their children's schooling, are not competent to help with homework, do not encourage achievement, and do not place a high value on education. This article presents examples of such middle-class bias in the words and actions of individual teachers, and research findings that tend to contradict these stereotypes. The barriers that exist for low-income parents in interacting with the schools are discussed, and suggestions are offered for ways in which schools can recognize and respect the standpoint and potential contributions of these parents.     

Using Empathy to Improve Intergroup Attitudes and Relations

Recently, social psychologists have given considerable attention to the possibility that empathy can be used to improve intergroup attitudes and relations. For this possibility to bear practical fruit, it is important to know what is meant by empathy because different researchers use the term to refer to different psychological states. It is also important to understand how each of these empathy states might affect intergroup relations by reviewing theory and research on the psychological processes involved, and it is important to consider the limitations of each form of empathy as a source of improved intergroup relations. Finally, it is important to consider the role of different empathy states in existing programs designed to improve intergroup relations, whether in protracted political conflicts, in educational settings, or via media. In this article, we pursue each of these goals.     

When Race Becomes Even More Complex: Toward Understanding the Landscape of Multiracial Identity and Experiences

The explosion in the number of people coming from a multiracial heritage has generated an increased need for understanding the experiences and consequences associated with coming from a multiracial background. In addition, the emergence of a multiracial identity challenges current thinking about race, forcing scholars to generate new ideas about intergroup relations, racial stigmatization, social identity, social perception, discrimination, and the intersectionality of race with other social categories such as social class. The present issue brings together research and theory in psychology, sociology, education, culture studies, and public policy surrounding multiracial identity and introduces new advances in thinking about race, intergroup relations, and racial identity. In exploring multiracial identity, the issue will reexamine conceptualization of race and racial identification by examining the social experiences of multiracial individuals.     

“I Am So Glad That I Am a Group Worker”

This article explores the ominous consequences of the profession of social work and its schools’ gradual drift away from a long tradition of valuing practice and education that is community based and addresses private troubles and public issues. A series of pointed questions are offered that suggest what needs to happen to reverse course, in schools of social work, against the currents of corporatism and crude individualism infecting our politics, economy, social relations, and broad culture. The article concludes with a “modest proposal for the free school of social work.”     

“从无知到有罪”——福柯论“俄狄浦斯王”中的三重“知识-权力”交织

从福柯对戏剧《俄狄浦斯王》的阐释中可看到他对“知识-权力”框架所做的理论补充。福柯试图去除传统解释中知识和求知欲望之间看似自然的因果链关系,而代之以引入知识与权力的复杂关系,以此阐述现代真理话语系统机制的产生。福柯认为弗洛伊德精神分析学解释的俄狄浦斯确实打破了传统认知,但过分抬高了性欲望的理论地位;俄狄浦斯剧更能反映的,是知识话语中真理的发生以及权力机制的运行。在福柯看来,《俄狄浦斯王》不仅体现了自我知识的揭示,还展现了不同类型知识的冲突、权力与知识之间的复杂交织,并且反映了真理审判程序的应用。福柯对《俄狄浦斯王》的分析视角,也喻示着他从具体权力机构考察到古典时期诸权力思想研究的转变。     

Family engagement during the COVID-19 pandemic: Opportunities and challenges for school social work

The COVID-19 pandemic brought dramatic changes in schooling in the United States and across the world, including abrupt shifts to remote learning, immediate cessation of social contact, intensive family engagement in education and diminished school capacity for social–emotional supports. While the initial national lockdown was temporary, the long-lasting effects of the pandemic on society are still being revealed. This study contributes to a growing body of research exploring and documenting shifts in school social work practice in the United States during the COVID era. We used qualitative methods to explore how school social workers (SSWers) practised family engagement during the pandemic and their perceptions of the benefits and challenges of increased family engagement. Analysis of interviews with 20 SSWers from three US states (Colorado, Minnesota and Nevada) revealed five primary themes: reasons for family engagement, ways of engaging with families, frequency of family contact, challenges in engaging families and SSWers' attitudes and perceptions about family engagement. Results indicated a need for a comprehensive, organized and strategic family engagement plan in schools as we move into the post-acute phases of the pandemic. Future research should explore how SSWers may serve as leaders in the development of such plans and how interprofessional practice might advance this agenda further.     

Review of Anatolii Gromyko's: 1,036 Days of President Kennedy

After the tragic death of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th American president, the most diverse and contradictory myths about his life and activity arose in the United States. American bourgeois historiography promoted the propagation of these myths to a certain degree. Two principal schools of thought about Kennedy's personality and politics are apparent. One of them is exceedingly right-wing, McCarthyist in the very worst sense of the word, represented primarily by the popularly written propaganda publications of such reactionary organizations as the John Birch Society, the Christian Anti-Communism Crusade, and others, expressing the interests of the most aggressive circles of U.S. monopolies and of the Texas and California millionaires and billionaires. The scholarly value of these publications, which regard Kennedy as a "dangerous liberal" and even a "red president," is practically zero.     

Diversity Training and Intergroup Contact: A Call to Action Research

Diversity training is a type of prejudice reduction and social inclusion intervention in need of "action research"—an integration of research and theory with practice ( Lewin, 1946 ). Hundreds of workplaces and schools use some form of diversity training, but most interventions are not grounded in theory and there is little evidence of program impact. A recent study of a school diversity training program illustrates how action research can address theoretical issues using experimental methods and unobtrusive outcome measures. For future research, the literature on intergroup contact ( Pettigrew, 1998 ) can provide theoretical guidance while testing and refining its principles in the application and investigation of diversity training. Action research will benefit diversity training and the broader theoretical and applied project of prejudice reduction and the promotion of social inclusion.     

Required civics courses,civics exams,and voter turnout

Despite attempts at using civic education to increase the civic engagement of young people, education policy is slow to adopt the recommendations of research and great variation exists within the United States in how schools deliver civics instruction. We hypothesize that when states make civics requirements more uniform and demanding, statewide civic participation among young people increases. Using state-level data about civic education requirements and voter registration and turnout from the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE), we find no evidence that a mandated civics course increases registration or turnout, but we do find a positive relationship between having a state-mandated civics exam and both registration and turnout among young people. We conclude that accountability policies could make a difference in the delivery of civic education at the state level.