Society for the Teaching of Psychology: Division 2 of the American Psychological Association

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Student Recruitment and Retention Resources

Society for the Teaching of Psychology (Division 2) Diversity Committee
October 23, 2006

Recruiting and Retaining Students

General Support Information for Ethnic Minorities

  • A Survival Guide for Ethnic Minority Graduate Students. This is an actual handbook that was created for minority students beginning their graduate degree in psychology.  Several issues are introduced that all students, but especially minority students may have trouble with.  These include feelings of doubt and racism.  Specific techniques are introduced that may help minority students avoid these issues.  More general topics such as finding a mentor and doing research are also examined.
  • A Survival Guide for Ethnic Minority Graduate Students. This is the same source that is listed above.  The only difference is that it appears on the APA website instead of on a particular university site.
  • Justgarciahill.org. Virtual Community of Minorities in Science. This site is presented as a site for minorities in the field of science.  The site is structured to pay tribute to past minority scientists.  The stated goal of this site is to increase the number of minorities in the sciences.  Students can register and participate in discussion forums and other activities.
  • Resources for minority doctoral students

Ethnic Minority Support Programs

References from the Literature

  • Alex-Assensoh, Y. (2003).  Race in the academy: Moving beyond diversity and toward the incorporation of faculty of color in predominantly White colleges and universities.  Journal of Black Studies, 34, 5-11. Focuses on how to retain and recruit minority faculty members.  This source states that the focus of research needs to go beyond the mere diversity in hiring but researchers also need to be in a position that helps them identify with minority faculty members.
  • Chavez, A. F., Guido-DiBrito, F., & Mallory, S. L. (2003).  Learning to value the “Other”: A framework of individual diversity development.  Journal of College Student Development, 44, 453-469.
    The article proposes a framework for understanding the diversity of faculty members and staff.  This framework is analyzed in the context of higher education institutions.  Another goal of the article is to outline how to influence the diversity of students and faculty.  Tips are given to encourage healthy diversity.
  • Fenelon, J. (2003).  Race, research, and tenure: Institutional credibility and the incorporation of African, Latino, and American Indian faculty.  Journal of Black Studies, 34, 87-100.
    Focuses on the idea the universities (mostly private) are more concerned with pleasing their alumni than their current faculty.  If this is the case they may not give as much support to a minority faculty member that is doing controversial research on minority issues.  This allows the dominant group to avoid thoughtful discussions about racism problems on campus.  Thoughts are presented on sports mascots and how they can be seen constituting racism.
  • Guanipa, C., Santa Cruz, R. M., & Chao, G. (2003).  Retention, tenure, and promotion of Hispanic faculty in colleges of education: Working toward success within the higher education system.  Journal of Hispanic Higher Education, 2, 187-202.
  • McKinley, B., & Brayboy, J. (2003).  The implementation of diversity in predominantly white colleges and universities.  Journal of Black Studies, 34, 72-86.
  • Moradi, B., & Neimeyer, G. J. (2005).  Diversity in the ivory white tower: A longitudinal look at faculty race/ethnicity in Counseling Psychology academic training programs.  The Counseling Psychologist, 33, 655-675. This source provides a review of the changes that have been made in the field of counseling psychology.  There have been advancements for retaining minority faculty, but there have also been challenges.  This article talks about both of these things as well as what we can do in the future to support diversity.
  • Osborne, J., & Walker, C. (2006).  Stereotype threat, identification with academics, and withdrawal from school: Why the most successful students of colour might be most likely to withdraw.  Educational Psychology, 26, 563-577.  (Examines the hypothesis that negative stereotypes may affect the intellectual capacity of certain minority groups.  It is hypothesized that individuals who are highly invested in their education may be the ones that suffer the most.  Research suggests that this hypothesis is in fact true even though this phenomenon is not seen in Caucasians.)

Thanks to Jennifer Chivon Milliken for her assistance with compiling and annotating these resources.

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