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Developing a Positive Sense of Religious Plurality in the RELS 100 Course
Learning Abstract :
The purpose of my project is to help students in my introductory, mandatory RELS 100 course at Bethany College, a small, private liberal arts college in West Virginia, value religious diversity as an important component of American democracy. Results revealed that my enriched assignment with the interview did not move the needle significantly on students' attitudes about religious diversity. In fact, on one measure (#3), it made them more exclusivist regarding Christianity. Findings should be interpreted with caution, as this project had a small sample size. Test and control groups were also not equable in terms of gender and racial diversity. In addition, 7 out of 8 students who had the second point of contact (the thank you note) held steady or moved in the direction of appreciating religious diversity. Changing long-held understandings concerning about religious beliefs requires more than single instances of contact with difference.
The purpose of my project is to help students in my introductory, mandatory RELS 100 course at Bethany College, a small, private liberal arts college in West Virginia, value religious diversity as an important component of American democracy. Results revealed that my enriched assignment with the interview did not move the needle significantly on students' attitudes about religious diversity. In fact, on one measure (#3), it made them more exclusivist regarding Christianity. Findings should be interpreted with caution, as this project had a small sample size. Test and control groups were also not equable in terms of gender and racial diversity. In addition, 7 out of 8 students who had the second point of contact (the thank you note) held steady or moved in the direction of appreciating religious diversity. Changing long-held understandings concerning about religious beliefs requires more than single instances of contact with difference.