The team of panelists for our session: Que-Lam Huynh, me, Nathan Lieng, Abbie Saavedra, and Andres Pinedo
(Image rights belong to the author)

This past February, I shared the stage with three other researchers sharing their Ethnic Studies research. My collaborator submitted a proposal last fall to present at the annual convention of the Society for Personality and Social Psychology (SPSP). It was the first time in at least eight years that I had presented my research at a conference. It felt really good to nerd out with others excited about their research.

My attempt at a cute selfie outside the conference venue, lol
(Image rights belong to the author)

As I’ve mentioned in other blogs, I am doing Ethnic Studies research at my institution. It is an outgrowth of my teaching Introduction to Ethnic Studies courses for the past six years. In our team, I was tasked with analyzing the qualitative data for the Ethnic Studies as a Gateway to Critical Consciousness and Solidarity panel. That consisted of reviewing the final presentation slides and coding their content based on themes from the questions. Others on the team were charged with analyzing the quantitative data.

Here is the abstract we submitted:

Abstract (1,200 characters with spaces max): Does knowledge translate to empowerment to improve race relations? Inspired by the Marley Hypothesis (Nelson et al., 2013), which states that historical knowledge predicts current perceptions of racism, we investigated whether knowledge of past racism predicted increased motivation to fight racism (critical agency, a component of critical consciousness) and perceived linked fate among people of color (intraminority solidarity). Data from 140 undergraduate students (Mage = 19.78 years; 94.29% people of color)—primarily Latinx (86.43%) and US-born (93.56%)—enrolled in an introductory ethnic studies course indicated that racism-related knowledge increased across three timepoints. More importantly, at the end of the semester, racism-related knowledge predicted greater critical agency and intraminority solidarity. That is, knowledge is linked to increased motivation to fight against racism and discrimination. Additionally, this knowledge is linked to increased interconnectedness and solidarity with people of color. In other words, the benefits of ethnic studies courses are not limited to merely greater knowledge but also include empowerment and sense of solidarity.

Yea… I know… this is A LOT of numbers and research jargon. Let me see if I can talk you through my findings. I brought a chart to help 😊

Students said that how well they do was connected to how well other people of color were doing. This connection across groups impacted their own ethnic group membership. Students also said that how well they understood themselves racially and culturally was connected to the wellness of other people of color. Here is a cool chart of my data outcome:

Self-knowledge was linked with knowledge of others. And this self-knowledge led to empathy and a potential for action. Ethnic studies transforms us from the inside out, and highlights the connections between us. We cannot assume this transformation and awareness occur automatically. It has to be deliberate and instructive. But to test for the impact that Ethnic Studies has on the psychosocial development of students, we are expanding our research to control for a few factors: the instructor, and the content.

Here is a photo of me presenting at the conference
(Image rights belong to the author)

This next version of the project will include student participants from two Ethnic Studies courses taught in two other departments within Ethnic Studies (Asian American Studies and African American Studies). We are also going to ask students taking a general US History course to participate to test the impact of the Ethnic Studies content. We want to test the hypothesis that the transformation and awareness we found could not happen outside the Ethnic Studies classroom.

I am very excited about this project. We really hope to inform educators of the power of the Ethnic Studies content and reinforce the importance of exposing students to this learning experience. It is no wonder that California is making it a high school graduation requirement, and the CSUs are making it a graduation requirement as well. It is transformative, it is unifying, and it shows us our humanity. That is powerful… and that is maybe why in some states this course content is illegal. We must fight back to protect the right of our young people to know all they need to thrive in the 21st century.

Sharing My Ethnic Studies Research at SPSP 2024