Perception of Expectation States and Teaching Diversity in Higher Education: Insights from a Qualitative Study

The numerous potential benefits of diversity in psycho-social and intellectual development are pronounced, however, to realize this potential is contingent upon not only fostering group processes but also genuine communications of differences in knowledge bases and perspectives among diverse students. Studies involving an influential perspective in sociological social psychology, the Expectation States Theory, provided ample evidence that expectation states, defined as the stable structures that shape the relations of social actors to each other, exert multi-level effects on social dynamics, competence beliefs, and outcome perceptions between individuals with different cultural, racial, ethnic, or socio-economic backgrounds.

The present study was a qualitative exploration into the perception of expectation states and teaching of diversity in faculty at two higher-education institutions in south-central United States. The purposive sample consisted of ten faculty members recruited from two higher-education institutions. The methods employed comprised a combination of qualitative techniques, including in-person interviews and classroom observation. The focus was to identify how and where the themes of expectation states arose in the teaching and learning of diversity, what the attitudes toward these themes and topics were, and how these attitudes informed faculty’s pedagogy. A content analysis of the data collected revealed three main themes: 1) considering broader social/cultural context to understand potential challenges in group learning involving diverse learners, 2) striving to break expectation states based on socially ascribed attributes, and 3) incorporating experiential learning strategies towards effective diversity education. The implications of these findings for diversity training, multicultural education, and interethnic relations are discussed.