An investigation on the use of a multicultural language arts program in American literature with eleventh-grade students to develop more empathy toward people from other cultures

This research study investigated whether or not exposing eleventh grade students to a multicultural American literature program would enable them to develop more empathy toward people from other cultural groups (dependent valuable). The problem for the study stated that the under-representation of minority groups in the curriculum and the failure to expose all students to the diversity of the cultural climate of the country may have contributed to the lack of cross-cultural understanding among some Americans; consequently, many appear to be haunted by bigotry, racism, and hatred. Seventy nine white subjects of ages 16-18 were involved in the study. They were all in the college-bound track at a large suburban high school in the state of Georgia. In this study, two scales were used to assess the level of prejudices present in these students' attitude toward four minority groups: Asian Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic Americans, and African Americans. The instrument used in the study was a slightly modified version of the Social Scale and the Social Scenarios Scale developed by Deborah Byrnes and Gary Kiger (1987). A quasi-experimental, non-randomized pretest posttest design was used. Over a ten week period, the experimental group studied a multicultural American literature unit (the independent variable), while the control group studied the traditionally prescribed American literature program established for the course. The hypothesis of this study states that: There will be no significant difference in the level of empathy that eleventh grade students at X High School who participate in a multicultural American literature program demonstrate for people of different cultural heritages when compared to those eleventh grade students who participate in a traditional American literature program. The findings from the study indicated that the null hypothesis was retained.