Incorporating Diversity Into Undergraduate Nonprofit Management Education: Can Reading Diverse Narratives Increase Students’ Perspective-Taking Capacity?

Abstract

Although the use of narratives has been shown to increase students’ ability to empathize, which can be an indicator of their perspective-taking ability, no studies have focused on the use of narratives specifically within the context of nonprofit management education. In this study, we tested a pedagogical technique designed to increase students’ perspective-taking capacity. Specifically, we incorporated reading assignments of personal narratives by a diverse body of nonprofit leaders into two undergraduate nonprofit management courses: one an in-person course at a large public land-grant university in the Southeastern United States ( n = 85) and the other an online course at a large public university in the Northeastern United States ( n = 20). We conducted pre- and postinstruction assessments to explore whether the use of these narratives enhanced students’ empathy and perspective-taking abilities. Our findings indicate that narratives are effective in improving perspective-taking skills and can be effective in both online courses and in-person courses. These findings should be of interest to nonprofit management educators. Subscribe to JNEL