THE IMPACT OF RACE AND INTERACTIONS BETWEEN STUDENT-FACULTY ONUNDERGRADUATE STUDENT LEARNING AND MULTICULTURAL PERCEPTIONS

Abstract

THE IMPACT OF RACE AND INTERACTIONS BETWEEN STUDENT-FACULTY ON UNDERGRADUATE STUDENT LEARNING AND MULTICULTURAL PERCEPTIONS A Study of Differences Between Asian/White Faculty and Asian/White Students at VCU By Yun Zhu, Ph.D. A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2011 Major Director: Charol Shakeshaft, Ph.D. Professor and Chair, Department of Educational Leadership School of Education As enrollment of minority students and recruitment of minority faculty in higher education increase, opportunities for students to interact with racially and ethnically different faculty will become more frequent and pronounced. Also, there may be expectations that these interactions will produce greater educational gains and sensitivity to racial issues. A quantitative research methodology was employed to measure the nature of the student-faculty interactions across race and to explore factors that influence undergraduate students’ GPA and multicultural perceptions in order to identify ways in which student-faculty interactions might better serve the students. Mainly, this study focused on the quantity, quality, and socialization of interactions between White and Asian students and faculty members. The instrument used for data collection was a combination of five national online surveys that were designed to assess college students’ perceptions and experiences of their student-faculty interactions and data were gathered with White and Asian faculty and students at Virginia Commonwealth University. Data collection consisted of surveying students and faculty members via email. The researcher found that only the quality of student-faculty interactions, which belongs to the quality of interactions, had a positive impact on students’ GPA (.06) and their multicultural perceptions (.18). A better understanding of factors influencing students’ GPA and multicultural perceptions would be beneficial for both teachers and undergraduate students at VCU.