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Students' Understandings Of The Meanings Of Race
Dissertation   Open access

Students' Understandings Of The Meanings Of Race

Amy Compton Horner
University of West Florida Libraries
Doctor of Education (EDD), University of West Florida
2012

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Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess college students' understandings of three contextual meanings of race. Biological race is race as a taxonomic category in which organisms are classified based on biological criteria. Human biological race is the biological race concept to the classification of humans. Race is culture is race as a social construction of human races without connotation to biological attributes. It is not the intent of this researcher to argue one contextual meaning of race against another but rather to describe students' understandings of race and race concepts. This was a descriptive study in which data from a multiple choice and true-or-false questionnaire assessment instrument was collected from participants taking college-level non-majors biology courses. From the pilot study, internal consistency reliability was estimated with a Cronbach's alpha reliability rating of 0.792 (N = 27). Ten constructs, which emerged from factor analysis, were used to interpret and draw conclusions from the study data. The vast majority of study participants (N = 141) understand that there are multiple meanings of race and see race as a valid category and unit of classification. Most participants define race in biological terms or as a combination of both biologically and sociologically defined factors and do not fully comprehend the biological race concept. Student understandings of subspecies and the relationships between natural selection, human variation, and human genetics are muddled. Even though most participants understand the race is culture concept, most participants do not situate their understandings of race as purely socially constructed. In response to specific questions, students demonstrate understandings of all three race concepts. When the data is interpreted as a whole, student understandings of the three separate race concepts are often confounding or are in conflict. There are multiple pedagogical problems concerning human variation and race in the college biology classroom. The results of this study show that student understandings of race reflect the discontinuities and conflicts concerning the concept of race within the scientific communities. The results of this study indicate the need for an increase in the discourse on race and human variation in the biology classroom.
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